Verizon Chairman and CEO addresses World Health Care Congress

Lowell McAdam, Chairman and CEO, Verizon, in an address to the World Health Care Congress, detailed the challenges facing the US health care delivery system and highlighted Verizon’s efforts to help transform it through the use of IT.  McAdam pointed out that for true change to occur, both health care providers and consumers must be on board.

As part of Verizon’s commitment to the health care marketplace, McAdam announced that the company will form a strategic relationship with NantWorks LLC, a California-based technology and health care company.  This initiative follows Verizon’s recent combining of its wired and wireless services and IT and network assets to form an integrated health IT organisation.

The companies will leverage NantWorks’ unique set of health care technologies and Verizon’s platform-based health IT portfolio of mobility, cloud and IT offerings to accelerate significant change through highly scalable, connected health IT solutions.

“Today’s healthcare market operates in silos without the ability to share patient and clinical data at even the most basic levels,” said McAdam. ”Verizon is focussed on enabling the transformation of the health care industry through the strategic use of technology that will ultimately lead to significant improvements in the US healthcare system.”

Verizon and NantWorks’ first initiative will be to create an integrated information infrastructure, the Cancer Knowledge Action Network, to improve the treatment of cancer.  The network will give physicians, for the first time, immediate access to the most up-to-date best-practice information about effective protocols for the treatment of specific cancer conditions.

“The future of medicine is digital and mobile,” said Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong, Founder and CEO, NantWorks. “NantWorks and Verizon share a common vision for the transformation of the health care industry through ‘big data.’  As one of our first targets, we will explore ways to translate the massive amounts of data available on cancer treatment. Our goal is turn this data into actionable information at the point of care, enabling better care through mobile devices in hospitals, clinics and homes.”

According to industry experts, demand for connected health technologies is expected to grow rapidly as the industry seeks to better manage costs and improve patient care by facilitating real-time care coordination, increasing patient engagement and enabling information portability.

It is estimated that healthcare costs exceed $ 2.3 trillion and are growing annually at a compound rate of 7 per cent.  Of these costs, $ 1.1 trillion is spent managing chronic diseases such as diabetes, congestive heart failure and hypertension.