Axios Live: Health care leaders underscore need for big-picture approach toward patients

LAS VEGAS – The best medical care is offered when all facets of a patient's physical and mental health and wellness are taken into account, industry leaders agreed at a roundtable discussion Axios Live hosted this week.

• Axios' Maya Goldman and Brock Turner moderated the roundtable discussion on Oct. 20. The event was sponsored by DaVita Kidney Care.

Why it matters: Patients' health may be negatively affected if providers lack a broader understanding of their overall health profile or fail to get information from their other providers and specialists.

5 big things: Here's what the attendees had to say …

1. Including wellness in the care equation is crucial, said Anika Gardenhire, Ardent Health's chief digital and transformation officer. "I hope we continue to broaden the frame into wellness and in a more holistic approach in how we think about that broader integration."
2. Integrating behavioral health into primary care is crucial, especially amid rising demand, and ensuring access is key, said Amy Simmons Farber, vice president of communications and public relations at the National Association of Community Health Centers. "We've had a 43% increase in behavioral health services since 2018, and it's one of the fastest growing demands in our patient population."
3. More coordination and data sharing among health care organizations is needed, Lirio chief behavioral officer Amy Bucher said. "One of the issues I see with integrated care is actually silos between organizations."
4. Providers face difficulties integrating care despite the need, Wheel senior vice president of product and engineering Michelle Monaco said. "The humans who are trying to deliver care are being confronted by obstacles in our ability to integrate and our ability to bring the data together in a single place."
5. Behavioral health is "uniquely suited" to telehealth, and Talkiatry and others in the digital industry are working to expand access as the nation struggles with provider shortages, Talkiatry chief medical officer and co-founder Georgia Gaveras said. "We want to be able to say that just because a psychiatrist is a restricted resource … that doesn't mean that people shouldn't get that care."

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DaVita Kidney Care chief transformation officer Misha Palecek said there is a lot of work to be done to improve the U.S. health care system.

• "I think that we have taken a very fragmented approach to date, where we are not people-centric, and we are asking patients to be their own care coordinators. … Their understanding of what they have to do is pretty limited," he said.