LOUISVILLE As 11,000 baby boomers turn 65 years old every day, all of us who serve the aging population are bracing ourselves for a flood of need. The over-65 population is expected to double by 2050, and we’re already starting to feel the effects of an influx of older Americans who demand better care.
As chair of the Health Enterprises Network, I was honored to work with the amazing team that put on CONVERGE Louisville, the first-ever full-day conference that highlighted Louisville as the nation’s epicenter for advances in aging care. Louisville healthcare leaders are putting aging care innovation in the spotlight, and rightly so. I’m proud to have helped form the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council last year to leverage the collective influence of the industry’s top CEOs. We’re focused on improving the healthcare economy of our region, with aging care innovation as a key initiative.
CONVERGE was an important opportunity to showcase Louisville’s rich history of innovation and talk about what we need to do to meet the challenges of an ever-evolving healthcare landscape. Local and national speakers addressed some of our most pressing issues in aging care: the need for new strategies to bolster workforce development and patient engagement, the importance of leveraging the right technologies for an older audience, what Louisville can learn from Silicon Valley’s success as a hub for innovation, and how we, as a community, can all work together to improve population health and augment our collective continuum of care.
Two notable physicians were featured. Brian Holzer MD, CEO of Lacuna Health – A Kindred Healthcare Company, spoke on the importance of striving for patient-centric care and the need for longitudinal management models to support post-acute patients past a 30-day benefit threshold. David Rhew, MD, chief medical officer and GM of Enterprise Healthcare for Samsung, shared the opportunity for digital technologies as a clinical tool to increase the quality of life in seniors, with attention to social isolation and accessibility challenges.
The takeaways were simple: We must all take risks, support entrepreneurs, celebrate and learn from our failures, continually improve our operating processes, streamline care delivery, and develop strategic partnerships to meet and exceed mounting needs.
As healthcare providers begin to care for the silver tsunami, we look forward to continuing the conversations we started at CONVERGE Louisville to connect, innovate, invest, communicate, and replicate best-in-care practices for each and every member of our community.
To learn more about Health Enterprises Network, visit www.HealthEnterprisesNetwork.com.