The Musculoskeletal Institute on the UT Well being Austin medical clinic received the 2023 Worth-Primarily based Well being Care Prize from a world jury for its progressive method to patient-centered well being care.
The Worth-Primarily based Well being Care Prize acknowledges medical initiatives from world wide that make use of a “basically new line of considering in creating wonderful affected person worth by way of actual outcomes,” in response to its web site. Nominees for this 12 months included initiatives from Australia, Italy, the Netherlands and Brazil.
The Musculoskeletal Institute not solely treats musculoskeletal problems however can also be pioneering a brand new solution to ship medication. Based on government director Karl Koenig, most healthcare companies are reimbursed by way of a fee-for-service system that requires a separate charge for every physician’s go to, lab and surgical procedure. The institute as an alternative argues for a condition-based care mannequin the place one charge is paid to the healthcare group initially of care to incentivize higher useful resource allocation towards the affected person.
“On the bottom, at the very least in our group, which means a multidisciplinary group,” Koenig mentioned. “We’ve got orthopedic surgeons, doctor’s assistants, chiropractors, bodily therapists, social staff, all engaged on one group in order that when the affected person is available in, we will present the entire care that they could want.”
Koenig mentioned the institute makes use of a really completely different metric for measuring success as they focus much less on the variety of sufferers they see or the variety of surgical procedures they carry out and as an alternative depend on patient-reported outcomes.
“We ask our sufferers to inform us how a lot their hip and knee ache, again ache or neck ache is affecting their high quality of life, after which we measure our success on the affected person telling us how a lot better we assist them get on common,” Koenig mentioned. “It’s actually revolutionary.”
Koenig mentioned the institute finally tries to make use of a holistic but pragmatic method to medication utility by addressing musculoskeletal circumstances within the context of a affected person’s general well being.
“We assist quite a lot of sufferers to quit smoking, we assist quite a lot of sufferers to drop extra pounds, we assist quite a lot of sufferers to turn into extra energetic with our bodily remedy packages, and generally we do surgical procedure on these sufferers to assist them get extra energetic and keep wholesome, however we’re actually maintaining our eye on the prize,” Koenig mentioned. “And the north star is how can we truly assist folks to be more healthy slightly than simply maintain them after they get sick?”
Koenig mentioned the Musculoskeletal Institute was beforehand acknowledged within the U.S. for its trailblazing work, however to be in comparison with friends worldwide and are available out on high exhibits lots.
“It says lots in regards to the College of Texas, it says lots about Dell Medical Faculty and UT Well being Austin that we’re within the midst of constructing new packages, beginning a brand new medical college and staying true to our mission to actually revolutionize the way in which that sufferers get and keep wholesome,” Koenig mentioned.