By Dr. Nick van Terheyden aka Dr. Nick
Twitter: @drnic1
Host of Dr. Nick: The Incrementalist – #TheIncrementalist
On this episode I spoke to Lawrence Kosinski, MD, MBA, the Founder and CMO of SonarMD (@SonarMD) a company offering a pathway to optimizing the treatment of patients with complex chronic conditions to improve outcomes and decrease costs.
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Dr Kosinski’s journey started when he took on the role of chairman of the American Gastroenterology Association (AGA) at a time when the healthcare industry was moving away from procedural payments. An especially acute problem for gastroenterologist who derives approximately 85% of their income from 1 procedure – colonoscopies. He started his journey with data persuading his local Blue Cross payor to share 21,000 patent claims data over the preceding 5 years for his specialty. The insights derived from eh analysis took him towards “High-Beta illnesses”. The term derives from the financial sector and their description of Hi-Beta Index funds. Listen in to hear why this is important and how we can use this concept in other areas o medicine and complex disease management and care.
The company name has an interesting origin story but here’s a hint.
Some of his incremental steps included:
- Making a decision based on data
- Have all parties cooperate so everyone is pulling in the same direction
- Focus and Understand the Risk Management
Listen in to hear the incredible success to date with keeping patients out of the hospital and reducing costs and improving the quality of care as the first application approved under MACRA for the Phsycian focused payment model and as Dr. Kosinscki puts it
Pulling Away from the third rail of complications
About the Show
For years Dr. Nick van Terheyden aka Dr. Nick, has served as a voice on the impact of new technologies on healthcare, earning a reputation as a leading authority on where the future of medicine is going. Combining powers of observation and real world experience, Dr. Nick has seen many predictions come true and makes the case that innovations in healthcare can be accomplished incrementally, not just by moonshot events. Tune in to hear Dr. Nick: The Incrementalist and his guests discuss what the future of healthcare looks like, how we will get there, and what it will take to improve healthcare for all.
This article was originally published on the Dr. Nick – The Incrementalist blog and is republished here with permission.