Latest News

Reports

06.16.2008

HIPAA Creating Barriers to Research and Discovery

AAHC Report Recommends Alternatives to Protect Privacy and Advance Healthcare .

Global Perspectives

4.25.2008

Voyage of Discovery

AAHC Discusses Building Academic Health Center Infrastructure Worldwide

Press Releases

6.16.2008

HIPAA Privacy Rule Impedes Biomedical Research

4.2.2008

Academic Health Centers Major Force in Global Knowledge Economy

2.28.2008

AAHC publishes new self-assessment tool to improve clinical research administration.

Correspondence

3.12.2008

AAHC urges Senate to support the amendment to the FY 2009 Budget Resolution to increase funding for the National Institutes of Health.

2.5.2008

AAHC expresses strong concern about the new Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) modifiers for billing patient care in clinical research studies

UPDATE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dr. Steven A. Wartman Steven A. Wartman, MD, PhD

**Wealth…and/or Health**

Health and wealth. With only one letter difference between the two, they are the top driving forces in our economy and healthcare system. Where there is synergy between the two, the system works; where that synergy is absent, we have a system purported to be failing and unsustainable. However, every system is designed to get the results it achieves.

Our health system has certainly been effective in creating wealth. That wealth resides in part in the hands of physicians and other providers, but to a large extent in the companies that manage, manufacture and/or create health products or systems, including insurance products. The Washington Post recently called health care “the beating heart of America’s economy.”

The good news is that in many circumstances the nexus of health and wealth is quite positive and productive, particularly when it is focused in those areas of medical care that excel in generating profits. For example, many of the greatest strides in the nation’s health report card lie in highly profitable specialty areas, such as cardiology, orthopedics, and some fields of oncology. Wealth is also generated in “look good/feel good medicine,” which arguably does not impact overall health status, but certainly does have an impact on the well-being of those who can afford it. Unfortunately, there are fundamental healthcare segments that are far less profitable and have not done as well (e.g., preventive medicine, public health, primary care). These lapses are reflected in some of the nation’s poorer health statistics.

As the topic of health care reform gets renewed interest in the upcoming national election, serious thought needs to be given to the symbiotic and systematic relationship between wealth and health. Because many important aspects of needed and necessary health care are not profitable or highly profitable, at least in the short term, it is important to reflect on the kind of health care reform that is capable of addressing this critical paradox, and the fundamental priorities that must underlie any reform effort. To paraphrase Ben Franklin, as a nation we need to be “healthy, wealthy and wise.”