Immediately after the snow stopped falling in Washington DC this week, another news story took DC by storm–the resignation of Billy Tauzin, effective June 30th.

Mr. Tauzin’s departure comes at a critical time for those involved with health reform efforts, not to mention PHRMA’s own thick portfolio of issues that include patents and trade, the economy, taxes (think offshore), and shrivelling pipelines, just to name a few.

The job pays well, but the applicant will surely inherit a daunting to-do list.

Job Qualifications

It’s a given that she would have impeccable bipartisan connections at the highest levels of government (both here and abroad); a robust rolodex full of private sector titans and Wall Street mavericks; a keen understanding of marketplace complexities (both here and abroad); superior people skills (it can be a b*tch managing those board room egos); not to mention a thorough grasp of and respect for the unique political and policy complexities that define health, health care, and innovation.

But that won’t  be enough.  I would love to see the next CEO take some bold action and harness the power of e-patients:  increasingly, patients (e-patients and their e-caregivers) are hungry to engage in participatory, user-generated health care, often referred to as Health 2.0.  Kaiser’s Dr. Ted Eytan explains it this way, “enabled by information, software and community that we collect or create, we the patients can be effective partners in our own health care and we the people can participate in reshaping the health system itself.”[1]

While the Inside the Beltway crowd is still focused on figuring out meaningful use and how to get paid for it–within the confines of the existing, antiquated reimbursement infrastructure, the Silicon Valley guys and gals are engaging with consumers (patients, caregivers) through apps, through mobile devices (what we used to call telephones), and through technologies that encourage Hosptial to Home transitions and Aging in Place.

There is a seismic shift taking place in how, what, and who is providing health care.  The possibilities could be thrilling should the next PHRMA CEO be willing to look beyond the usual models of care and blaze a trail that integrates diverse health teams and technologies to foster better health outcomes, improved drug adherence, diminshed chronic disease, and fewer out of control health costs.

There are regulatory and other hurdles to be sure, but rather than waiting for Washington, the next PHRMA CEO should be blogging and tweeting about those next steps as she blazes that trail.  One can communicate a lot in 140 characters or less.

• If you were writing the job description, what would you include?
• Who do you think are the likely (or unlinkely) candidates?

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 13th, 2010 at 5:16 pm and is filed under Health Professions, Health Reform, Politics, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.