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Humana and University of Miami
Humana and the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine formally announced the launch of a joint Health Services Research Center at a press conference in May at the medical campus of the university. The purpose of the center will be to conduct research geared toward maintaining health, improving the management of chronic illness and ultimately, keeping health care costs down. This collaboration is part of the continuing expansion of Humana’s Innovation Center initiatives, which also include a partnership with the Wharton School’s Center for Health Management and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. The joint effort with the University of Miami will draw on clinical data from the School of Medicine’s records and claims, combined with health benefits information from Humana. It will be one of the first initiatives to examine the effect of wellness and disease management programs. The data, along with Humana’s growing ability to use “predictive modeling,” will also aid in creating programs to treat the “presick” — those patients who are in danger of developing chronic ailments. An example would be an obese, middle-aged person with a history of diabetes in his family. “Humana’s sophistication in statistical analysis, using things such as physicians’ visits, diagnosis codes and prescription records, helps us produce models for predicting illness,” said Jonathan T. Lord, M.D., chief innovation officer for Humana. “This predictive modeling helps us plan new innovations and technologies for more effective primary care management, wellness and chronic care management programs.” The work of the center will reinforce Humana’s ongoing efforts to enhance the relationship between physicians and patients through tools and programs that promote improved health outcomes. “As a large health benefits company, we really need to understand how to work better with physicians, and how we can help physicians and patients connect. That’s really what this is about,” said Lord. The opening of the Health Services Research Center will be followed by the launch of a new Wellness Center on the university campus next year. The Wellness Center will be used by employees of the university and will play a key role in the research conducted. Researchers will track and measure outcomes of participants — some at risk for or diagnosed with chronic conditions — who will be encouraged to exercise and maintain a healthy diet, for example. “Humana is our health benefits provider here at the university. They have long been interested in health services research. It was a combination of the leadership of Dr. Lord and Dr. [Laurence] Gardner [vice dean of the medical school],” Donna Shalala, president of the University of Miami, said of the joint venture. Shalala believes the collaboration will have a positive
effect on patient care and quality of life in the long term: “What
we learn, we can practice immediately; it will immediately have
an impact on the quality of health care and the quality of our health.
What we are after are healthy people,” she said.
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