Healthcare Innovation: Key to Reform

Bill Moffitt is renowned for his vision in developing the point-of-care blood analysis market. He identified a constellation of trends – far in advance – that led him on the path to innovation. His work helped move testing from centralized hospital labs to revolutionary hand-held devices that deliver immediate and accurate results.

In a recent webcast for the DxMA, Bill stressed that health care reform should focus on delivery models. He sees people as the primary cost-driver in healthcare and that improving their productivity is the key to success. The goal should be to develop technologies that enable clinicians and staff to provide equal or better care at an overall lower cost.

Bill's view, based on 35 years of experience in the diagnostics and device industry, comes to us with wisdom and experience. It is a long-term view that may not be popular with reformers looking for a quick fix by tweaking the system.

From early research through the acquisition by Abbott Laboratories, development of point-of-care blood analysis at i-STAT required a more than a decade. For the first five years, i-STAT supported "negative profit" for a product they knew would succeed. Today, that product is a major contributor to enhancing care and reducing costs.

Innovation requires vision, time, money and confidence, but it can generate improvements on a massive scale. Hopefully, the accomplishments of visionaries such as Bill Moffitt will serve as proof that any successful plan for reform must identify practical innovations and provide long-term support for their development and implementation.

— Tom DeSanto

Image: Abbott