Day Two Afternoon: Tuesday, 25 March 2003

Making Healthcare Work with Advancing Technologies

Plenary Session: Making Medical Progress Accessible

In 1964 Arthur Koestler wrote in the New Statesman, “No scientist is admired for failing in the attempt to solve problems that lie beyond his competence. The most he can hope for is the kindly contempt earned by the Utopian politician. If politics is the art of the possible, research is surely the art of the soluble. Both are immensely practical-minded affairs.” One of the beauties of medicine lies in the fact that it is both the art of the possible and the art of the soluble.

“Making Medical Progress Accessible” is an issue of convergence and cooperation between the two discrete but dramatically interdependent regulatory and clinical constituencies. Clarity and distinctness of vision must mark both the social and the biological scientist for the most efficient delivery of medical innovation.

It is by design that the chairman of this session comes from the world of information, for there is no more powerful voice than the press in the education of the end-user of medical innovation – the patients. Whereas miracle, mystery, and authority may have sufficed for the Grand Inquisitor and for the physician and politician of yesteryear, today it is knowledge and understanding that counts above all else.

To believe that it is only in recent times that the ethical implications of discovery were the subject of heated debate would be to ignore history and the long line of innovators who have been pilloried for their creativity. Usually, such assaults have been launched by those with an interest in maintaining the status quo ante. Fortunately for the good of mankind, reason has triumphed. This plenary session will explore the true sources of innovation and expose the myths which have come to dominate the discussion of those sources.

Seminar: Governments, Payers and Innovation

What is wrong with a civilized society spending 12 or 15 percent of its gross national product on healthcare, as long as it is spent honestly and efficiently? Is it really true that resources are not available to offer citizens the best of appropriate healthcare and health technology? Is the escalation in healthcare costs really due to the introduction of new technologies and innovative therapies, or rather to massive inefficiencies in the system? Should adequate healthcare be the very first priority of a society, rich or poor?

Seminar 2 will discuss new models of healthcare funding and payment. The Forum believes that while this is “social engineering” at its most difficult, it is neither grandiose or absurd to explore these questions.

Without adequate funding not only will innovation wither and die, but the fruits of innovation will remain inaccessible to the consumer and the payer.

Site Links

Executive Summary
Forum Goals
GMF II Program
Key Management

Day One, Morning
Day One, Afternoon
Day Two, Morning
Day Two, Afternoon
Day Three, Morning
Day Three, Afternoon
Social Program
Host – Rüschlikon

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