Chapter 14: Planning for the Next Growth Areas
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Description
On the research side, she talks about big data and the opportunities to gather enormous amounts of data that can feed personalized care.
She notes that MD Anderson has created a new position: Chief Innovations Officer.
Next she talks about pursuing employers as partners, with MD Anderson supplying expertise in prevention, screening, and education. She talks about a pilot program that will begin in about a year and explains that there is more awareness of the practical value of prevention and employers want to offer such programs.
Identifier
HayAC_02_20150602_C14
Publication Date
6-2-2015
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Topics Covered
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center - Building the Institution; MD Anderson in the Future; Building/Transforming the Institution; Multi-disciplinary Approaches; Growth and/or Change; Research, Care, and Education; Institutional Mission and Values; MD Anderson Culture; The Business of MD Anderson; The MD Anderson Brand, Reputation; Business of Research; Fiscal Realities in Healthcare; On Texas and Texans; Business of Research; Fiscal Realities in Healthcare; The Healthcare Industry
Transcript
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Mm-hmm. What’s next? I mean, you said if we’re doing the same thing next year that we’re doing now, you know, we’re slipping. What do you see coming, you know, that’s gonna need adjustment?
Amy Carpenter Hay:
Well, we—you have to start getting much more involved in the big-data initiatives. Some of the things that we’re doing right now with Dr. Lynda Chin, with our work with IBM and Watson on the democratization of knowledge across the world, it has to take the form of a sustainable, big-data model. And that is—that’s the future. You know, in the future world, we won’t need big hospitals. We will have patients getting their chemotherapy in oral form at their CVS. We need to be able to not only track but also ensure that patients are being taken care of for the right disease at the right time at the right location. So, moving forward, we are going to continually have to change the way that we deliver care. And I think, on our Main Campus, our mission is going to have to be how do we fuel the research behind that change? You know, it’s a fact that most human beings take three pieces of knowledge to make a decision. There’s absolutely no way that any physician in today’s world can read every single research paper, every single bit of information, and utilize it to make an informed decision. So, in the future world of MD Anderson, we’ll be utilizing systems—big-data systems—in order to put pieces of information together that we never thought possible, in order to make better, more precise decisions for patient care. A great example of that is our work in genomics, our work in immunology—the future focus of personalized medicine. I personally think we’ve just scratched the surface. That’s—I could envision an MD Anderson where we’re no longer disease-based. You don’t go to the Breast Center or the GI [Gastrointestinal] Center. You go to the center based on your gene mutation. That’s the direction that we’re headed in. And we have to leverage all of this knowledge in a way that captures the metrics, and then allows us to make better decisions every day for the future. And I think that’s what our focus is gonna be the next five years—is how do we leverage innovation in programs that guide our decision-making.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
What—what’s that looking like? I mean, are there initiatives that you’re working on right now with partners that are starting to set that kind of big-data model in place?
Amy Carpenter Hay:
Absolutely. You know, I’m participating quite a bit with, a I mentioned, Dr. Lynda Chin and the work she’s doing with the Oncology Expert Advisor, which includes the Watson technology and IBM and AT&T, and how do we utilize all of these resources and be able to track, predict, and place patients on clinical trials? Her work right now has focused around leukemia, and also around personalized medicine in lung. And the long-term plan is to build other diseases, other personalized-medicine components, out in the future. So, a lot of thought is going into what that will look like. I think based on that, and a lot of other programs, we’ve recently hired a chief innovation officer that will be starting this summer. He’ll be responsible for, kind of, harnessing and directing this type of knowledge and power. And I think that’s important.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Who is this person?
Amy Carpenter Hay:
I don’t know her name.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay.
Amy Carpenter Hay:
She was recently announced to—so I’m sure we can follow up on that.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Mm-hmm, yeah, sounds like a really interesting position.
Amy Carpenter Hay:
Very interesting [inaudible].
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah. What’s this person’s background? Do you recall?
Amy Carpenter Hay:
Innovation—
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Innovation, yeah.
Amy Carpenter Hay:
—at another academic cancer center. So—
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Wow, well, very, very interesting.
Amy Carpenter Hay:
So a lot of work there.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
And that person will be part of what office? I mean, where is—
Amy Carpenter Hay:
She’ll be the chief innovation officer, is my understanding.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
So is this gonna be a separate office, constructed?
Amy Carpenter Hay:
Mm-hmm.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Wow, very interesting, indeed.
Amy Carpenter Hay:
Yes, so that’s coming down the—down the pike. And hopefully will help us kind of manage that in—and coordinated across all these different areas, ’cause it has to be—it has to be—it had to connect everyone and not be siloed. So—
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Mm-hmm. Exactly.
Amy Carpenter Hay:
So that’s a big direction. I think, from a Business Development, the other big directions are while we’ve been focusing on providers, whether they’re doctors or healthcare systems, we’ve also been focusing on consumers. The next iteration is focusing on employers and corporations. So, how do we develop programs, specifically in the area of cancer prevention, education, screening, and survivorship, that really pull in those employers, pull in those corporations, and try to push this education to people instead of just to patients?
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
To—I see. Wow, okay, yeah, I hadn’t even thought about that as a distinction. So, what might that look like? So, you know, going to a General Electric and saying, “We have an education program about cancer privation—prevention for all of your employees,” or something like that.
Amy Carpenter Hay:
Mm-hmm, exactly.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Wow.
Amy Carpenter Hay:
We’re working right now, and it’s—it kind of leverages all of our work in cancer prevention and education and screening with some of the elements of how we leverage technology and big data. We’re working—we’re about twelve months out from a pilot of an employer program that has really two defined components. The first component is how do we, as MD Anderson, go into an employer—a large employer—and review their employees, their risk profiles, you know, the types of education and services that would be appropriate for them. And then, the other component is, how do we get in front of those employees? How do we offer them cancer-risk assessments? How do we offer them educational opportunities? How do we offer them screening and prevention opportunities? So, really trying to get upstream, because as—we know that if we can prevent cancer—if we can get as far upstream as we can—we can find the keys to treating it. So, we’ve put a lot of thought into how do we really start aligning ourselves with large employers. And, you know, that leaks into how do we align ourselves with corporations. For example, our team right now is looking to participate in a health fair with Walmart. All the way across the United States, Walmart has 5,000 em—stores. They have—2,500 of those stores have actually kiosk that we can put cancer-risk assessments on, that people could walk into the Walmart, and they could answer the questions and kind of see the areas in which they need to be concerned about. So really trying to access and provide that information as closed to the consumer as we can.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
So what would the financial arrangement look like for that kind of relationship? I mean, would the employer pay MD Anderson a service? Is—would they arrange with, you know, the health insurer, for that provider?
Amy Carpenter Hay:
We’re really—we’re focused on self-insured employers. So, there would be a fee associated with our relationship, and that fee would cover kind of the cancer education, prevention, all of the outreach component. Now, the concept is that should an area of concern be identified, that that employer, who’s self-insured, would then have a clear navigation path into MD Anderson.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
It sounds like an amazing safety net to offer employees.
Amy Carpenter Hay:
It’s something that—a few other academics have been dabbling in this area, not as much in oncology but specifically in cardiology, which has been—you know, ’cause if you really look at chronic disease, you’re talking about oncology now; you’re talking about cardiology—so, high blood pressure; and you’re talking about, quite frankly, wellness. You’re talking about BMI [body mass index] and, you know, obesity, and factors like that. So, providing products and education in these core chronic disease areas before they become chronic—
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Right.
Amy Carpenter Hay:
—is something that we’re seeing a lot more interest in, which is fantastic. It meets our mission. And I’ll give you an example with Walmart. The 2,500 stores I mentioned that have kiosk. These kiosks allow the shopper to come on and take their blood pressure and measure their BMI and do a couple of other things. All of that data is fully retained and is synched to their Walmart pharmacy account. That is an unbelievable amount of information that’s sitting out there that we, as a research community, could start to leverage as far as the indicators for chronic disease, whether its diabetes or whether its oncology. It’s a tool that, I think—that we’ve all not focused on. You know, in the United States, my opinion is that everyone likes to talk about cancer education and screening and prevention, but very few people like to pay for it. I think the turn that’s happened with accountable care and paying for quality, not quantity, has forced the US to start investing in programs such as prevention and education, ’cause that’s the only way we’re gonna be able to lower the risk of having some of these long-term, chronic diseases.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
So many people have made a mention of you know—that it’s been known for so long that some diseases—cancer being one of them—can be very much addressed in—on the preventative side, and there’s not been much investment—
Amy Carpenter Hay:
No.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
—in doing that. So—
Amy Carpenter Hay:
No one wants to pay for it.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah, yeah.
Amy Carpenter Hay:
They ne—I think we’re just—we’re just getting there. People are starting to want to pay for it. Corporations are starting to see the value. You know, you’re even—it’s not uncommon to pick up the Wall Street Journal and see articles about large employers who are subsidizing, every day, the healthy lunch, and marking up the expensive hamburger. And I think those are the types of incentives we’re gonna start to see. You know, we’re gonna start to see—and they—you know, if you allow yourself to go through this thought process, even with the Walmart example—so, if you take the time to measure your BMI, and you take the time to update your health record, and maybe the incentive is that we give you coupons for healthy food. And so, there’s these—all of these mechanisms we can use to try to change behavioral patterns.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Mm-hmm. So what’s the benefit that you would offer for—to an organization or corporation to offer this kind of thing to the employees?
Amy Carpenter Hay:
Well, I think I would change the question, because what we’re seeing is the employers want to offer this to their employees for two reasons. One, they’re looking at this as a long-term commitment, meaning this is a perk to the employee—so, a positive. “I work at Shell, and because I work at Shell, I have access to MD Anderson.” That’s a positive. They’re also seeing the long-term of, “If I can incentivize and provide prevention education, maybe twenty years from now my insurance premium’s not gonna go up because I’m not gonna have unhealthy lifestyle, bad habits that contribute to malignancy.”
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
That does seem like a real conceptual shift for a lot of people.
Amy Carpenter Hay:
It’s the major conceptual shift. You know, we’ve—our business plan right now—and as I said, it’s twelve months out to having the prototype—is focusing first, locally, in Houston, on the energy community. Because we find a lot of those companies are not only self-insured, but very progressive. They are thinking about, how do we save energy? How do we get the consumer? How do we educate them? And that type of a mentality fits very well with what we’re trying to accomplish. It will take time, but I think we are committed to really pushing that prevention-education aspect.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Interesting. Yeah, it’s interesting that you say the energy community is particular—has a culture that’s very open to this kind of innovative thinking.
Amy Carpenter Hay:
On the corporate kind of side, absolutely. You know, in Houston we’re seeing, obviously, you know, just the proliferation of the Exxons and the, you know, large, you know, communities that are popping up around the city. So, they provide a great opportunity.
Recommended Citation
Hay, Amy Carpenter and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 14: Planning for the Next Growth Areas" (2015). Interview Chapters. 963.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/963
Conditions Governing Access
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