Dr Rajesh Balkrishnan Expects Health IT to Impact the Future of Managed Care

The next 20 years will bring greater use of big data and health information technology in managed care, but the challenge is using that technology to place patients in charge of their own healthcare, said Rajesh Balkrishnan, PhD, associate director for research and education at the University of Michigan Center for Global Health.

Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

What do you expect to see in managed care in the next 20 years?

We continue to have many challenges in terms of healthcare conditions and treatment in managed care. So I think the big challenges ahead of us are the growth in healthcare information technology and the big data that is out there.

I see managed care increasingly using real-world data to be able to make decisions about which treatments are effective for patients. Also, I think one of the other challenges is the use of new healthcare technology to try to improve patients' lives and try to move to what is a more patient-centered medicine, where we are able to impact people's lives by making them in charge of healthcare and sort of providing them with the tools they need to use healthcare wisely; and for payers to be able to invest in technologies that are actually making the most difference in people's lives.