The West Health Institute: Is This What the Future of Health Care Looks Like?

Article preview from IN VIVO - October, 2013

Philanthropists Gary and Mary West have launched an effort to find a solution to out-of-control health care costs. Led by two former medical device executives, the West Health Institute is trying to usher in a new, more efficient health care delivery system that will have enormous implications for medtech companies.

The West Health Institute: Is This What the Future of Health Care Looks Like?

Article preview from IN VIVO - October, 2013

Something important has been glossed over in the contentious debates over the Accountable Care Act that led to the government shutdown on October 1. Health care, as it is delivered in the US today, is less efficient and way more expensive than it should be, while leaving many Americans frustrated and dissatisfied with the care they receive. By some estimates, notes Nicholas Valeriani, CEO of the West Health Institute in San Diego, CA, the US health care system wastes some $750 billion a year – on things like duplicate testing, re-admissions, out-of-sync pricing, and inefficient administration – with no improved outcomes, no benefit to the patient, and no value added to the episode of care. “There’s a huge opportunity here and a whole host of things to target,” he says. And reducing or eliminating waste is only part of the picture. West Health officials believe, for example, that introducing the concept of medical device interoperability – the notion that multiple devices and technologies in hospitals should work in a coordinated way within a single system – could result in up more than $30 billion in savings. Rather than take a piecemeal approach to waste reduction, however, the West Health Institute aims to deconstruct the entire chain of health care delivery to discover exactly where the connections should be made to improve the cost-effectiveness of health care and at the same time, find real, practical solutions to the cost problems plaguing not just the US health care system, but, by extension, every aspect of society.

As a non-profit organization, The West Health Institute sees itself as a neutral agent with no conflicts of interest to hold it back. It’s the brainchild of Gary and Mary West, high-tech entrepreneurs who made their fortune in the telecom business. As their wealth grew and their business activities slowed, the couple began to look for outlets for their philanthropic activities. (They had earlier founded the Gary and Mary West Foundation, focused on seniors, youth, service dogs, and health care.) A former Vietnam veteran, Gary West had early in his career worked in hospital administration; as a result, he had an early view of the cost issues plaguing the health care industry, a concern that grew even greater when he became CEO of a company that provided health care for its 30,000 employees. In an effort to create a concerted initiative to address the problem of runaway health care costs in this country, the Wests launched the West Health Institute – part lobbying effort, part research organization, with a touch of entrepreneurial spirit – in 2009, located near the campus of the Scripps Clinic just north of San Diego.

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