Shapeshifting in Health Care

As health-care providers tackle the unruly task of managing population health, they are engaging in the mythic—and transformational—practice of changing shapes into different forms. Providers, payors, employers, and even the corner drugstore are swapping roles: opening the door to more competition, but also introducing powerful new partners with which to share the growing burden of patient-care accountability. In the March issue of Health CXO, we hear from the medical director of Walgreens, which is not just dispensing meds, but is playing a growing role in the management of a handful of chronic diseases: diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and HIV. All members of the executive suite are facing new challenges and added responsibilities in the delivery of health care, but CIOs have an especially heavy load: They are managing compliance with a massive new federal health IT program, facilitating clinical and business analytics by harnessing the organization’s big data, and managing what has become a tsunami of interest in mobile access to data. We write about the anytime/anywhere policy at Platte Valley Medical Center (Brighton, Colorado) and a potential new partner in patient-data delivery. We also bring you a Wall Street view of health care from a Citigroup health-research analyst. It’s not pretty, but forewarned is forearmed. How is your organization shapeshifting? Cheryl Provalcproval@healthcxo.com