James L. Madara, MD

Title: The Future of Healthcare and Implications for Digital Health

Abstract: Healthcare in the USA consumes 18% ($3.5 Trillion) of the national GDP. As this cost has increased over the last half century, simultaneously there has been a massive shift in disease burden from episodic/acute to chronic disease (chronic disease now accounts for >80% of the healthcare spend). Yet the structure of medical school curricula/ongoing learning, as well as the structure of the health care system overall have only modestly adapted to these striking changes in the type of disease the country faces. In parallel, the digital revolution, remote monitoring, telemedicine, and an astounding growth in health data are edging into healthcare, but our “system” remains fragmented and siloed with poor incorporation of clinical data organization, interoperability, and data liquidity. The AMA has approached these problems by: developing and piloting the medical school and educational networks of tomorrow, creating new connected approaches to chronic disease, and defining how one can turn this non-system into more of a authentic system. Doing this requires rethinking the use of digital environments and, in particular, creating advances in the organization and liquidity of clinical data. Accomplishing this required the AMA to launch an independently operating Silicon Valley innovation company (Health2047.com) which has successfully launched companies with efforts ranging from clinical data liquidity (Akiri.com) to “uberization” of the approach to chronic disease (First Mile Care.com); while, at AMA headquarters in Chicago, producing new approaches to clinical data organization (https://www.ama-assn.org/amaone/integrated-health-model-initiative-ihmi ), a digital network to connect entrepreneurs with physicians having like interests (https://innovationmatch.ama-assn.org) , and a digital medicine advisory group (https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/digital/digital-medicine-payment-advisory-group) to provide a more disciplined approach to the digital space in medicine.

Bio: James L. Madara, MD, is CEO of the American Medical Association. His career began with 20+ years at Harvard where he received clinical and research training, served as a tenured professor of pathology and was director of the NIH-sponsored Harvard Digestive Disease Center. After five years as chair of pathology (Emory), Madara served as the Thompson Distinguished Service Professor and dean of the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, and as CEO of the University of Chicago Hospitals. Along with his current position, Madara is chairman of Health2047 Inc. An independent C-corporation, Health2047 is a San Francisco-based design firm whose mission is to help advance the AMA’s goal of improving the health of the nation through innovative solutions.