Program to improve heart care expands

The City of Atlanta has entered the next phase of its pilot program with the World Economic Forum to improve outcomes and reduce costs for patients suffering with heart failure. More than 100 representatives from healthcare providers, patient advocacy groups, public sector organizations, pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies and academic institutions gathered at City Hall recently and signed a letter of intent for the pilot program.

This is one of the first efforts globally to take a systemic approach to value-based healthcare, with all stakeholders working together to design and manage health systems. This novel approach has the potential to deliver improved health outcomes at lower cost and is part of a project run by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with The Boston Consulting Group.

Over the past seven months, the experts have identified the barriers to managing patients in Atlanta suffering from heart failure and have worked on solutions. Many organizations, including Grady Health System, Wellstar Health System, Emory Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente, Morehouse Healthcare, Humana, Centene Corporation, UnitedHealthcare, Georgia Health Information Network, Georgia Department of Public Health, and DeKalb County Board of Health have signed a letter of intent to jointly implement the solutions over the next five years. The Atlanta Regional Collaborative for Health Improvement and the American Heart Association will co-lead the project.