Taking the focus on the patient to the next level.

Living in Washington, DC it is easy to focus on the numbers. Numbers grab attention. Numbers in the hundreds of billions of dollars are used by policymakers to talk about health care. I want to talk about one number. It is small. It is not attention grabbing. But it is important. It is the number one.

A patient is an individual. A patient can be you, your parent, your child, a friend, a neighbor, a colleague, or someone you meet on the street.

Today, the annual PhRMA conference kicked off focusing on the patient. To a patient, medical innovation is key. Medical innovation is how we can make progress against diseases.

A panel with Marc Boutin of National Health Council, Nancy Brown of American Heart Association, James Firman of National Council on Aging, and Gail Hunt of National Alliance for Caregiving focused on Answering the Patients Call - the opportunities and challenges patient communities face. The following are a few highlights from the panel...

Ensuring that patients have access to quality, affordable health care is a top priority of the community. But it is not just about today and having access to what currently exists but it is also about taking what exists today and making sure it gets better.

Progress does not occur in a vacuum. Partnerships make it happen. Everyone must work together if we want health care to evolve through medical innovation. Patients and the industry are on the same team and we need to work together to impact change. We need to understand how we can work together to impact health care and to ensure patients can have better health outcomes. This includes sharing ideas, focusing on research, understanding the progress of science, and being open to new partnerships that improve patient care.

Health care reform implementation is at the top of mind for the patient advocacy community. Marc Boutin highlighted the implementation burden for health care reform and the responsibility that we (all in the health care community) must ensure that it is implemented with the patient in mind because many patients have complex health care needs. Addressing these needs through implementation and empowering patients to take responsibility for their own care is possible - if we continue to focus on ensuring patients have access to quality health care.

Jim Firman discussed the importance of medical innovation, saying (and I am paraphrasing here) that medical innovation is a win-win situation. We must align health care invectives to encourage innovation and progress. Science and policy changes are necessary for the future of health care if we want to deliver positive health outcomes.

I am pleased that we kicked off the PhRMA 2011 conference with a focus on patients. Patients are why we exist and why we come to work every morning. Medical innovation (both science and systematic) will continue to drive improved health outcomes as long as we continue to invest in the science and the right policies that encourage innovation. Merely shifting health care costs does not solve the bigger systematic issue. The health care community must continue to partner to educate policymakers and encourage the right policies to advance the quality of care for the future and answer the patients call.

I will keep you updated on the discussion throughout the day.