Dr. Mary Tilak & Associates

Some of the hard truths of primary care are that even if a patient has access to the best medical expertise, unless that patient takes ownership for their health, their outcomes will suffer. It’s also not an easy undertaking to get all providers on the same page of transformative innovation. It’s an issue we discussed as a team during our quarterly meeting this month. As a practice, we’re committed to patient-centered, transformative care. This needs committed effort into patient engagement strategies and agility to incorporate new care models that are tech-enabled and data-driven. Although it sounds risky, it’s a “Jerry Maguire" moment we in healthcare need to have to make conscientious decisions for the best outcomes for the patients.   The technological infrastructure and resources required to proactively manage chronic and complex conditions and the commitment to training staff and creating compliance with new workflows is not a simple undertaking. But with obesity rates rocketing higher—expected to affect nearly half of American adults by 2030—so, surely, will rates of diabetes. This makes it essential that primary care physicians figure out how to engage patients in managing their own care and sustain engagement. In our view, this comes down to strong patient provider relationships built on trust and proven commitment to patient and population centered care delivery. From your perspective, how can primary care providers most effectively build trust? And, what are the lessons you’ve learned around co-owning the patient journey with consumers?   Here are a few resources on this topic: “2024 Health Care in Focus Report,” Evernorth Health Services Research Institute, https://lnkd.in/gUB5kFzK “AHA 2024: Encourage Patients to Take Ownership of ASCVD, Medication Adherence,” Aislinn Antrim, MA, Pharmacy Times, Nov. 16, 2024, https://lnkd.in/g42aaFz7 “By 2030, nearly half of all U.S. adults will be obese, experts predict,” Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 19, 2019, https://lnkd.in/g8NnNKdC #healthcare #primarycare #healthtech #chronicdisease #healthoutcomes #patientexperience #ptexp #consumerism Mary Tilak MD, MBA

The struggle to ensure care that is accessible, comprehensive, well-coordinated and consistent is a global challenge—and it’s one that primary care is uniquely positioned to solve with the right resources. Today, only two out of five U.S. adults say they have a longstanding relationship with a primary care provider—far lower than in other countries. Meanwhile, health systems across the board are challenged with resource overconsumption due to the inefficiencies of current healthcare systems, while the primary care physicians in the United States are struggling with connecting the dots due to data silos and old care models that do not empower a primary care-led strategy in chronic disease management. In total, this is driving high-cost, low-value outcomes in the United States. As an independent practice, we’re prioritizing tech investments and new care models that are tech-enabled, data-driven and team-based for better care outcomes and care experiences. We are working on an early deployment strategy for an AI-first health solution in chronic disease management. This requires tech and financial partners that can support the strategy from development to implementation, including a pilot phase, feedback loops, and integration steps within existing health systems and accountable care organizations to show how implementation challenges will be managed in a proactive manner. My Harvard Medical School executive education underscored the importance of physician leadership in bringing together data scientists, systems engineers, community leaders and C- suite executives from strategy to implementation of AI-first healthcare solutions that will pave the way for creating a bold, patient-centered value creation in healthcare. Who will take the lead in this transformative change? Find out more: “Finger on the Pulse: The State of Primary Care in the U.S. and Nine Other Countries,” The Commonwealth Fund, https://lnkd.in/gcgT7QWr #healthcare #primarycare #chronicdisease #ChronicDiseaseManagement #AI #healthtech

When it comes to the struggle for work-life balance as a physician, there are no easy answers. The pressure to see more patients in a day—no matter whether you’re an independent physician or employed by a health system—is intense. For primary care physicians, who see the rise in chronic and complex disease and know it will take longer than a 15-minute appointment to determine the right treatment, there is a mental and physical toll that comes with quarterbacking a patient’s care. But what if we’re thinking about the solution in the wrong way? What if the answer is less about the need to overcome generational attitudes toward work and more about making the right investments in technologies and creating advanced new care models that can help everyone connect the dots for better care, faster? The “Primary Care Quarterback” needs a robust team that is technology-enabled and data-driven. Managing consumers’ needs and their health risk has to be done through a comprehensive team led by the primary care provider. The technology continues to advance at a rapid pace. And consumers’ expectations and level of engagement continue to rapidly change as well. Hence, health systems must commit to investing in new care models that will be deployed through the hands of employed primary care physicians. Independent physicians, meanwhile, would benefit from partnerships—with technology vendors, private equity firms, or even with each other—that could propel innovations for advanced primary care. What’s your take? How can we strike the right balance for better care without burnout? #primarycare #burnout #physicians #healthtech #worklifebalance #chronicdisease #healthcare #leadership The Wall Street Journal Te-Ping Chen Mary Tilak MD, MBA

Our commitment to patient centeredness and the patient experience, which has given us brand recognition, comes with a critical need for developing teams with agility and openness. As we’ve grown in these transformative and new care models, we continue to face the challenge of overcoming resource consumption and operational inefficiencies. A chief strategy officer for a renowned health system was describing her organization’s approach to AI when a physician leader asked, “There’s always a challenge in getting the buy-in from physicians, advanced practice nurses and ancillary teams. How do you solve that?” It’s a question that speaks to the importance of strategy, from development to execution, around AI-first health solutions. We are convinced that we need technology-driven intelligent automation to address both resource overconsumption and operational inefficiencies as well as the lack of strong and high-touch patient-provider engagement and cross-specialty care coordination. There are two ways physician practice leaders can strengthen involvement of physicians, clinicians and ancillary teams in deploying AI: 🙌 Incorporate a robust approach to education and training. This is a process that does not happen overnight. At our advanced primary care practice, we involve every aspect of our care teams—from physicians to nurse practitioners to ancillary teams of medical assistants, registered dietitians, respiratory therapists, sleep techs, patient engagement personnel, our patients, their families and more—in this education. As our approach to AI and intelligent automation matures, we’re continually looking for ways to build on our approach and learn from our peers and patients. 🙌 Involve team members in the build of the AI tool—and include patients and community players in this process that extends from development to execution and beyond. This establishes transparency and the ability to address bias. Where are you deploying AI-first healthcare solutions, and how are you engaging your team in the use of these solutions? What are the lessons you’re learning along the way? #healthcare #primarycare #chronicdisease #AI #automation

"Achieving increased investment in primary care will take a strategic and multifaceted approach," says Mary Tilak MD, MBA. Key to this effort: creating financial, structural, and societal incentives that can shift more resources toward preventive and primary care services. Ultimately, this will foster better patient outcomes & reduce costs. Find out more below, including the ways in which investments in health tech can support patient-centered transformation. #healthcare #primarycare #preventivecare #wellness #chronicdisease #healthtech #innovation #disruption

We're also hiring for an Advanced Primary Care Nurse Practitioner, in addition to our search for an Internal Medicine Physician. Find out more and apply today!

We're #hiring! Find out more and apply today!

It’s clear that primary care is an essential element of healthcare’s value equation: research shows that when patients receive more primary care visits, this results in better outcomes and lower overall costs. So what will it take to bring policymakers, health plans and other purchasers on board for greater investment in primary care? As Mary Tilak MD, MBA, shares in her LinkedIn post this week, spending on primary care comprises just 4% to 7% of total healthcare spending in the United States—and ideally, it should reach 12% to 15%. We’re seeing signs that employers could lead the way in primary care investment. At J.P. Morgan, for example, the company contracted with Vera Whole Health to run five full-service health clinics, complete with primary care physicians, nurse practitioners and mental health professionals, for employees and families in Columbus, Ohio. Part of the clinic’s success stems from “straight talk” from clinicians on the need to make lifestyle changes to help manage chronic disease to protect patients’ long-term health. “JPMorgan is placing a bet that over five years, this intensive preventive care will keep employees healthier and slow how much the bank spends on health care. And if they can pull all that off they think they can sell the model to other employers,” the Tradeoffs podcast states. And we’re beginning to see efforts by states to document the impact of increased primary care spending on population health and total costs of care. “Oregon found that a one-dollar increase in primary care expenditures was associated with $13 in savings for other services, including emergency department use and specialty care,” an article from The Commonwealth Fund states. But ultimately, true sustainable value will come from reimagining primary care reimbursement, supporting investments in intelligent automation—including for clinical decision support—and building better partnerships between technology vendors and primary care teams. This is how we will move the needle on primary care access, expertise and the ability to connect the dots for better outcomes. What do you think needs to happen to drive greater investment in primary care—and how can technology implementation and relationships make a difference?   Interested in learning more? Here are three resources we recommend: 🌟 “Why Employers Are Turning to Primary Care as Health Care Costs Soar,” Tradeoffs podcast, Oct. 10, 2024, https://lnkd.in/eAhN-SYj 🌟 “Increasing Investment in Primary Care — Lessons from States,” The Commonwealth Fund, April 3, 2024, https://lnkd.in/gFvY97Ur 🌟 “America needs a national strategy to better invest in primary care,” Medical Economics, November 2023, https://lnkd.in/eS7aqSQ2

One of the reasons so many healthcare disruptors fail to transform healthcare is because they lack a patient-centered model for value. This is an area where the primary care quarterback concept — enhanced by a platform that integrates patient-generated health data, supported by machine learning and AI models that provide predictive analytics and clinical decision support — holds the best potential to drive value at catalytic speed. Coming out of #HLTH2024, predictions abound around what it will take to transform primary care delivery, outcomes and the patient experience: ➡️ There’s talk of the need for an #AI model that will help consumers navigate their options for care, selecting services based on their needs, based on what AI believes those needs to be.  ➡️ There were discussions around ways to finally move the needle on value-based care by rolling out new models at scale, whether through partnership (see the recent moves by Risant Health) or by aligning care teams to best practices on a large scale (like Kaiser Permanente’s plans to roll out 200 primary care best practices for its provider network to follow). But we’ve seen the industry attempt value-based transformation for more than 15 years. Even the most promising initiatives have sputtered on the road to value. Yet the urgency to address challenges related to inefficiencies in care delivery and resource consumption, the strain on healthcare’s human resources—its workforce—and breakdowns in information sharing demand a better and bolder solution now. An effective and sustainable approach leverages strong and high-touch patient-provider engagement and cross-specialty care coordination. It incorporates patient-generated health data integrated through a robust platform with the EMR, supported by a clinical decision support system that provides predictive risk categorization and automation. This is how traditional empathy and patient-provider relationship meets contemporary technology to create efficiencies by optimizing resource consumption and providing timely intervention in chronic disease management to create value in healthcare. The question is: Which technology or private equity partner will recognize the need for a primary care quarterback approach and roll it out at scale? That’s a discussion we’re keen to have. Find out more about top topics discussed at HLTH from these articles by Eric Wicklund of HealthLeaders: https://lnkd.in/d35_YG9C https://lnkd.in/gZh_kbPp #healthcare #primarycare #AI #value #patientexperience #chronicdisease #healthtech

“It used to be all about ability. And now, in a changing world, I think what we should be looking for is agility,” says Adam Grant, a professor at The Wharton School who studies how people find motivation and meaning. In the rapidly transforming healthcare landscape, I think what we should be looking for is agility and adaptability. Grant is one of my favorite leadership experts. I appreciate this quote and this video of his so much, I sent it to each of the providers in our practice. For me, Grant’s testimony is a reminder: ✨ We need to be agile as a company. The primary care practices that will succeed will be able to anticipate the trends that will impact care not just in the next 10 years, but in the next two to five years. They will embrace new workflows and technology-enabled care and care management because it’s the right thing to do. ✨ We must combine empathy with accountability for agility to take hold. When care becomes an assembly line plagued by the “the moral hazard” in healthcare, no amount of AI or technology enablers can transform outcomes. Value-driven healthcare should be founded on empathy for the patient and driven by patient-centered workflows and algorithms that all stakeholders take accountability in. I want to be able to predict before things can go wrong with my patient's clinical course and deploy appropriate resources to intervene and stop the progression of chronic diseases towards bad outcomes and end organ damage. It is that passion for patients’ health and well-being that makes one a good doctor. ✨ Healthcare providers must “own” and manage the patient’s health risks collectively with the patient. This means taking pride in acting as a “primary care quarterback” to lead cross-functional collaboration in care. It means listening and communicating with the patient to uncover the patient’s medical “story” and using a full physical exam along with data analytics to pinpoint where to focus. And it certainly means taking on the role of “medical detective” when the answers aren’t easy to come by—and maintaining the same level of energy from the start of the discovery process until the point when an answer is found. How are you incorporating agility in your physician practice or organization? Mary Tilak MD, MBA #healthcare #leadership #primarycare #healthtech #innovation #chronicdisease #dataanalytics #AI