As 2017 arrives, it brings anticipated changes in healthcare with it – both locally and nationally. As one would expect, the changes have been widely discussed for some time by those involved in the medical profession.

Four of the most respected healthcare leaders in the Memphis area took the time to offer this publication a candid look at the changing landscape for patients and providers. The four are pictured on our cover and their perspectives on the state of healthcare and what the future holds follows.

Susan Cooper, Chief Integration Officer, Senior Vice President of Ambulatory Services at Regional One Health, suggests healthcare professionals must not only change the way they are thinking, they need to “turn healthcare on its head.”

Cooper says, “For healthcare to move forward, we as healthcare providers need to change our way of thinking with regard to how patients see us for services.

The traditional view of professional health care has been people seeking medical needs, but the future will be a push toward consumerism focused on patient-centered care.

“Under that model we view patients and their families as central to care, before, during and after they see us. Healthcare should not be limited to medical intervention, but also address factors that influence it such as where people live and the amount of violence in their communities, their socio-economic status and education levels.

“We must turn healthcare on its head and move beyond the traditional patriarchal system of ‘Doctor Knows Best’ where providers are simply dispensing care, to a system where we help patients change their lives.”

Cooper says the new model “must include a push toward value-based proactive healthcare where providers and caregivers engage in treatments such as trips to a nutritionist to help patients learn how to adopt healthy eating habits or offering more services for new mothers to train them in the best ways to care for their newborns.

“At Regional One we’ve been on the cutting edge by flipping the traditional healthcare model and working to eliminate patient pressure points such as waiting a long time in a doctor’s office or having to visit multiple facilities for different treatments. In our multispecialty clinic people can access numerous services, including preventive care, in one location,” she continued.

“We’re trying to walk in the shoes of the people we serve. Healthcare providers are smart about what we know, but we’re not so great at admitting that we don’t know everything. It can be hard to let down your guard and listen to a patient for an hour, but the benefit is being able to use what you’ve heard to create a new system. Volume-based health care does not allow for developing trusting relationships and that’s why we’ve moved toward value-based care.

“The bottom line is that health care shouldn’t be this difficult, it should be easy to maneuver. We’re learning to be agile in our responses and we’re excited about the results so far. I believe we’re on the cusp of something great and extraordinary in Memphis as we keep the best parts of our traditional practices and combine them with innovative ways of approaching health care for the future.”

Phillip Langsdon, MD, the president of the Memphis Medical Society and a professor at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, says his decades of experience and the fact that he wears several different hats give him what he thinks is a different perspective.

“I see Memphis healthcare through different lenses because I’ve had my practice for 30 years and that’s one component, but I’m also a full-time faculty member at UTHSC and that provides another window of perspective. And I’m the incoming president of the Memphis Medical Society and that offers a look at a broad range of issues affecting our community and I hope to use that platform during 2017 for advocacy.

“I believe we have excellent academic and medical training in Memphis and we staff facilities such as Regional One and Methodist that offer wonderful opportunities for future physicians. As a private practitioner and an academic, I want to be an advocate for physicians and offer practical practice support.

“From my own experience and from what I hear from my peers, it seems that most of the entities that physicians deal with, from hospitals to insurance carriers to licensing and certifying boards to the government and on and on, lay down requirements and mandates that take up an enormous amount of time and effort.”

Langsdon says the arrival of new rules and regulations are making an impact.

“The complexities of these regulations and compliance issues result in an increasing amount of time that physicians must spend on non-patient business. And what effect does that have? For starters it means that physicians are spending more time taking away from the very thing they entered the field to do and that’s practice medicine. The result then is more pressure to meet all those regulatory and compliance obligations while still offering excellent patient care.

“One example is the maintenance of certification that for many physicians is so onerous and time-consuming and confusing that when added to the time necessary for actual patient care just leads to an unsustainable situation. Physicians must spend hours and hours to keep up and this leads to tremendous levels of burnout, which can top 60 percent in some specialties. That absolutely must be addressed and reformed.

“I want to give encouragement, raise awareness and give hope to physicians,” he continued. “We haven’t done a good job of portraying ourselves to the community, of who we are and what we do and what we deal with and I’d like to help change that. The healthcare industry can be seen negatively by those outside it and I want to work with our physicians to improve that perception and let patients know that the overwhelming majority of us are in this field not for personal benefit, but to care for people and help them lead healthier, happier lives.”

Mary Anna Quinn, Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, believes great progress has been made but it’s definitely not time to take the foot of the peddle.

“The healthcare scene in Memphis has made amazing progress in the last few years and we’ve brought some great people in, but we realize that there is much more we can do for our community,” she said. “We aren’t resting on our laurels. Looking ahead, we know that we have to continue to increase and improve our research. We’re great now, but we can be even better.

“One example is the collaborative relationship between St. Jude and Le Bonheur that in the most wonderful way offers the best care that we can provide for every child in the city. This is a huge benefit for patients and it is wonderful for our community because of a focus on excellent care.

Quinn says the dramatic signs of progress are right in front of us for all to see.

“Another incredible example of what we’re doing very well in this community is the Crosstown project, and St. Jude will have a presence there along with Church Health. I’m so proud of everyone who has worked tirelessly to make this a reality and to create a community within this facility, including artists and educators and health care providers and residents. There’s an exciting synergy there.

“At St. Jude we have a strategic plan for the next five years that will see us work diligently to partner with other organizations to get more young patients accepted into clinical trials. We are working to create a consortium for Memphis, the United States and the world to advance research and treatment of rare cancers. We are dedicated to enhancing care and fostering clinical excellence and to moving the needle on cancers that affect small numbers of patients.

“We believe that every life is important and our goal is to save them. Is that ambitious? Absolutely. But by partnering with other organizations we are accruing more patients and getting other points of view and working off each other’s innovations on critical issues to develop new treatments and cures,” she said.

“There are still a lot of cancers where the survival rate is lower than 50 percent and we’re striving to change that as fast as possible. There is a sense of urgency at St. Jude because we honestly believe that every single child’s life matters – every single one. We push ourselves to do more each day than the day before and to share freely whatever we learn. As we do, the quality of patient care continues to improve and the diagnosis of cancer is not always a death sentence.”

David Stern, MD, Vice Chancellor for Clinical Affairs and Executive Dean for the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, says the city of Memphis offers up its own special and serious tests but it could also make the city a leader in some areas of treatment, such as addiction.

“There are a lot of challenges in our community and a simple glance at lists of cities with dangerous levels of obesity and heart disease and diabetes shows that Memphis has a lot of room for improvement. That’s the challenging news.

“The encouraging news is that we’re working to improve our health statistics from inside the community by promoting healthier lifestyles and through our healthcare system by recruiting extraordinary talent from all over the world to come to Memphis to work and have a positive impact on healthcare.

“One way we’re working to improve our community’s healthcare is by creating a center of excellence to meet unmet needs. We have established the Center for Addiction Sciences at the UT College of Medicine that is the first of its kind in the nation. We are training physicians on ways to address addiction, from learning better ways to diagnose and treat addiction to pursuing different therapies to avoid overprescribing opioids. We believe this will become a model for addiction centers across the country and all over the world.”

Stern would like to see the inequalities in healthcare reduced.

“We’re also working to relieve health disparities, especially in the African American community. One discouraging statistic is that African American males are at the highest risk for strokes in Memphis. We have created a mobile stroke unit that is basically a hospital on wheels and it goes to where people are suspected of having suffered a stroke and they’re immediately tested and treated and taken to the hospital if necessary. The good news is that if treatment occurs within an hour of the stroke, there’s an excellent chance that the patient will recover and walk out of the hospital.

“We recognize the challenges and there is much work to be done in offering the best care possible to all members of our community, regardless of ability to pay. We simply must do better to ensure that access to health care is available to everyone and that the level of care is the best available.

“At UTHSC we’re working to become a magnet for our community and to attract medical experts who are thought leaders in their fields. This is not just a goal of having the best doctors in Memphis, but having the best doctors and the best health care system in the world. That’s why I came here and that’s why I work every day to recruit the best of the best to our community. Memphis deserves this and my mission is to see that Memphis gets this.”