Our Point of View

December 8, 2008

Kaiser Permanente Executives Present at Leading Health Care Conferences

Kaiser Permanente's two national executive leaders - Chairman and CEO George Halvorson, and The Permanente Federation Executive Director John Cochran, MD – joined leading health care executives, legislators and business leaders this week at high-profile health care summits.

Halvorson delivered a keynote address Monday at the fourth annual World Healthcare Innovation & Technology Congress. Dr. Cochran joined a panel discussion Friday at Colorado Senator Ken Salazar's Colorado Summit on Health Care in Denver.

In his keynote, "Changing the Shape of Healthcare: Groundbreaking Innovations and Their Impact on Healthcare Delivery," Halvorson set forth a vision for a health care system where data and connectivity enable patient-centered care. This new model will make it easy for caregivers to deliver the best, evidence-based care to every individual, keep people healthy and best manage serious illnesses and chronic conditions. For more about Halvorson's keynote, read this press release.

Dr. Cochran joined Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado for a summit on the topic of "how to fix our broken health care system." Dr. Cochran was a panelist for the discussion "Blazing the Trail: Innovative Solutions for Improving Health Care Delivery" and shared insights about Kaiser Permanente and the innovative work we have done to improve care for our members. He highlighted the successes of KP HealthConnect and My Health Manager, and shared ways in which our health care teams have leveraged our integrated delivery system and data connectivity for the benefit of our members.

The summit's keynote was Tom Daschle, who is widely expected to be named U.S. Secretary for Health and Human Services by President-Elect Barack Obama. Daschle currently leads President-Elect Obama's Health Policy Team, and he used his speech at the Denver summit as an opportunity to launch the effort to pass a comprehensive health care reform plan.

Both Halvorson and Dr. Cochran are featured in www.kp.org/future, an online presence Kaiser Permanente launched this month to share our vision for what health care should look like in the future – and some examples of how we're already working to make that happen.