Health Care Innovation Summit Aims to Improve Care Through Collaboration & Innovation

News provided by

Jun 09, 2011, 02:02 ET

WASHINGTON, June 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- One of the government's newest catalysts for innovation is co-host of an event bringing together health innovators for collaboration that aims to transform health care through knowledge sharing. The event will be held at a one-of-a-kind space devoted to discussions about health.

Leaders from the new Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Innovation Center, along with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Kaiser Permanente and Vangent and 100 other national leaders in innovation will gather at The Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health on June 10 for the Health Care Innovation Summit.

This event will convene a growing community of innovation leaders to spur industry-wide knowledge sharing. The event will be the first in a series of discussions that explore the ways that innovation can drive systematic improvement of the health care system.

The day will be devoted to roundtable discussions focused on sharing and supporting innovation in health care, demonstrations of recent innovations in health care delivery, population health, research and administration, and discovering how to build a sustainable health care innovation community.

"There is great need, and widespread interest in finding new ways to deliver better care and better health at reduced costs. The Affordable Care Act, through the Innovation Center, provides new resources to support healthcare innovators. We are thrilled to join this national effort to build a healthcare innovation community that will improve care for all Americans," said Richard Gilfillan, MD, acting director of the CMS Innovation Center. CMS established the Innovation Center last year to find new ways to deliver and pay for health care that improve quality and patient outcomes while reducing costs.

The summit marks the first time leaders of health innovation centers, information technology and academia have met with the CMS Innovation Center, HHS and ONC to collectively explore new ways of improving the quality of care and health outcomes. The Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health (www.centerfortotalhealth.org) opened in April as a place for innovators and leaders to talk about health and how to advance health and care delivery in the United States.

"For us to achieve breakthrough innovation in health care, we need to find a way to be a learning community – where we share not just our successes, but also our failures. It requires partnerships and collaborative relationships among this diverse group of private and public leaders. This summit is a key step on that path," said Jack Cochran, MD, FACS, executive director of The Permanente Federation, Kaiser Permanente. Dr. Cochran leads an organization that represents the national interests of the regional Permanente Medical Groups, which employ 15,000 physicians who care for 8.8 million Kaiser Permanente members.

The summit is part of the Washington DC Health Innovation Week, a week of activities that bring together government agencies with academia and the health care and technology industries to spur new thinking in health.

The Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health (http://www.centerfortotalhealth.org/) is located at 700 Second Street, NE (between Union Station and H Street, NE), Washington, D.C. The Twitter hashtag for the Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health is #kpcth. The Twitter hashtag for the Health Care Innovation Summit is #futurehealth

About Vangent, Inc.

Vangent, Inc. is a global provider of consulting, systems integration, human capital management, and business process services to the U.S. federal and international governments, higher education institutions, and corporations. Vangent's 7,500 employees support clients including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the U.S. Departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Justice, Labor, and Veterans Affairs; and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the U.S. Census Bureau, as well as Fortune 500 companies. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, the company has offices throughout the U.S. and in the U.K. and Canada. For more information, visit www.vangent.com.

About Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America's leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve 8.8 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, visit www.kp.org/newscenter.

SOURCE Kaiser Permanente