Day two - Datapalooza

The second day of the Datapalooza has been equally interesting. Along with Sir Bruce Keogh and Mo Dewji, I had a number of meetings with clinical leaders in the US including Senator Bill Frist and Atul Gawande. The conversations focussed on the measurement of quality of care and the need to align those measures with payments systems. We discussed the challenges of producing meaningful measures at sufficient scale to have an observable impact on the wide tapestry of health care. 

We all recognised the shared challenge and the potential for closer cooperation in such things as defining quality and the collation of evidence. Even though the two health care systems are so different , they share the common challenges of systematically measuring quality in way that allows meaningful comparison and the need to  do more with less as resources become stretched. We discussed some of the methodology we use for indicator development and the need to describe an international consensus on an indicator pipeline.

 

Atul discussed different models of change management in complex health systems and described the need to generate reproducible innovation, so that the systems can learn from best practice in other areas.  He was particularly interested in the emerging role of CCGs in the UK. His work is very influential over here and his lectures and writing are well worth looking up.   Bill Frist took us through his vision for increased automation, decision support and data driven service redesign based on the use of open data and innovation. It was a compelling argument but I reflected afterwards on the ability they have to influence the dominant lobby groups in the states to such a view.

 

In the evening we attending a white house reception with Secretary Sebelius,  it was fascinating visiting such an iconic building even though I hadn't realised just how small it actually is.  I had a minor crisis and a short delay in me getting in as I didn't have the correct ID , which provided lots of opportunity for jokes at my expense. How many GPs does it take to get into the white house etc ...

 

The conversation ran late into the evening with charismatic leaders in information - Todd Park and Chris Vein.  Much of the discussion centred on the American  health system that is acknowledged to be facing unprecedented challenges and essential role that open data has in bringing about improvements.

 

We are well prepared for the US/UK summit tomorrow and I am looking forward to seeing how we turn all these interesting conversations into joint work streams.

 

Mark Davies