New medical operations
The enactment of the Affordable Care Act will bring tens of millions of U.S. citizens into the private health-insurance market for the first time, while also expanding Medicaid, the government-run insurance program for the needy. Among other things, this change raises questions about how our medical system will cope with a huge inflow of patients: Can good health care be made available to more people? Can that happen at a reasonable cost?This trinity of goals — simultaneously expanding care, maintaining quality, and reining in costs — was the focus of the 2013 MIT Innovations in Health Care Conference, held Tuesday and Wednesday at MIT. More than 35 professors, industry executives, and government leaders spoke on new approaches to primary care, community-based medicine, and data analysis that may help achieve progress.“We must find ways to utilize these advances within the framework of a sustainable cost model,” Maria Zuber, MIT’s vice president...