Health Care Moonshot: The Health Care X PRIZE Development Project

02 Mar Health Care Moonshot: The Health Care X PRIZE Development Project

Moonshot (mūn shŏt) n.

1. Description of the audacious attempt and the subsequent race to place a man on the moon
2. Used as an analogy to describe similarly gigantic challenges under competitive influence

The best health care book I have ever read, is ironically the first one I was fortunate to pick up. “Redefining Health: Creating Value Based Competition on Results” literally became a life altering experience for me as I read it at a time when I was seeking to redefine my career path. The notions of health care value (outcomes/price), the organizational principles engendered by this approach (focus on the medical condition across the full cycle of care), the competitive forces that this framework unleashes (virtuous cycles of innovation), and the overall promise for improving our deliver system (increased access, lower costs, and high quality) absolutely resonated with me and framed where I wanted to take my professional career.

After reading the book, I immediately set about to capture the key concepts and ideas visually, and to weave the story of value based health care. This effort launched me into the emerging Health 2.0 movement, and illuminated for me a clear path to move toward next generation health care (this is why I always argue for an expanded definition). As the tools and technologies of Health 2.0 began to be introduced into the health care conversation, I also observed that a more systematic approach was being taken to quality, cost containment, health care disparities, payment reform ideas, and the design of a high performance, connected health systems with built in pricing, incentive, and quality transparency.

Subsequent consulting projects in management of health/wealth, direct to consumer laboratory services, new payment models, and ultimately new models of health care delivery, led me to create a new concept of care called “personal health advisory services”. These concepts are now being introduced to a small group of private clients, but more importantly, the notion of new types of health care organizations (Accountable Care Organizations) being created within the construct of a new type of health system (based on value and focused on health vitality as the metric that matters) are infinitely more promising. As part of these developments, I have become convinced that we aren’t going to get there incrementally, with modest improvements, with limited vision, or paralyzed by the “inevitability” of our current staggering national and health sector problems.

I have always dreamed big, and sought impossible challenges, and for this reason I am excited to announce my association with the X PRIZE Foundation as a Senior Health Advisor. This very discrete project (through June 2009) is solely focused on defining a Health Care X PRIZE that can leverage a well described competition as the catalyst for transformative change. Over the coming months, I will be meeting with corporate executives, policy experts, government officials, thought leaders, patient advocates, and others interested in engaging in this work to to define the “health care moonshot”.  The X PRIZE framework has specific competition constraints, a unique investment multiplier effect, and holds the promise of organizing many of the best and brightest reform efforts currently underway in our country. I look forward to working with Dr. Peter Diamandis and Robert Weiss on this very exciting project.

I will also look forward to speaking with many of you, sharing our findings and research as we proceed, and engaging the broad health community and ultimately our entire country to join in the inspirational effort to transform our health care system.  Please feel free to contact me directly with your interest, your X PRIZE ideas, or to discuss how you can help be a part of the “Health Care Moonshot”.