People are often surprised to learn how active IBM is in changing healthcare today. But in many ways the field is an excellent fit with IBM's business model: to innovate at the frontier of the world's biggest business and technological challenges.
The mission of this blog is to drive discussion and collaboration on some of the key elements necessary for a global, interconnected healthcare ecosystem: electronic health records, a new information infrastructure for improving the quality and efficiency of care, and a platform for transforming treatment by marrying personal genomics with care.
To spur the global conversation that will improve the quality of life for billions, a group of IBMers are leveraging the uniquely collaborative power of blogging.
HealthNex contributors include many of IBM's thought leaders and experts who work with clients in all areas of healthcare and life science, including government and public policy, technology infrastructure, and with the full spectrum of healthcare clients.
In keeping with the open spirit of the blogosphere, HealthNex contributors' posts reflect their own views and ideas on how healthcare will be improved by becoming more patient-centric, not IBM's corporate positions.
The core team will strive to produce several fresh post every week, while other IBM guest experts from inside IBM and without will contribute on occasion so that we might cover as wide a range of subjects as possible, and interject a diversity of perspective and personalities into this mix.
Our board of contributors and advisors include:
Richard Bakalar
Chief Medical Officer
IBM Healthcare & Lifesciences
Brett Davis
Marketing Manager
IBM Information-Based Medicine
Dr. Paul Grundy
Well-Being Director, U.S. Eastern Region
Dr. Joseph Jasinski
Program Director
IBM Healthcare and Lifesciences Institute
James Kaufman
Research Manager, Healthcare Information Infrastructure
IBM Research
Caroline Kovac
General Manager, Healthcare and Life Sciences Industry
IBM Software Group
Ned McCulloch, JD
IBM Governmental Affairs Executive
Bruno Nardone
Managing Consultant, Healthcare
IBM Business Consulting Services
Doug O'Boyle
Global Market Intelligence Analyst
IBM Sales & Distribution, Marketing
David Spellmeyer, Ph.D
IBM Research, Almaden Institute
Janine Snead
Business Development
IBM Healthcare & Life Sciences
Our primary objective is to focus on practical ideas, programs and discussion of ways beneficial change can be realized faster and easier. Of course, this blogging project is also intended to help people learn about the range and depth of IBM's work in healthcare--and for us to learn from the rest of the world in return.
Every year, America spends $1.9 trillion on healthcare, yet the sector makes up less than 2% of what the U.S. spends on information technologies.
Transforming healthcare into a true system that is organized around patient benefits will require an unprecedented range of cooperation among many diverse groups. Which is why we hope this site will become an intersection of forward-looking ideas. Hence the 'Nex' in the blog's name, which means to convey a “nexus” or intersection, as well as the sense of what's 'next.'
We welcome your participation. Feel free to contact our blog producer Jack Mason, at healthnex@gmail.com to propose a post or have other ideas on how we can work together to make this a constructive center of innovation in an area of great interest and meaning to all of us.
Finally, IBM's work in transforming healthcare into a patient-centric innovation ecosystem can be summed up in three messages:
1. A Trusted Partner
As a trusted partner to the entire healthcare ecosystem, IBM is committed to, and capable of, dramatically improving healthcare value (higher quality at lower cost) through our business and clinical innovations.
2. Modernizing Care into a Deeply Connected System Organized Around Patients
By interconnecting all parts of the world of healthcare, IBM's collaborative leadership is driving much-needed modernization that will profoundly change healthcare delivery, locally and globally, into a system more centered on patients.
3. Committed To Global Transformation of Health
As a global business providing access to healthcare benefits for more than 500,000 people (employees, dependents and retirees), IBM has a strategic interest in healthcare transformation, for itself, its clients and shareholders.
