Clay Christensen Delivers Prescription for Health Care Innovation to Health Care Leaders

CLAY CHRISTENSEN DELIVERS PRESCRIPTION FOR HEALTH CARE INNOVATION TO HEALTH CARE LEADERS

Describes Need for Integration of Health Care System at New England Healthcare Institute Annual Meeting

BOSTON, MA (May 9, 2008) -- At the Annual Meeting of the New England Healthcare Institute (NEHI), a nonprofit, independent health policy organization dedicated to transforming health care for the benefit of patients and their families, Harvard Business School professor and expert in disruptive innovation Clay Christensen today outlined a prescription to bring the benefits of innovation to the health care system.

Disruptive innovation -- the mechanism for making breakthrough products and services more broadly accessible and affordable -- can be achieved in health care, Christensen said, if the disparate health care sectors can achieve deep integration across the delivery system,

"Disruption occurs at the level of entire systems, not individual companies," he told NEHI"s members, health care leaders representing all the diverse interests of hte health care community. "in a non-integrated industry like health care where budgets are so discrete, a pill may appear to be expensive, even if in a system-wide context it is relatively inexpensive."

Innovation is already embedded in the science of medicine; we now need to also embed it in the industry's business models so health care organizations can be just as innovative as high-tech organizations."

Christensen argued that by coming together, the various and often competing health care sectors can more effectively embrace individual innovations hat are currently being rolled out piecemeal, such as personal health records and retail health clinics, to achieve positive change.  His forthcoming book, The Innovator's Prescription: A Disruptive Solution to the Health Care Crisis, addresses this topic in depth.

Christensen's presentation was part of a two-day event marking the kickoff of NEHI's fifth anniversary celebration.  NEHI was founded in 2002 and publicly launched in 2003 by a group of health care leaders concerned that the diverse sectors representing health care were not cooperating to fix the system.  The organization was established to provide a forum that would draw upon NEw England's unparalleled resources to find national solutions to improve health care delivery through collaboration, research and transformation.

Last evening, NEHI honored these founding board members for their dedication to the work and mission of NEHI.

"Thanks to the leadership and vision of our founders, in just five years, NEHI"s programs and solutions have lead to tangible progress, with real lives -- and dollars -- saved as a result," said Wendy Everett, president of NEHI.  "As Clay Christensen pointed out, our ability to improve the qualtiy and cost of health care depends on cooperation among the diverse sectors involved in its deliversy -- and NEHI is committed to making htis collaboration happen."

About NEHI:

The New England Healthcare Institute is an independednt, nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming health care for the benefit of patients and their families.  IN partnership with members from all across the ehalth care system, NEHI conducts evidence-base research and stimulates policy change to improe the quality and the value of health care.  Together with this unparalleled network of committed health care leaders, NEHI brings an objective, collaborative and fresh voice to health policy.  For more information visit www.nehi.net .