Dr. Stephen Klasko: Hospitals of the future won't look the same

In an op-ed for STAT News, Stephen Klasko, MD, the CEO of Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health, addressed the need to examine the social determinants of health and the evolving perception of what the hospital of the future will look like.

Dr. Klasko, who is also the president of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, participated in a panel at the World Economic Forum, which took place in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 22-25. He said the overarching idea presented at the conference was that healthcare professionals must use technology to create "healthcare with no address."

Dr. Klasko wrote that he is most excited to participate in a future conference that focuses less on the advent of self-driving cars and more on "self-healing humans."

"It is easier to move healthcare to a phone than it is to move hospitals to remote communities. In fact, I believe we must get care to where patients are instead of getting patients to where care is located. That is a revolution that is starting now," he wrote.

To power the new disruptive platform, Dr. Klasko wrote that healthcare will need to reinvent its clinical workforce, placing more emphasis on physicians' creativity and their ability to interpret computer analysis to help patients manage their care.

"If we fail to embrace disruption, the consequences of clinging to legacy systems of care will become even greater, further growing a fragmented, expensive, inequitable health delivery system," he wrote. "The U.S. has strung together popsicle-stick-and-glue federal policies that continue to graft Star Trek-level medicine onto a Fred Flintstone delivery platform. It's not working for us, and it won’t work globally."

To access the full report, click here.

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