Health Care Needs Less Innovation and More Imitation
Anna M. Roth and Thomas H. Lee for The Harvard Business Review
“A thoughtful commentary piece by Anna Roth, CEO of Contra Costa Medial Center, on the issue of innovation vs imitation in healthcare and that with all of the talk on ‘innovation’ that a lot of healthcare organizations could be potentially better served focusing more on the later.” – Matt

Big Plans, Poor Execution: The Importance of Governmental Managerial Innovation to Health Care Reform (Subscription required)
Sachin Jain, Brian W. Powers, and Darshak Sanghavi in The Journal of General Internal Medicine
“Important commentary on a well-documented but poorly acted upon bottleneck to improving the US Healthcare system: the inability of the government to lead and deliver comprehensive innovation. From the very procurement process for new IT systems to the dearth of talent required to implement, manage, and deliver new programs, there are several opportunities for improvement. A timely read in the light of recent ONC troubles, as well as the one year anniversary of the ACA’s original enrollment fiasco.” – Naveen

To Counter Growing Vulnerabilities, Publicity Shy Fitbit Launches Eight-Figure Marketing Blitz
James Robinson for Pando Daily
“Regular technology websites and publications almost never write about healthcare. When they do, it often has nothing to do with health. This piece talks about the problems that FitBit could have out-marketing Apple. Amazingly, it fails to mention that few physicians have any interest in looking at the data that these kinds of wearables can provide.” – Brian

Healthcare Delivery of the Future: How Digital Technology Can Bridge Time and Distance Between Clinicians and Consumers (PDF)
PwC Health Research Institute
“As we round the corner and head into the home stretch of our Market Trends Report on patient engagement, it is nice to see many of our findings validated in this latest piece by PWC. For the short on time, the infographics tell the story in this one. The disruptive forces of consumerism, DIY testing, self-service care, et al are here to stay, and consumers and clinicians alike are starting to agree.” – Naveen

Samsung’s Health Ambitions Go Way Beyond Wearables
Karissa Bell for Mashable
“Overview on developments from the Samsung Developer Conference last week in San Francisco that provides a basic overview of Samsung’s Digital Health Initiative which comprises two parts: The consumer-facing side, which includes the S Health platform announced earlier this year; and the research-focused side, which includes the sensor-filled Simband and the Sami platform that powers it. At the conference, Samsung announced 24 Digital Health partners including a broad range of commercial and research partners.” – Matt

Adopting Accountable Care: An Implementation Guide for Physician Practices (PDF)
James Colbert, et al., for The Brookings Institute
“Much has been said about new care models driven by value-based reimbursements. Those keen on operational details of how these models will emerge should take a look at this ACO toolkit, put together by a team led by Farzad Mostashari and Mark McClellan. Many of the specific tactics revolve around the MSSP program, but most of the details are generally applicable more broadly. Good reference sections on PHM, setting up high value referral networks, care management, and much more. Also worth a gander is the sample ACO operational budget (vendors might be disappointed at the IT allotments).” – Naveen

Emerging Roles in Healthcare 2020: Awareness Exceeds Preparation in Building the New Workforce (PDF)
AMN Healthcare
“Large survey looking at the new and emerging roles and hiring patterns by over 300 health care provider organizations in the U.S. Besides the need for experienced ICD-10 coders/reviewers, the survey is dominated by roles that are focused on population health and some of the new roles being added to the c-suite of these organizations including Chief Experience Officers, Chief Population Health Officers, and Chief Clinical Transformation Officers. Even though organizations reported realizing they need these new roles, there is quite a lag in actually developing the requirements and recruiting to fill these positions.” – Matt