Writer: Jerrica DuBois
3 min read November 2023 — Building on the region’s strong, historical commitment to the industry, the future of Tampa Bay as a healthcare hub was highlighted during the third panel discussion at the recent Invest: Tampa Bay 2023 leadership summit.
Titled ‘Innovative Care: Why Tampa Bay will remain a renowned national hub for healthcare innovation,’ the final panel focused on preventative care, telehealth, and building on Tampa Bay’s healthcare legacy. Andrew Molosky, president and CEO of Chapters Health System, John Couris, president and CEO of Tampa General Hospital, and Alicia Schulhof, president of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital provided their insights to the discussion.
“In Tampa, we have a very unique perfect storm built on decades of tradition,” said Molosky when asked what led to the emergence of Tampa Bay as a healthcare hub. “We have a very business-friendly environment. When you have a great place to live and thrive, you have a premier acute care medical system. You have a premier specialty medical system. You have a premier home and community-based medical system. You have a premier You have an ecosystem that other communities lack. No matter where else you go in the country, they have other issues to deal with that lessen that environment. We don’t have those challenges because of our history, because of our commitment, because of the tradition on which Tampa was built.”
The business model for healthcare has always been a topic of conversation among industry leaders. The most commonplace school of thought is that keeping people healthy will keep people out of hospitals and cost will go down. According to data from Precedence Research, the revenue for the global health and wellness market is expected to steadily increase, hitting close to $900 billion by 2032. But as hospital rooms continue to be occupied, Couris questioned the measurable impact of the industry focus on health and wellness.
“I don’t think we’re actually in the health and wellness business,” said Couris. “Twenty years ago we went to conferences and smart people told us to keep people out of the hospital, keep them healthy and keep them well. If we do that, then they won’t need your services, the cost of care will go down, the quality will go up, and life will be good. If that were true twenty years ago, shouldn’t we have seen some improvement by now? I think we’re actually in the care coordination business. It’s not a matter of if you see us, it’s a matter of when you see us. We as an industry need to think about how we are going to improve quality and lower cost in a sustainable, reproducible way and pass that value on to the business owner. It’s a different way of organizing it.”
The panel also discussed the benefits and challenges of home healthcare and telehealth, which experienced a huge spike with the onset of COVID. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, telemedicine encounters increased 766% from 0.3% of all interactions in March to June 2019 to 23.6% of all interactions in the same period in 2020. In pediatrics, however, telehealth is not utilized as much as in adult care in the traditional sense of doctor visits. But it is spurning the creation of beneficial apps for parents such as Vamio, which helps with bedwetting.
“We believe very strongly in keeping and bringing care closer to home,” said Schulhof. “It’s important to our patients and families. The adult system is a little more familiar and acceptable to utilizing virtual and telehealth. Parents still like to use the person to person communication and visits with their provider. I don’t think it will ever have the adoption of the adult system, but telehealth does allow us to do a lot more. We utilize telemedicine to do virtual consults. It does a lot for our community, particularly for those who are underserved or don’t have the resources.”
As the panel began to wind down, the conversation turned to the importance of the Medical District in transforming Tampa Bay. Couris discussed the genesis of the project, wanting to create a space for the region to compete with other cities such as Boston’s Longwood Medical and Academic Area or the Illinois Medical District in Chicago.
“The idea was to build a medical district to give Tampa an identity around academics, research, and world-class care,” Couris stated. “If you can build an ecosystem that attracts world class scientists, biotech, clinical research, venture capital, and private equity, and bring them in through a concentration of research and medical excellence, you can improve how we care for the people in this region and state. It can also create an environment where the entire broader economy improves.”
For more information, visit:
https://www.chaptershealth.org/
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/all-childrens-hospital
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7A-ncZF258
