The public / private partnership is tasked with finding digital solutions to the Commonwealth's population health challenges such as the opioid addiction epidemic.
Massachusetts has launched one of the first statewide initiatives to coordinate digital health in the service of population health.
The council brings together providers and solution providers in an economic development alliance around the challenges and opportunities presented by digital health advances.
Tasked with looking for innovative digital solutions to the Commonwealth's population health challenges, members are leaders in the life sciences, EHR systems, consumer wearable devices, care systems, payment management systems, data analytics, and telemedicine.
"This council will collaborate to move past barriers in the healthcare industry and solve significant challenges to make advances in patient care, lower health care costs, and address public health crises, like the opioid epidemic," said Governor Charlie Baker, (R), in a media statement released by his office.
The council will be co-chaired by Katie Stebbins, assistant secretary for innovation, technology and entrepreneurship at the Massachusetts executive office of housing and economic development; and Jeffrey Leiden MD, chairman, president, and CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
"The digital health industry presents an enormous economic development opportunity for the entire Commonwealth," said Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito in the media statement.
"The industry is poised to create jobs across the Massachusetts through its impact on patient care in community hospitals, potential for advanced manufacturing applications, and for our innovation hubs that span from Springfield to Lowell, to Worcester and New Bedford."
Among the council's members:
- David Torchiana, MD, president and CEO of Partners HealthCare
- John Halamka, MD, chief information officer of the Beth Israel Deaconess System
- Atul Gawande, MD, executive director of Ariadne Labs at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and also the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
- Andrew Dreyfus, president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
- Sandra L. Fenwick, president and CEO of Boston Children's Hospital
- Elizabeth G. Nabel, MD, president of Brigham and Women's Health Care
- Kate Walsh, president and CEO of Boston Medical Center
- Rick Weisblatt, chief of innovation and strategy at Harvard Pilgrim HealthCare
- Joel Vengco, vice president and chief information officer of Baystate Health; and
- Keith A. Hovan, president and CEO of Southcoast Health
The body, which is to meet four times per year, will also steer the Massachusetts Digital Health Initiative, a public-private partnership that launched in January.
Service and solution provider participants include Optum, athenahealth, GE Healthcare Digital, Atrius Health, PatientKeeper. Flybridge Capital Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners are also participants.