Discussions on affordability, disruption highlight day two of AHA forum

The AHA today hosted the second day of its executive forum during which hospital and health system leaders shared strategies for innovating to enhance value and address new entrants to the health care field.

AHA Chair-elect Brian Gragnolati, president and CEO of Atlantic Health System, said it is important to recognize that no single element of the delivery and financing system can tackle the affordability issue alone and what “we need to really recognize is the patient needs to be placed in the center of this discussion.”

Among other sessions, today’s forum featured panels highlighting how hospitals and health systems have taken unique approaches to understanding and reducing unwarranted clinical variation, and how hospitals are using artificial intelligence and leveraging data and machine learning to produce better outcomes while enhancing patient safety and reducing costs.

In addition, Nick Taranto, cofounder and chief strategy officer of Plated.com, explored what he has learned as a disruptor, and he challenged attendees to think differently about how health care could or should be delivered in the future.

Gragnolati praised the AHA executive forums across the country for bringing “different voices to the conversation. As a field we have a history of talking to ourselves. I think it’s more important than ever that we hear those other voices.”