Mostashari: 'Our healthcare system is in trouble'

...National Coordinator Farzad Mostashari, MD, was both realistic and optimistic in his charge to attendees. “Our healthcare system is in trouble," he said. "It doesn’t keep people safe and it’s too costly. But I’m incredibly optimistic that this is the time when we’re going make this better.”

Mostashari said he bases this optimism on three “formidable” changes that are currently taking place “under the surface" – how healthcare is paid for, how healthcare is delivered, and how patients are taking care of themselves. “Underpinning each of these three is the simple concept that information is power,” he said. “We have an unprecedented opportunity for innovation in all three of these areas, if we keep our eye on the ball.”

Mostashari urged stakeholders to work together. “As long as we stay in our silos, we won’t change things enough,” he said. “We are going to make unimaginable progress, on the scale that wasn’t conceivable five years ago.”...