1. Tell us about the Cost of Care essay contest. What are your objectives and who is your target audience?
We’re currently soliciting hundreds of anecdotes from patients, nurses, and doctors across the nation that illustrate the importance of cost awareness in medicine. Their stories will draw attention to the power clinicians and patients have to identify and curb harmful health care spending on a grassroots level.
Two $1000 prizes will be awarded to the top submissions – one prize will go to a clinician (such as a doctor or nurse), and one prize will go to a patient. Finalist submissions will be judged by:
- Michael Leavitt, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services
- Atul Gawande, surgeon and New Yorker staff writer
- Tim Johnson, Chief Medical Correspondent of ABC News
- Jeffrey Flier, Dean of Harvard Medical School
- Gov. Michael Dukakis, former Democratic nominee for President of the United States
Submissions are only 750 words, and should be directed to contest@costsofcare.org – write to us by November 1st!
2. Can you briefly describe some of the emerging healthcare trends you’ve noticed in the Greater Boston area?
Boston has always been a trendsetter in healthcare, from the first public demonstration of anesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1846 to the face transplant at Brigham & Women’s Hospital shown on ABC’s Boston Med this summer. The next big revolution in healthcare will occur in area called “personalized medicine” – the ability to target therapies based on an individual’s genetic profile. Boston is poised to be the Silicon Valley of this revolution – top academic leaders such as Harvard and MIT, and industry leaders such as Genzyme and Novartis, are all within a five mile radius of each other.
3. Who do you admire most in the local health care industry and why?
If you are looking for the world expert on any aspect of health care, there is a good chance they are in Boston. When I was recruiting judges for the Costs of Care essay contest, it was very convenient that people like Atul Gawande, Michael Dukakis, Jeffrey Flier, and Tim Johnson are all local. If Costs of Care was based in California, we would still be recruiting these folks in Boston.
4. Can you list some of the local initiatives or hospitals that are currently helping to reduce health care costs?
Massachusetts was the first to expand health insurance coverage, and became a model for the national health care reform recently signed into law by President Obama. The next step is to control costs, and the rest of the nation is looking to us once again to lead. We have set up a public entity called the Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council that recently published several key strategies to do this. We were the first to address the problem of covering the uninsured, and I’m confident we’ll be the first to address the problem of cost containment as well.
5. What sets Boston’s approach to patient care apart from other cities in the US?
We just have so many world-class hospitals concentrated in a relatively small area. If I were sick, there is no place on earth I would rather be.
6. What’s the one thing Boston has that you couldn’t live without?
Dozens of diverse, amazing neighborhoods all walking distance apart. I live in the South End, my current favorite, but if my wife and I get nostalgic about our Italian honeymoon, the North End is just an afternoon stroll away!
Neel Shah is a BWP Connector and the founder and executive director of Costs of Care
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