Understanding the inevitable changes that technology has brought — and will continue to bring — to the healthcare industry will help all of us take more control over our well-being, prevent chronic diseases, and pursue care at the right time, at the right place, in the right way, from the right people. Diagnoses and treatments that once required highly specialized knowledge and equipment are becoming more widely available. Procedures and devices that existed only in large medical centers have shifted into community clinics, stores, and people’s living rooms. Today’s healthcare consumers have more autonomy than yesterday’s passive patients did.
Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg brings a lifetime of experience as a surgeon, medical school professor, and health system CEO to this exploration of every aspect of the changing landscape. Writing in plain language for consumers as well as medical providers, he connects the dots between parallel developments in technology and in healthcare delivery. The result is a wake-up call for healthcare providers to rethink what they do and how and where they do it. Healthcare is only beginning to catch up with other industries in using technologies such as virtual meetings and artificial intelligence, but already these tools are transforming people’s roles. Policymakers and those who train and employ healthcare providers must adapt. But everyone can benefit by better understanding what is happening, when to embrace new ways, and when to be skeptical or cautious.
Big retail and tech corporations see trillion-dollar possibilities in providing healthcare. These new players come with promises of convenience, efficiency, and cost savings, but without some of our healthcare system’s traditional restraints. The regulations and limits imposed on healthcare by governments and private intermediaries, such as insurance companies, are reaching the end of their sustainability. The COVID - 19 pandemic ex posed inequities and vulnerabilities in our access to healthcare but also sparked innovation. Patients Matter Most describes how some innovations are overcoming resistance to change and improving lives, and how others are introducing risks to our privacy. Real-life stories from a physician and healthcare leader who has been on the front lines of managing change make this book a compelling read.

DR. LAWRENCE ROSENBERG is president and CEO of the Integrated Health and Social Services University Network for West-Central Montreal. Before assuming this position in 2015, Dr. Rosenberg was Chief of Surgical Services and then executive director of Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital. Prior to that, Dr. Rosenberg served as director of the Multi-Organ Transplant Program at Montreal General Hospital and as Associate Chair of Surgery (Research) in the McGill Department of Surgery. He is a professor of surgery and medicine at McGill University. Dr. Rosenberg launched McGill’s Pancreas Transplant Program and led the team that performed the first successful liver transplant at McGill. Dr. Rosenberg is the only Canadian to receive the prestigious American Surgical Association Foundation Fellowship. He was named a Chercheur National (national scientist) by the government of Quebec and has served on grants committees of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Diabetes Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the US National Institutes of Health.

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