Today’s New York Times has a thought-provoking editorial column from Billy Beane, Newt Gingrich and John Kerry. It’s about how the data revolution that has led to low-budget baseball teams competing effectively with the Yankees, Mets and Red Sox could be applied to providing better health care at lower costs. Here’s an excerpt:
Similarly, a health care system that is driven by robust comparative clinical evidence will save lives and money. One success story is Cochrane Collaboration, a nonprofit group that evaluates medical research. Cochrane performs systematic, evidence-based reviews of medical literature. In 1992, a Cochrane review found that many women at risk of premature delivery were not getting corticosteroids, which improve the lung function of premature babies.
Based on this evidence, the use of corticosteroids tripled. The result? A nearly 10 percentage point drop in the deaths of low-birth-weight babies and millions of dollars in savings by avoiding the costs of treating complications.
Another example is Intermountain Healthcare, a nonprofit health-care system in Utah, where 80 percent of the care is based on evidence. Treatment data is collected by electronic medical records. The data is analyzed by researchers, and the best practices are then incorporated into the clinical process, resulting in far better quality care at a cost that is one-third less than the national average. (Disclosure: Intermountain Healthcare is a member of Mr. Gingrich’s organization.)
Intermountain Healthcare also has been among the participants in the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center’s discussions on health reform, and has been cited by Dartmouth along with Mayo Clinic as an example of high-quality, cost-effective care.
