Furthering the goal of ensuring that new health technologies are an asset to physicians and not a burden, the AMA engages and connects critical stakeholders to improve the development, evidence base and quality of digital health solutions.
Among the many ways the AMA does are the:
- CPT® Developer Program, which is free to everyone and grants access to Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) content to those who are eligible for development license, supporting acceleration of building and testing innovations that will help to improve patient care.
- Physician Innovation Network, an AMA platform built to connect health care innovation ecosystems to bring better health care solutions to market.
- Health2047, a Silicon Valley innovation firm that helps early-stage startups transform bold ideas into healthy returns.
A review of these and other efforts explaining how the AMA helps tech entrepreneurs working to bring digital health tools from ideation to implementation was presented during a recent AMA webinar (available on demand with registration).
Early communication’s key
The AMA knows that early communication between developers and physicians is vital to advancing innovations from great ideas to powerful instruments of patient care.
The AMA CPT Developer Program, launched last year, facilitates access to the AMA’s expertise, content and resources in medical terminology and coding for those in the early stages of concept and product development.
By integrating CPT at their core, these products can better communicate in the language of medicine and fit within physician workflows, thereby providing more value to physicians and their patients.
Here are some key elements of the CPT Developer Program:
- AMA Intelligent Platform. This central interface allows users to license, access and manage the latest CPT content with modern delivery options including application programming interfaces (APIs), web apps and data files.
- Developer engagement. Educational and informational opportunities designed to foster collaboration and co-creation within application developers are offered.
This early communication between the AMA and the health-tech ecosystem also is facilitated by the AMA Physician Innovation Network, which connects entrepreneurs with physicians and other members of the care team members to provide clinical perspectives and expertise during the early stages of ideation, design and validation of these new digital tools. Some 7,000 physician-developer connections have been made through the network.
Venturing into Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley-based Health2047, backed by the AMA and created to overcome systemic dysfunction in the U.S. health care—was founded in 2016, and is driven by an urgency to change health care for the better, said Lawrence Cohen, PhD, CEO of Health2047, said during the webinar.
The company takes a very long view on its mission to transform health care, with Cohen acknowledging that such transformation doesn’t happen overnight. The goal is to make a meaningful and measurable impact on health care by 2047—the AMA’s 200th anniversary, Cohen explained.
Based in Menlo Park, California, Health2047 has founded 12 companies with a focus on making a “meaningful and measurable impact” on health equity and value—which translates to more affordable care, more equitable delivery and better outcomes, Cohen said.
Another focus area is chronic disease, as typified by the first Health2047 company, First Mile Care, which was awarded “Full Plus Recognition” from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this year.
The First Mile Care Diabetes Prevention Program helps prediabetes patients make long-term sustainable lifestyle changes that block progression to type 2 diabetes.
Originating in San Francisco, First Mile Care expanded into Houston with the help of Privia Health, and into Detroit, thanks to Henry Ford Health. Privia Health and Henry Ford Health are members of the AMA Health System Program.
Other Heath2047 focus areas are providing secure, accessible and actionable data to empower patients and physicians and enhancing productivity—which means relieving physicians of administrative burdens, so they have more time to spend with patients.
“What if we could put more ‘care’ back in health care?” Cohen asked.
