Prof To Advise Health Care Group

In 2006 Michael E. Porter co-authored a text that would establish an intellectual framework informing the health care reform debate. Now the Harvard Business School professor will take a more active role in strategizing health care reform.

Porter signed on last week as a senior advisor to Medfusion, a leading provider of strategies for patient-to-provider communication.

Porter will join a management team working to maximize this communication and to develop an improved health care system in the midst of a national debate. Porter called himself a “thought partner” to Medfusion, emphasizing that he will have a limited time commitment to the company, in an e-mailed statement.

Buck Goldstein, Chairman of the Board and University Entrepreneur in Residence for Medfusion praised the choice of Porter. “There’s probably no one in the world that combines as deep a knowledge of corporate strategy and health care reform.”

Medfusion connects doctors and patients electronically through a patient portal, Goldstein said.

“[Porter] and our company are clearly in agreement about the criticality of an electronic interface between patients and doctors,” Goldstein said.

“I am hoping that my work with Medfusion will help the company focus more and more attention on the patient outcome side of value improvement,” Porter said via e-mail, “My work shows that the best way to control health care costs is actually to improve patient outcomes, which reduces the need for expensive treatment.”

Porter serves as an adviser to a wide array of industries and governments. His clients range from the U.S. Executive Branch, to national leaders in Singapore and Rwanda, to the Boston Red Sox.

Since 2001 the competitive strategy expert has focused much attention on the healthcare system. Three years ago he co-authored “Redefining Health Care” with Elizabeth O. Teisberg, and his research underlies health care delivery curriculum at Harvard and other universities.

“An ideal health care system is one designed to deliver the maximum value for patients, measured by the health outcomes achieved per dollar spent,” Porter said.

“This will require restructuring how care is delivered to, among other things, improve patient engagement and education, and measure patient outcomes over time,” he said.