More than 25 of Matria’s client executives and the industry’s most knowledgeable thought leaders gathered in February for the first annual Matria Institute for Health Enhancement. This gathering focused on a Health and Productivity Forum, in which participants spent two days discussing current issues and trends and exchanged thought-provoking ideas.
“The Matria Institute fosters a way to discuss how to leverage the broader value proposition of health and productivity enhancement,” says Ron Loeppke, M.D., who as Matria’s chief strategic officer, organized and led the two-day forum. “It provides an opportunity for us to evaluate new research, tools and technologies in our programs, as well as receive input from our key stakeholders that we serve, along with academic and other thought leaders.
“So much discussion goes on in the healthcare industry focusing on the crisis of medical and pharmacy costs,” he continues. “This gathering of internationally renowned speakers and authorities in the field of health and productivity enhancement elevated this discussion to a new level, demonstrating that the underlying root cause of the healthcare cost crisis in this country is from the burden of illness and the burden of health risks in our society – not just the rising costs of services or technologies.”
Key speakers and presenters included Martin Jose Sepulveda, M.D., of IBM; Kelley Tucky and Chris Nordling of MGM Mirage; Ron Kessler, Ph.D., of Harvard Medical School, Ken Mitchell, Ph. D. of Unum Corp.; Dee Edington, Ph. D., of the University of Michigan; and Thomas Parry, Ph.D., of the Integrated Benefits Institute. Presenters and speakers from Matria’s leadership included Pete Petit, Rick Hassett, M.D., Ron Loeppke, M.D., Don Fetterolf, M.D., Marty Olson, Pharm.
D., Earl Rousseau and Pat Cua.
Not merely an annual meeting, the Matria Institute will also sponsor thought leadership meetings throughout the year and create advisory councils to gather market intelligence and competitive insight. Also under the Matria Institute umbrella is the new Center for Health Intelligence, created to coordinate informatics and practice-based research for the purpose of developing, validating and conveying innovative health intelligence.
As part of its broader responsibilities, the Matria Institute will generate improved methodologies to engage larger portions of their population who can benefit from these services, evaluate options to reduce costs, improve administrative efficiencies and apply quality enhancements to existing processes.
“Motivating the creation of the Matria Institute was a belief that our leading client companies, health plans and other organizations will essentially become laboratories for excellence, innovation and value as they implement health and productivity programs,” Loeppke says. “The Matria Institute now provides a venue where these best practice islands of excellence can be brought to light so that others can benefit from their successes and apply what they learn in their own settings.”
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