Highlights
Printer FriendlyLetter from the president
“Knowledge is power.”
—Sir Francis Bacon
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| Paul E. Terry, PhD President and Chief Executive Officer Park Nicollet Institute |
From the Elizabethan age of Francis Bacon to the technology-driven information explosion of today, access to knowledge has always presaged social transformation. What will happen within the next few years when an aging work force with more chronic health conditions and ever-higher deductible insurance plans is presented with burgeoning access to health information? We predict these forces will create strong incentives for people to assume more power in health care decision-making and to be smarter shoppers of health care services. What does this mean for patients and providers? As a leader in health services research and patient education, Park Nicollet Institute brings preliminary answers, more difficult questions and a determined curiosity to find out.
While the managed care era was fraught with over-utilization of unneeded services and an inordinate focus on acute care, the new consumer-directed health care market has the potential to activate patients. If, as many predict, most of us will soon pay more out of pocket or through health savings accounts, we’re more likely to get shrewd about what we’re buying. We will be motivated to understand quality and price differences between doctors, generic and brand-name drugs, and the risks and benefits of beginning or delaying treatment or procedures. Empowered consumers will pressure health systems to demonstrate what services have proven value and which doctors are able to share decision-making with patients.
Shifting more costs and responsibilities to consumers, however, is sure to have unintended consequences. As Lao Tzu said, “People are difficult to govern because they have too much knowledge.” With keener awareness about cost and quality in health care, will consumers reduce only unneeded visits or will they also delay essential services? Will an individual market advantage the healthy and penalize the ill or poor? It’s not at all clear whether consumer-directed health care will improve health for all.
Few are better positioned than Park Nicollet to thrive in such a progressive yet uncertain environment. We have always viewed the patient’s role as active, not passive, and consider the highest calling for health care to be both care and prevention. Accordingly, we consider the emerging market as a fresh start to reform fragmented health care delivery systems and strengthen the doctor/patient relationship. Our work is already well underway with groundbreaking studies about the patient’s role in understanding quality, and new approaches to coaching to co-create plans with customers, not teach them what they already know or aren’t ready to use.
To be sure, knowledge is power, and with increased power comes increased responsibility. At Park Nicollet Institute, we aim to do our part to lead a transformation that is grounded in science and inspired by a fair balance between individual and social responsibility for health.
Paul E. Terry, PhD
President and Chief Executive Officer
Park Nicollet Institute
