Irving Wladawsky-Berger: Designing a Smart Healthcare System
On October 1 and 2 IBM held its second global Smarter Cities conference in New York City. The first such conference was held in Berlin this past June, and the third will be held in Shanghai next year. As was the case with Berlin, the New York Smarter Cities event had a very impressive agenda. It included talks by IBM Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Melody Barnes, Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. The agenda also included panels with governors, mayors, and leaders of cultural institutions. In addition, there were break-out discussions to enable participants to share their experiences on what it takes to build a smarter city in six key areas: transportation, education, public safety, energy and utilities, government services and healthcare. I helped organize and moderated the healthcare session. Our panel included Denis Cortese - CEO and President of the Mayo Clinic; Ronald Paulus - Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at the Geisinger Health System; Chris Coburn - Executive Director of Innovations at the Cleveland Clinic; and Armando Ahued Ortega - Health Secretary of Mexico City.
