The Blue Ocean of P4 Medicine
Dear Friends,
Welcome to the P4 Medicine special edition of Discovery magazine!
As chair of the AAMC's MR5 Committee and past co-chair of the Liaison Committee for Medical Education, I have had the opportunity to visit many medical schools and teaching hospitals throughout the country. I continue to be both amazed and energized by the innovation I see at America's academic medical centers.
Many of us who lead academic medical centers do so in cities where we compete with community hospitals for referrals in some clinical specialties. We distinguish ourselves from them by our commitment to research and education, by the range of services we offer and by the intensity of our focus on patient outcomes and safety.
Our clinical programs gain immeasurably from their association with researchers, educators and trainees who are constantly challenging the status quo, who look for smarter, safer and better ways to optimize health, who are thinking "outside the box," and by our collaborations with colleagues across many specialties and disciplines in our Medical Center and University.
This culture of continuous improvement and innovation is academic medicine's "Blue Ocean Strategy." In a 2005 book of the same name, authors Kim and Mauborgne studied 150 strategic moves across more than 100 years and 30 industries and found that the most successful organizations were those who moved out of the "bloody red oceans" of competition into "blue oceans of uncontested market space ripe for growth."
P4 Medicine is our blue ocean, and, at Ohio State, we recognized its potential several years ago, well before healthcare reform became a national priority. Since then, we have redesigned and redirected our strategic priorities, clinical services, human resource programs, IT infrastructure, organizational culture, medical school curriculum and new construction projects to facilitate predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory health care.
Our Center for Personalized Health Care at Ohio State has established itself as the premier site for advancing the national dialogue around P4 Medicine. Its dynamic and provocative annual DeStefano Personalized Health Care National Conference continues to sell out every year. Contributors to its P4 Medicine blog and subscribers to its P4 Medicine Update e-newsletter continue to grow.
This issue of Discovery is a snapshot of the current state of P4 Medicine and the enormous potential it holds for academic medical centers and a healthier America. I welcome your feedback at phc.osu.edu.
Sincerely,
Steven G. Gabbe, MD
Senior Vice President for Health Sciences, The Ohio State University
Chief Executive Officer, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center