Co-authoring the Future of CV Care

Illustration: Lee Sauer

One of the joys – and responsibilities – of MedAxiom is being on the forefront of cardiovascular care. As readers of this blog already know, cardiovascular care is complex in a number of ways. Whether it’s staffing, technology, finances, operations, clinical care, lab optimization, care team development, sites of service and more, the evolutions and solutions are typically hyper-focused on specific organizational challenges and disease states. While there are industry-wide shifts that are often driven by reimbursement changes, it is more common that cardiovascular programs focus on these subsets of care delivery at various times depending on their evolution and overall program strategy. MedAxiom is dedicated to providing solutions for all areas of cardiovascular operational and clinical improvement, thereby accommodating entities that travel in and out of stages of need. Whether a program is focusing on care team optimization, developing a remote patient monitoring program, embarking on a CT journey, seeking cath lab operational efficiency, or pursuing other opportunities, MedAxiom aims to provide cardiovascular programs with the right solution at the right time.

Guiding over 450 cardiovascular programs at a specific stage of their journey requires a constant focus on innovation across multiple domains of care delivery. MedAxiom tracks these innovations and assists with sharing knowledge and resources from the field to our community. We aim to connect industry innovators who spend 100% of their time in a specific area with cardiovascular members who may only spend 5% of their time in the same area due to their multitude of responsibilities. This linking of industry partners and cardiovascular programs to create bi-directional education and discussion is the premise of MedAxiom’s industry relationships.

Beyond the product and service-oriented learnings from industry, MedAxiom’s greatest resource is its membership community as it provides an opportunity for knowledge sharing to improve cardiovascular care and outcomes. The front-line experiences, best practices and lessons learned from trusted peers are invaluable. At MedAxiom, our conversations and daily work position us as the hub of these spokes (cardiovascular programs). We have the benefit of working with over a dozen different programs each week, giving us a broad view of the market and what’s working where – and why. This view of the current state informs all the initiatives we undertake at MedAxiom and helps us to form a perspective of national organizational priorities that further inform our work in care transformation.

While we have an unparalleled view into the current state of cardiovascular care, this ability to view national trends also allows us to have a unique perspective on emerging trends. We can begin to develop a clearer picture of where the world is going, which then enables us to focus on the innovative technologies and solutions that will be needed to meet the coming trends. Staying ahead of that curve, and helping others to navigate the road ahead, is the undeniable value of MedAxiom. This perspective also creates further responsibility to focus on and support innovation, and to ensure that the solutions offered are appropriate to meet the upcoming needs of our membership. We use this view to determine which partnerships are most needed by our members and how we can best bring these solutions to cardiovascular programs to assist their efforts. In the vast majority of cases MedAxiom will partner in a more traditional model with companies who focus their solution on a specific operational or clinical area. In some instances, MedAxiom has felt that our collective experience and expertise is best leveraged by co-authoring solutions in order to ensure we meet the cardiovascular community's current and future needs. In these cases, innovative partnerships in which we are engaged in the solution delivery or development is the best option for truly transforming cardiovascular care.

As MedAxiom progresses in its journey, it is safe to say that we will see more, not less, of a focus on co-authored solutions to better benefit cardiovascular patients and programs. MedAxiom’s first example of this is the development of HeartX, a cardiovascular-focused healthcare accelerator. MedAxiom is confident that supporting early-stage companies to accelerate the adoption of valuable cardiovascular solutions can only benefit patient care. That’s why we have partnered with HealthTech Arkansas, a state-focused accelerator, to shape the future of cardiovascular innovation and propel early-stage companies on a national scale. Announced in May, this is just the first step of MedAxiom taking a greater role in the provision of solutions to the cardiovascular network to support our mission to “Transform cardiovascular care and improve heart health.”

We’re just getting started. The future will provide more opportunities for engaging in cardiovascular innovation and co-authoring solutions. As a community focused on bi-directional education and bi-directional exchange, we will only be successful in our pursuit of innovation with participation from you, our valued members and partners. Let’s transform cardiovascular care, together!