Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/759108
87 STRATEGY & INNOVATION ten requires expensive technology, medicine and prolonged periods of treatment and recovery, according to the report. By regionalizing and better targeting these services, healthcare providers can achieve greater efficiency and lower spending. "Abundant evidence exists indicating that there is demonstrable value associated with quickly and efficiently bringing patients to the right place at the right time for the right reason, particularly when treating patients with malig- nancies, stroke and cardiac conditions," wrote Mr. Lipstein and Dr. Kellermann. 4. Better train the healthcare workforce to treat patients with chronic conditions. e challenges healthcare providers face when treating patients with chronic conditions become more com- plicated when those conditions are combined with obesity, substance abuse, mental health disorders or physical disability. "Chronic care management and individual life circumstances are inextricably linked," the authors wrote. "To better serve patients effectively and to achieve optimal health outcomes, the workforce must have the education, skills and capacity to help patients live with their chronic conditions." 5. Invest in better end-of-life care. Nearly 3 million Americans die each year. Many of those people's healthcare services at the end of their lives are provided by clinicians that are primarily there to care for patients with advanced illness. According to Mr. Lipstein and Dr. Kellerman, investing in and training more palliative and hospice care professionals would lessen the dependence on healthcare providers whose skills are best suited to care for individuals with chronic disease or other acute conditions. n Dr. Toby Cosgrove: How Medical Innovation is Transforming More Than Healthcare By Akanksha Jayanthi B eyond the goal of improving care quality, efficiency and patient and provider satisfaction, medical innova- tion is having larger effects on economies, suggests Delos "Toby" Cosgrove, MD, president and CEO of Cleve- land Clinic. In a LinkedIn post, Dr. Cosgrove writes how Cleveland's economy was, and continues to be, bolstered by innova- tions coming out of hospitals and educational institutions. "Regions grow by producing products for export outside the region and by creating new jobs. Northeast Ohio's med- ical centers and universities attract patients and students from across the nation and around the world," Dr. Cosgrove writes. "Healthcare alone employs more than 81,000 local people, paying $4.5 billion in income. Northeast Ohio's in- stitutions of higher education have an almost $6 billion im- pact on the regional economy." What's more, when healthcare organizations and edu- cational institutions collaborate, the effect is even more pronounced, according to Dr. Cosgrove. He points to the partnership between Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University in which the organizations are building a health education campus. "Eventually, we hope the sev- en-acre site will become the center of a vibrant, internation- al medical student village between the Cleveland Clinic and CWRU campuses," he wrote. Dr. Cosgrove also mentions the technology companies spun out of medical centers and universities, such as Cleve- land Clinic's own Explorys that was acquired by IBM in April 2015. More than 700 biomedical companies are in North- east Ohio, which has attracted the attention of investors, ac- cording to Dr. Cosgrove. "The benefits of this process extend well beyond the tradi- tional technology hubs of the east and west coasts, to the states and cities in between," Dr. Cosgrove wrote. "Medical innovation is leading an industrial renaissance that has the potential to revitalize cities, create jobs and improve patient care across the board." n How Tech Companies are Using an NFL Strategy to Hire More Women By Akanksha Jayanthi I n efforts to be more inclusive in hiring, the NFL imple- mented the Rooney Rule in 2003, which requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate for all head coach and general manager positions. Since then, the rule has expanded to include other front office positions, and in February the NFL said it will also require teams to inter- view women for executive jobs. Tech companies have tak- en a page out of the NFL's playbook in an attempt to boost diversity in their offices, reports The Wall Street Journal. Companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook and Pinterest have implemented the Rooney Rule when seeking executive and leadership talent, specifically women leaders. Women representation in the tech industry is among the lowest of any industry across all levels of positions. Thirty-six percent of entry-level tech workers are women, and the only indus- tries in which that percentage is lower is energy and basic materials, reports WSJ. Proponents of the rule say it forces companies to consider candidates they may not have considered otherwise. Critics say the rule does not assess how many women are actually hired or how many women remain with the company. Some say it supports the idea that the main problem with hiring practices is simply that more diverse individuals aren't con- sidered, according to the report. The NFL had success with the Rooney Rule, as the number of black head coaches has increased since the rule was imple- mented, reports WSJ. But critics also question whether that is translatable to tech. Freada Kapor Klein, a venture capitalist who co-founded Proj- ect Include, a group working to improve diversity in tech, said the Rooney Rule may have been successful in the NFL because the league "had racially diverse star players, just not head coaches. That analogy doesn't apply to tech." Instead, Ms. Klein said tech companies should apply the rule to all positions in all levels to ensure diversity throughout company ranks. n