By Crispin Littlehales

Mark McClellan, former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, took the stage at the 25th annual JPMorgan Healthcare conference in San Francisco to persuade the elite group of investors and CEOs in the room to help government create a better healthcare system.

San Francisco

Despite considerable efforts to date, including the successful implementation of the Medicare prescription drug benefit program, the goal of a personalized Medicare system where beneficiaries get the support they need to make effective decisions about their care has yet to be realized.

“America’s healthcare system leads the world, but in many ways it costs too much and does too little,” Dr. Mark McClellan said Monday.

America

Also front and center in 2007 is the issue of prescription drug safety. Dr. McClellan, who served as FDA commissioner from 2002 to 2004, noted, “Identifying drug safety problems in this country relies primarily on methods better suited to the 20th century than to the present time.”

“The spontaneous reporting systems instituted by product manufacturers only capture about 10 percent of the adverse effects,” said Dr. McClellan. “We have an opportunity to realize the better approach: learning which treatments work in our healthcare system using 21st century methods.”

Valuing Healthcare

Now a visiting senior fellow at the AEI-BrookingsJointCenter for Regulatory Studies in Washington, D. C., and a professor of economics at StanfordUniversity in Palo Alto, California, Dr. McClellan pressed one more issue that he said was very important to him: value-based healthcare.

JointStanfordPalo Alto, California

“This means paying more for better quality and lower overall costs,” he explained. “It is a key trend in Medicare and a key element of the Medicare drug benefit reform.”

A big push to drive better decision making on the part of patients and their providers is already underway, according to Dr. McClellan. Such programs seek to provide better financial support for hospitals and doctors, not just when they provide more services, but also when they improve quality and outcome for their patients.

“By paying attention to innovation and creating policy to support it, we will continue to make progress in getting better care for patients, in getting more value from our healthcare system, and most importantly in improving the health of Americans and people all across the world,” he said.