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Population Health Management

Population Health Management

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Dekalb Medical

Population Health Management

The notion of working to improve a population’s awareness of wellness and disease is not new.  For decades we have sought to reduce risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including reduced smoking rates, early detection for cancers, and decrease obesity (not to mention containing healthcare costs)  But with improving data capabilities, interoperability between EMR’s and data systems, changing laws, and an over-arching goal of improving the general health and wellness of our population we are beginning to see ever-greater emphasis on population health management as a strategy to both contain costs and improve outcomes.  Check out this week’s episode to learn more about how your company can save long-term costs while at the same time improving quality- and length of life to their employees.

As a health strategy, population health management focuses heavily on preventive care measures, coupled with making such care delivery as convenient as possible for the population involved.  Additionally, procedures around work place injuries are assessed and if needed, modified to include triage that can prevent the use of ER to initiate care when such injuries/exposures occur.

We talked about how Dekalb Medical restructured their approach to their own employees’ wellness and work place injuries, successfully reducing their spend on high cost claims, ER visits, and work place injuries.  They are now collaborating with businesses in the community to collaborate with them to improve the wellness/safety of their respective employees and helping them achieve the same sort of cost savings on health/risk in their enterprises.  These efforts are steadily improving the aggregate health of the Dekalb Medical catchment area patients through more consistent, integrated delivery of preventive/wellness-focused care.

Dekalb Medical, a long-standing pillar of the Atlanta health systems, serving the eastern half of the metro, has proven to be an innovator and thought leaders in the concept of population health management.  After a multi-year effort to reduce cost and improve outcomes for their own ~4000 employees, including decreasing work-place accidents and ER visits, they have an impressive list of successes to talk about.

And as a well-established health system with the full complement of services from acute to tertiary, diagnostic and procedural services available, Dekalb Medical is uniquely positioned to exert positive effects on the health of the large metropolitan population they serve.

About DeKalb Medical

Founded in 1961, DeKalb Regional Health System, Inc., known as DeKalb Medical, is comprised of more than 800 doctors skilled in 55 medical specialties across three campuses. The 627-bed system includes DeKalb Medical at North Decatur (451 beds), DeKalb Medical Long Term Acute Care at Downtown Decatur (77 beds), DeKalb Medical at Hillandale (100 beds), DeKalb Medical Physicians Group and the DeKalb Medical Foundation.

This week Diana Keough and I sat down with Dr. Shealynn Buck and Jim Forstner from the health system.  We talked about population health management as a concept and how it was put to work as a strategy to the benefit of both its employees and the bottom line of the organization.

Dekalb Medical is now providing similar population health management services to employers within their catchment area around the east perimeter of Atlanta and beyond.  They are engaging employers’ employees through gameficiation, on-site services, consulting regarding workplace safety, narrow network benefits that save costs and improve outcomes, and more.  We talked about how the notion of population health management is a move from transactional, disease-focused care to a relational, wellness-focused model and how that can save both money and improve lives of employees.  We also discussed some positive unintended consequences that can come through offering such a health initiative to an employee population.

The not-for-profit health care system is a HealthGrades® Five-Star Recipient for Treatment of Heart Attack in 2013 and Five-Star Recipient for Peripheral Vascular Bypass in 2012, and earned the Get With The Guidelines®–Stroke Silver Quality Achievement Award from the American Heart/American Stroke Association. Their Maternity Center was selected as a participant in the Best Fed Beginnings project as part of UNICEF/WHO’s Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative. The Dekalb Medical Cancer Center received the Outstanding Achievement Award and is granted three-year approval by The Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons as a community hospital comprehensive oncology program. Their Joint Solutions Center is a metro Atlanta leader in joint replacement.

In addition, The Dekalb Medical LTAC earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® for acquired brain injury, wound care and respiratory failure services. Their WorksWell® program is dedicated to supporting employers with solutions to maximize the health, safety and well-being of their employees while improving performance and the bottom line.

Special Guests:

Dr. Shealynn Buck, MD, Executive Director, Dekalb Medical WorksWell and Medical Director of Dekalb Medical Wellness Center

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Dekalb Medical

  • Doctor of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine
  • Residency, Pathology, Emory University School of Medicine
  • Fellow, Transfusion Medicine and Cellular Therapies
  • Former Assistant Medical Director, American Red Cross

Jim Forstner, SVP & Senior Strategy Officer  of Dekalb Medical

Dekalb Medical

  • >10 years service on Dekalb Medical executive team
  • Previous Executive Director for Contracting, Physician and Ambulatory Ventures, Dekalb Medical
  • Previous Director, Patient Financial Services, Dekalb Medical

GeorgiaSHAPE

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GeorgiaSHAPE

GeorgiaSHAPE

The Centers for Disease Control published these striking statistics about childhood obesity in the US:

  • Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years.1, 2
  • The percentage of children aged 6–11 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 18% in 2012. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 12–19 years who were obese increased from 5% to nearly 21% over the same period.1, 2
  • In 2012, more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese.1
  • Overweight is defined as having excess body weight for a particular height from fat, muscle, bone, water, or a combination of these factors.3 Obesity is defined as having excess body fat.4
  • Overweight and obesity are the result of “caloric imbalance”—too few calories expended for the amount of calories consumed—and are affected by various genetic, behavioral, and environmental factors.5,6

Clearly, the trends are alarming and we must act now to reverse them or we will face enormous human and financial costs in a variety of health issues that tend to increase among obese patients.  Obese persons face higher rates of developing diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, poor healing, and other challenges.  In addition to the health concerns associated with obesity, research has revealed connections between physical activity and academic performance.

We sat down with several key team members from the multifaceted task force whose goal it is to tackle the problem of obesity and caloric imbalance among our youth.  Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, MD, serves as the Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) and State Health Officer.  In addition to her numerous duties, she oversees a program put forth by the governor called, “GeorgiaSHAPE“.  This program, a public-private partnership, provides research-supported recommendations for Georgia schools to incorporate an additional 30 minutes of physical activity in the course of the day (often within the classroom itself during brief breaks from academic work).  See: Pledge to Power Up for 30  The goal is to enroll the roughly 1300 state-wide grade schools into the program to help reduce obesity and improve academic performance.  Participating schools receive funds to support the program and also gain access to grants through philanthropic organizations such as the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation.

Along with Dr. Fitzgerald we hosted experts from the Georgia Department of Education, Georgia State University’s Public Health Policy Center, HealthMPowers, the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation, and an educator and student from Carrollton Elementary Schools (one of the early adopters of the program).  They shared research findings regarding the value of physical activity as it relates to brain function and, correspondingly, math, reading, and spelling performance among young students.  We talked about the fact that currently, only ~1/3rd of Georgia’s schools are enrolled to participate in this important program that has clear, far-reaching benefits to our young people and our collective community health.

“You need to remember that yes, there had been an increase throughout the country [in childhood obesity].  But, Georgia, as far as childhood obesity—we were the second worst state in the entire country,” according to Dr. Fitzgerald.  “.  .  .We now have three years of measurements from looking at Georgia’s children. . .Here are the numbers:  40% of the children in our school systems are not at a healthy weight.  .  .Here’s the one that scares me.  We looked at a variety of things—not just weight.  But also, it’s called ‘aerobic capacity’.  And we looked at flexibility and we looked at muscle strength.  And, the tests are not trying out for the Olympics.  It’s not even trying out for the football team.  It’s walking a mile and touching your toes.  And only 19% of Georgia’s children were able to do all tests.  .  . So, clearly, this became the governor’s main interest because we knew unhealthy kids, of course, would lead to unhealthy adults.”

Panelists:

Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, MD, Commissioner of Georgia Department of Health 

Dr.-Brenda-Fitzgerald

Dr. John Bare, PhD, Vice President of Programs, Arthur M. Blank Foundation and Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation

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Dr. Emily Vall, PhD, Obesity Project Manager, GeorgiaSHAPE

emily

Diana Keough, CEO/Founder, ShareWIK Media Group

Diana

Deborah Kibbie, Georgia State University Public Health Policy Center, Chief Evaluator of GeorgiaSHAPE

Kibbie

Therese McGuire, Health and Physical Education Program Specialist at Georgia Department of Education

Photo Therese McGuire GaDOE

Wendy McDowell, Educator, Carrollton County Elementary Schools

McDowell

 

Colt Shadrix, 3rd Grade Student, Carrollton Elementary Schools

 

 

Innovations in Heart Health

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HCS 5

Innovations in Heart Health

This week, for Week 5, we focused on innovations in heart health.  Emory physician, researcher, and professor, Dr. Omar Lattouf came by to share about research he’s been working on developing  new techniques for some challenging heart disorders, and an exciting project he’s working on that is aimed at reducing the number of patients who die from cardiometabolic syndrome.  Dr. Lattouf’s work on how conduction problems are treated by insertion of pace makers using a minimally-invasive approach has helped improved outcomes for countless critically-ill patients.  Dr. Lattouf talked about their soon-to-launch study on an application designed to help patients with, or at risk for, cardiometabolic syndrome.  The application will empower patients to track key vital signs and other health information and make decisions that will improve key factors such as cholesterol, blood pressure, weight, and more.  As Dr. Lattouf shared his personal story about his own family’s experience with heart disease, his passion for helping fight heart disease, which in large part is preventable, was obvious.

Robert Arkin, CEO and Founder of Sensiotec joined us to talk about the way they are using technology and health data to provide clinicians the ability to monitor key vital signs and patient movement patterns in a hands-off way.  He talked about how he has long held a desire to help his community on a large scale that he knew that being involved in developing healthcare innovations provides the best way to do that.  Robert described how their device uses a special radar technology that is able to measure body movements and even internal organ function, providing real-time vital signs and patient movement patterns.  Their technology’s algorithms enable providers to get a degree of predictive information that could potentially help avoid patient falls/injury, or even detect troublesome trends in vital signs that could enable proactive care decisions that could prevent a serious cardiovascular event.

These two health innovators discussed the additional resources they need that could facilitate the acceleration of their respective work with regard to making their solutions available to patients on a larger scale.   We are pleased to support their work by helping them tell their story.

Special Guests:

Dr. Omar Lattouf, MD, of Emory University School of Medicine  linkedin_small1  twitter_logo_small  facebook_logo_small3  youtube logo

omar_lattouf

  • Doctor of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine
  • Board Certified, American Board of Surgery, American Board of Thoracic Surgery
  • Performed Georgia’s first domino heart transplant
  • He and a colleague implanted the state’s first Abiomed biventricular assist system to support the failing heart of a patient suffering from post-cardiotomy shock

Robert Arkin, CEO of Sensiotec  linkedin_small1  twitter_logo_small  facebook_logo_small3

arkin

  • Juris Doctor, University of Virginia School of Law
  • Recipient, 2012 Atlanta Business Chronicle Healthcare Heroes Award for Healthcare Innovation
  • Fomer CEO, Chairman, Modavox, Inc.
  • Former Member, Board of Directors, Frontline Healthcare Workers Safety Foundation

Diabetes Prevention Planning Team

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 HCS3 1

Diabetes Prevention Planning Team

According to the CDC, as many as 28 million Americans have diabetes.  And as many as 1:4 of them do not realize they have it.  That means today, potentially almost 10% of the US population are dealing with this chronic disease that puts them at risk for a myriad of health problems (many of them deadly), including heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, blindness, limb loss due to amputation, poor healing after surgery, greater risk for infections, and more.  It’s clearly a serious problem.  And, with an ever-growing number of obese persons in the country, including a concerning number of young people, these statistics are likely to grow.  In light of these sobering facts, a number of key players within the community from government agencies to health care providers, and innovative companies are beginning to put significant effort into preventing diabetes.  In Atlanta, the Diabetes Prevention Planning Team is a group of forward-thinking executives, health experts, and political officers who are joining together to do just that.

This week we were joined in studio by Dr. Luci Ide, CEO of Rimidi Diabetes, and Karl Smith, PhD, Project Manager of Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power and Potential (GCAPP).  Rimidi Diabetes is a health technology company that has developed and launched an application that enables diabetes patients to track and share key health-related data points with the clinicians guiding their care.  With this information, the patients and providers are able to better monitor glucose levels and other indicators and determine how behavioral and medical treatment changes are impacting the patient’s condition.  Luci is one of the team members for the Diabetes Prevention Planning Team and she talked about how increasing awareness of the disease and how it can be prevented are important facets of combating diabetes.  She used the analogy of a bath tub, where how quickly it fills is determined by how much water flows out of the drain (patients dying as a result of the disease) versus how much is flowing in from the faucet (new diabetes patients).  She went on to discuss the fact that today, more patients are living longer and managing their diabetes better than in the past.  Our next challenge is to begin to decrease the number of new patients developing diabetes in populations where it can be prevented.

HCS3

Karl Smith, also a member of the Diabetes Prevention Planning Team, shared how GCAPP is working to engage faith-based organizations in Atlanta communities that have populations that are at a high genetic risk for developing diabetes in an effort to educate young people who live there on how and why they can reduce their risk.  He talked about how these communities tend to be “gymnasium deserts”, having few if any facilities that would allow kids to be physically active in a safe place.  He went on to share how these communities also tend to have limited availability of quality whole foods that are healthy choices that decrease risk of obesity and are more heart-/diabetes-friendly.

Our discussion focused on how the Diabetes Prevention Planning Team is working to pull more resources together to help reduce the rate of new diabetes patients in our communities.  We talked about how public service announcements are being put together by the county government, and how their team needs access to funding to support web development, additional PSA information, and more manpower to help handle some of the work necessary to grow the network of support/collaboration.  We hope our listeners share this information so that we can have a significant impact on this disease that is costly in its effect on our community’s health as well as financially.

Special Guests:

Dr. Luci Ide, MD, PhD, CEO of Rimidi Diabetes  facebook_logo_small3  twitter_logo_small  linkedin_small1  vimeo logo

Rimidi Diabetes

  • MD/PhD Emory University
  • Residency, Obstetrics-Gynecology, Magee-Womens Hospital
  • 2014 Recipient, Ross Baird Award for Excellent, Village Capital
  • Former Associate, Monarch Capital Partners

Mark Smith, PhD, Program Manager of Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power and Potential 

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GCAPP

  • Doctor of Health Education, A.T.Still University of Health Sciences
  • MS, Exercise Science and Health Promotion, California University of Pennsylvania
  • Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist
  • Exercise Is Medicine Specialist, American College of Sports Medicine

Diana Keough, CEO/Founder of ShareWIK.com  facebook_logo_small3  twitter_logo_small  linkedin_small1  Pinterest-logo  google-plus-logo-red-265px  

ShareWIK.com

  • Journalism Instructor/Guest Lecturer, Emory University
  • Member, Koles College of Business Advisory Board, Kennsaw State University
  • Former Front Page Series Writer, The Plain Dealer
  • Former Reporter/Commentator, WKSU
  • Co-author, “Building a Business, Building a Life: The Incredible Life of a Woman Business Owner”