The Center for Health & Humanitarian Systems (CHHS) hosted Health Systems - The Next Generation, a forum bringing together 120+ professionals, thought leaders, students, and researchers. Presentations and discussions focused on new technologies and innovative quantitative approaches to promote and maintain wellness. The forum served as a platform for identifying challenges and important trends in health system applications, opportunities for collaboration, and ideas for future innovations and effective practices. The event kicked off with an exciting set of presentations and posters, showcasing new research and  applications followed by a panel session comprised of experts from various health systems: Joyce Siegele, Northside Hospital; Victoria Jordan, Emory Healthcare; Greg Esper, Emory University School of Medicine; Tarun Mohan Lal, Navicent Health. With the ultimate goal of providing the right care at the right place and time, panelists agreed that it is necessary to expand preventive healthcare services, establish evidence-based standards for clinical care, and build a culture to promote continuous workflow improvement that can adapt to changing conditions to promote health and well-being.

Forum Co-chair Professor Dima Nazzal and speakers highlighted that despite increasing spending in healthcare in the US, there has not been a corresponding improvement in health outcomes. The "waste" is in part due to how healthcare operations are run but also how medicine is practiced, e.g., over-testing, over-medication, or gaps in the continuity of care. These problems are exacerbated with the aging population, patients with multiple chronic conditions, and end of life care. During rapid fire presentation session, Professor Nisha Botchway shared that social conditions must change while other presenters such as Leanne West, Professor Yajun Mei and Professor Yao Xie suggested that a combination of data science, analytics, predictive modeling, decision-support tools, and technology focused on better resource allocation may be the key.

In her closing remarks, CHHS Director Professor Pinar Keskinocak posed the question "How do we move from sick care to healthcare?" She highlighted the importance of taking a systems approach, and the tremendous potential of collaborations between engineers, medical and public health professionals, city planners, economists, etc. for addressing some of these complex issues at the root, not with a band-aid approach..

Please visit http://pwp.gatech.edu/hsng2019/agenda/ to see video recordings of sessions, pdf presentations and photos from the forum.

To share your research and ideas advancing health systems or to collaborate further with CHHS, connect with us on social media @CHHSGatech or email us CHHS@gatech.edu.