Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Redefining Orthopedic Care Through Value, Innovation and Better Outcomes with Dr. David Bernstein
Transcript
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- 0:58- This is Laura Dirda with the Becker's Healthcare
- 1:00- podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
- 1:02- doctor David Bernstein, a Harvard trained orthopedic surgeon.
- 1:05- David Bernstein, it's a pleasure to have you
- 1:07- on the podcast today. Thanks so much for
- 1:09- having me. It's a pleasure to be with
- 1:10- you. Absolutely. Now I'm excited for our conversation.
- 1:12- I know a lot happening in orthopedics right
- 1:15- now and in health care, in particular,
- 1:17- you know, so many different things looking at
- 1:19- the clinical side, looking at the business side,
- 1:21- private equity, and more. So I'm excited to
- 1:23- dig into these things with you. But before
- 1:25- we do, can you tell us a little
- 1:26- bit more about yourself and your background?
- 1:28- Absolutely.
- 1:29- So, as you mentioned, I, am a Harvard
- 1:32- trained orthopedic surgeon, finished up orthopedic surgery residency
- 1:35- in the Harvard combined orthopedic residency program,
- 1:38- last month.
- 1:39- But I've had kind of a bit of
- 1:41- a, a winding journey from a career standpoint.
- 1:45- I I've always been interested in the intersection
- 1:47- of the business, politics, and delivery of health
- 1:49- care. And part of that stems from, the
- 1:52- fact that my dad's a pediatrician.
- 1:54- My mom's a pediatric nurse, and I grew
- 1:56- up,
- 1:57- in a household
- 1:58- where my dad loved what he did, and
- 2:01- he loved his patients and
- 2:03- but just couldn't understand why the health care
- 2:05- system didn't work. It just it just didn't
- 2:07- seem to work. It was there was always
- 2:08- a concern about,
- 2:10- something here or something there
- 2:12- about why patients were struggling to pay for
- 2:15- health care or why health care,
- 2:17- didn't seem to deliver the outcomes that that
- 2:20- had been promised. And so I was always
- 2:22- interested in in why that was the case.
- 2:23- It seems to me that health care is
- 2:25- the one,
- 2:27- area that everybody in the world,
- 2:29- could benefit from from having it improved. Yet
- 2:32- if you go to anybody on the street,
- 2:34- I would suspect that no one would say,
- 2:36- oh, the health system is is exceptional and
- 2:38- it works well, whether that's in The US
- 2:40- or or, frankly, anywhere across the world. And
- 2:42- so that always puzzled me.
- 2:43- And so that kind of set my my
- 2:45- career trajectory.
- 2:47- I went,
- 2:48- to to Bowdoin College up in Maine,
- 2:51- and absolutely loved it. And I actually majored
- 2:52- in economics because I wanted to understand incentives
- 2:55- and and what drives people to to do
- 2:58- certain things and how can we use incentives
- 3:01- to fix health care.
- 3:03- And so that led me that led me
- 3:05- to study economics always with the lens of
- 3:07- what does that mean from a health care's
- 3:09- perspective.
- 3:10- And fast forward,
- 3:12- a few years, I I lived in Europe.
- 3:13- I tried to understand the the European
- 3:16- models of health care. Obviously,
- 3:19- being American, trying to understand the American models
- 3:21- of health care, and I enrolled in a
- 3:23- dual MD MBA program at the University of
- 3:25- Rochester,
- 3:26- again, with the goal of how do I
- 3:28- marry my interest in delivering one on one
- 3:30- patient care but making a broader impact,
- 3:34- broader positive impact from the health system perspective.
- 3:37- Because in my mind, if you can move
- 3:39- the needle just a little bit, you could
- 3:41- have an impact,
- 3:43- across tens of thousands, if not millions of
- 3:45- people instantaneously.
- 3:47- And so I enrolled in in in that
- 3:49- dual MDMBA program,
- 3:51- learned, learned a great deal. And as I
- 3:53- was nearing the completion
- 3:56- of that, I had the remarkable opportunity to,
- 4:00- to join Michael Porter and Bob Kaplan at
- 4:02- Harvard Business School as their senior researcher in
- 4:04- health care and value based health care,
- 4:06- to really, again, dig into this question about
- 4:09- how do we fix the challenges we're seeing
- 4:11- in health care to make a positive difference
- 4:13- in the lives of of many.
- 4:15- So I worked at Harvard Business School for
- 4:17- for,
- 4:18- a bit before transitioning to residency,
- 4:22- at Harvard
- 4:23- and then having just completed it. And so
- 4:25- I've always been at this odd intersection of
- 4:27- the business, politics,
- 4:29- and clinical care delivery side of health care,
- 4:32- and that to me is is the most
- 4:34- exciting area to be in as we look
- 4:36- to solve some of the challenges we face
- 4:38- both in orthopedics, but frankly, across health care
- 4:40- more broadly.
- 4:42- It makes a lot of sense. You know?
- 4:43- And it's a really impactful kinda origin story
- 4:46- for your passion in health care and how
- 4:48- exactly you came to to be in this
- 4:51- space, which is really exciting.
- 4:53- What's it been like, you know, training as
- 4:55- a physician and
- 4:57- in such a a a,
- 4:59- transformational time in the health care space? What's
- 5:01- that been like?
- 5:02- Yeah. It's it's it's been it's been exciting,
- 5:05- I think. One of the things that's very
- 5:07- interesting is when you talk to a lot
- 5:08- of people and say, oh, I'm gonna be
- 5:10- in health care. There's a lot of physicians
- 5:12- out there who say, oh, I don't know
- 5:13- if now is the time to to to
- 5:15- be in health care. To me, this is
- 5:16- actually the most exciting time to be in
- 5:18- health care. It's a time of great need
- 5:20- and great challenge. And to me, whenever there's
- 5:22- a challenge, there's an opportunity, and that opportunity
- 5:25- is to help fix some of these some
- 5:27- of these issues that we see.
- 5:29- It's been challenging, but it's been challenging and
- 5:31- exciting at the same time. And so
- 5:33- one of the things that's really nice about
- 5:35- training,
- 5:36- to be clinically,
- 5:38- relevant, if you will, and clinically driven is
- 5:40- that you see the the challenges that are
- 5:43- described at a 30,000 foot view onto on
- 5:46- the one to one level. So whether it's
- 5:48- price transparency
- 5:50- and health care access,
- 5:52- which health care access does not equal health,
- 5:54- by the way, and we can discuss that
- 5:56- a little bit more too.
- 5:57- But whether it's health care access, whether it's
- 5:59- obtaining and and staying healthy, whether it's health
- 6:02- care price transparency,
- 6:03- you see that at the ground level on
- 6:05- these one to one patient interactions when patients
- 6:07- ask ask you questions. And then when you
- 6:09- take a 30,000 foot view and you start
- 6:12- discussing kind of what are policy changes or
- 6:14- health system changes that we can actually implement
- 6:16- to drive
- 6:18- progress,
- 6:19- you can start to marry those two those
- 6:21- two realms. And so I've found training clinically
- 6:24- to be incredibly,
- 6:26- powerful,
- 6:27- both as a tool to learn what matters
- 6:30- most to patients, but also as a tool
- 6:33- to really drive that one to one positive
- 6:35- change so that when you see these
- 6:37- challenges at a 30,000 foot view, maybe taking
- 6:40- longer than you want to actually make progress,
- 6:43- you can go back, help patients one on
- 6:46- one, and also see see their progress individually.
- 6:49- And, ultimately, at the end of the day,
- 6:50- as long as you move the needle for
- 6:52- everybody, you're you're improving the health of the
- 6:54- population. And so it's been exciting,
- 6:57- challenging,
- 6:58- and something that gets me up every morning,
- 7:00- ready to go to work.
- 7:02- I love that. I think that's such a
- 7:04- great mindset and approach when you're thinking about,
- 7:06- you know, all the the big challenges within
- 7:09- health care and in accessing health care and
- 7:10- then boiling into, you know, where the innovation
- 7:13- can happen and what makes the biggest difference
- 7:16- for the patient population you're working with. I
- 7:18- I'm curious. What are some of the the
- 7:20- things that you've been most focused on and
- 7:22- excited about right now within health care and
- 7:24- within orthopedics in particular?
- 7:26- Yeah. So I think the future of orthopedics
- 7:28- is actually incredibly exciting.
- 7:31- It's really undergoing a huge structural shift that's
- 7:34- that's been ongoing for a while, but it's
- 7:37- it's expedited
- 7:38- recently.
- 7:39- So kind of how, where, and by whom
- 7:42- is care delivered.
- 7:43- So historically, orthopedics and many of the surgical
- 7:46- subspecialties
- 7:48- have been within the four walls of a
- 7:50- major traditional
- 7:51- hospital,
- 7:52- and it's now being decentralized.
- 7:55- And they're being it's being moved to ambulatory
- 7:58- surgical centers and and different Medicare and Medicaid,
- 8:03- interventions are kinda pushing the boundaries of what
- 8:05- it means to deliver orthopedic care. And so
- 8:08- we're taking this model and flipping it on
- 8:11- its head. How do we deliver
- 8:12- the best orthopedic care to patients
- 8:16- when they need it, where they need it,
- 8:18- while being rewarded for delivering the outcomes that
- 8:21- actually matter to
- 8:23- those patients.
- 8:24- And, honestly, it needs to be driven by
- 8:26- orthopedic surgeons. If it's driven by those who
- 8:29- don't deliver the care, which a lot of
- 8:32- health care, frankly, over time has been driven
- 8:34- by policymakers and those who don't understand what
- 8:36- it means to deliver care,
- 8:38- that's when patients lose, and that's where the
- 8:41- that's when the subspecialty
- 8:43- fields within orthopedics and orthopedics more broadly lose.
- 8:46- And so it really this type of change
- 8:49- is coming, and it's coming from regulatory frameworks.
- 8:52- It's coming from financial
- 8:54- base frankly, requirements in order to be financially
- 8:57- sustainable.
- 8:58- And so this needs to be driven by
- 9:00- orthopedics,
- 9:01- and orthopedic surgeons themselves,
- 9:03- to deliver this coordinated care.
- 9:06- So two
- 9:07- well, two or three areas that I kinda
- 9:09- think are really, really important today.
- 9:12- As I mentioned, a lot of
- 9:14- the the traditional thinking of health care and
- 9:16- orthopedic surgery being delivered within the four walls
- 9:18- of a hospital is just no frankly no
- 9:20- longer the case.
- 9:22- And so ambulatory surgical centers are super, super
- 9:25- exciting. And they're not exciting just because
- 9:28- they are,
- 9:31- the hot and and and sexy area to
- 9:33- receive care, but they're exciting because you can
- 9:35- deliver
- 9:36- care at a cheaper price that's frankly better
- 9:39- in a area that patients
- 9:41- live in already.
- 9:42- It
- 9:43- that has better parking, that has better patient
- 9:46- experience,
- 9:47- and can
- 9:48- really shift
- 9:49- the the model of care of care delivery.
- 9:52- And we're seeing that actually from a regulatory
- 9:55- perspective too as CMS revises or removes many
- 9:58- of its inpatient only,
- 10:00- list of surgeries
- 10:02- to really allow,
- 10:04- orthopedic surgeons to deliver care to patients in
- 10:07- an area that that is best for them.
- 10:10- We're also seeing
- 10:12- increased in artificial intelligence and virtual physical therapy
- 10:15- and digital health platforms
- 10:17- that really allow patients to engage
- 10:19- with their orthopedic surgeons and their orthopedic care
- 10:22- teams in a more meaningful way than has
- 10:24- historically been done. And this allows
- 10:27- patients to
- 10:29- to frankly
- 10:30- receive better care and and hopefully improve clinical
- 10:32- outcomes.
- 10:33- And the last thing I'll say is
- 10:35- we're also seeing changes,
- 10:38- in in measurement
- 10:39- in measurement of prices,
- 10:41- in measurement of the of the cost of
- 10:44- care, and how those direct bundle payments and
- 10:48- measurement of patient reported outcome measures that are
- 10:50- now included in many of the CMS,
- 10:52- and CMMI
- 10:54- models
- 10:54- are playing into how we better understand,
- 10:58- how our care is being received by patients
- 11:01- and how that leads to the outcomes that
- 11:03- matter most to them and how do we
- 11:04- optimize those outcomes
- 11:06- for them. And so all of these things
- 11:09- that have kind of been historically written in
- 11:12- this paper or that paper as a theoretical
- 11:15- are now becoming the reality on the ground.
- 11:18- Well, that's so exciting to hear. And and
- 11:20- certainly thinking about that patient experience and then
- 11:23- marrying the technology along with,
- 11:27- access to care and in connection with the
- 11:29- specialists that are are, all working together to
- 11:32- help the patients in along their care journey
- 11:34- is so critical.
- 11:36- And then thinking through the value piece too,
- 11:38- I know there's been a lot of fits
- 11:40- and starts over the last few decades when
- 11:42- you think about value based care in particular
- 11:44- in orthopedics. And so,
- 11:46- what makes this different? Where do you see
- 11:49- as being, the the the elements of all
- 11:52- of this that are are going to help
- 11:54- it stick and and really make sure that
- 11:56- the orthopedic patient population is,
- 11:58- not only having everything available, but adopting it
- 12:01- and really optimizing
- 12:03- what they have in order to achieve the
- 12:05- outcomes they want? It's a great question.
- 12:09- And I think there's,
- 12:11- what's really gonna make this stick today
- 12:13- is there's political, financial, and operational challenges
- 12:17- that require it to stick today. And the
- 12:19- thing that I think is most important to
- 12:22- touch upon is the term value based health
- 12:24- care often gets one of two responses.
- 12:27- One is you get an eye roll. You
- 12:30- get this eye roll of, oh, this is
- 12:32- a this is this is simply cost cutting.
- 12:35- Or you get this
- 12:36- response of, oh, this is gonna save health
- 12:38- care. And I think what the reality is
- 12:41- is we need to understand what value based
- 12:44- health care actually means,
- 12:46- and then we can start to implement it.
- 12:48- And that the reason I say that is
- 12:50- there are a lot of things out there
- 12:51- that are called, quote, unquote, value based health
- 12:53- care that are not value based health care.
- 12:56- And and so for example,
- 12:59- we use the term bundle payments
- 13:02- to,
- 13:03- to talk about how we deliver care,
- 13:06- over
- 13:08- a set good a set a set of
- 13:10- services, for example. But actual bundle payments should
- 13:14- be
- 13:15- cover a
- 13:16- condition, not the delivery of a total joint
- 13:18- replacement.
- 13:19- If you give a bundle payment just for
- 13:22- joint replacement, for example, that's really just fee
- 13:24- for sale service on steroids, and you're just
- 13:26- expanding
- 13:28- the the
- 13:29- the fee and you're expanding the number of
- 13:31- services, but it's not actually taking care of
- 13:33- a patient's condition. And it doesn't actually incentivize
- 13:36- you necessarily
- 13:38- to deliver care long term,
- 13:41- at at the outcomes that matter most to
- 13:43- patients.
- 13:44- And so I think we need to be
- 13:45- careful a lot of times when we talk
- 13:47- about value based health care and the terms
- 13:48- within value based health care to make sure
- 13:51- that we're not just using a term
- 13:53- that
- 13:54- sounds sexy, but then actually not
- 13:57- implementing it in a way that's that's true
- 14:00- to to the value based health care ethos.
- 14:03- A couple things that I think, are are
- 14:06- really are really important as well.
- 14:09- One is
- 14:10- value based health care is simply a strategy.
- 14:14- It's not a payment model. It's not just
- 14:17- measuring outcomes.
- 14:18- It is the idea of how do we
- 14:21- deliver and
- 14:22- and by measuring those outcomes that matter most
- 14:24- to patients, how do we deliver the best
- 14:27- outcomes
- 14:28- for patients?
- 14:29- And then once we understand that, how do
- 14:32- we do so efficiently to reduce cost?
- 14:35- And so if you think of this, the
- 14:37- quote unquote,
- 14:39- famous formula, it's not really a formula, the
- 14:42- outcomes per dollar spent. It's really a relationship.
- 14:45- And if you understand that relationship, you then
- 14:48- understand a strategy
- 14:50- In the sense that if something increases
- 14:53- the outcomes or improves the outcomes,
- 14:56- but does not change
- 14:58- the cost, you do that every time. If
- 15:01- something doesn't change the outcomes, but it reduces
- 15:03- the denominator or reduces cost, you also do
- 15:06- that every time. What the challenge we face
- 15:09- today is what happens if something increases the
- 15:12- outcomes or improves the outcomes and increases the
- 15:15- cost? Do we do that? Or what if
- 15:17- something decreases the outcomes
- 15:19- or reduces the outcomes and decrease the cost?
- 15:22- Do we do that as well? And that's
- 15:24- why orthopedic surgeons need to be leading this
- 15:27- because those nuanced decisions
- 15:29- require their insight into what matters
- 15:33- clinically, what are we measuring, and is what
- 15:35- we are measuring really what's most important to
- 15:38- patients. And if we don't have orthopedic surgeons
- 15:40- at the table, that's when we get into
- 15:42- trouble.
- 15:43- That's such an excellent point. And, you know,
- 15:45- it's so critical when you strip down whether
- 15:47- it's body based care or anything else, having
- 15:49- that kind of understanding of the patient and
- 15:51- knowing what moves the needle for them and
- 15:53- and then being able to truly design that
- 15:55- into,
- 15:56- the health care delivery system on both the
- 15:59- clinical as well as financial side,
- 16:01- makes a huge difference. And so I I
- 16:03- can certainly appreciate that. And I think especially
- 16:05- for surgeons like yourself at the beginning of
- 16:07- their careers, you know, what do you as
- 16:09- you're looking onto the orthopedic field and, you
- 16:12- know, thinking about the future, where do you
- 16:13- see the biggest areas for growth? What is
- 16:15- kind of the the spaces where it makes
- 16:18- the most sense to attack and and tackle
- 16:20- first? And then looking at true transformation and
- 16:22- what's gonna be possible in the next couple
- 16:24- decades.
- 16:25- How do you think about all of these
- 16:26- things and then,
- 16:28- incorporate it into the career and practice that
- 16:30- you're building?
- 16:32- Yeah. It's a it's a really,
- 16:34- it's a really, really
- 16:35- good question, and it's a big question. So
- 16:37- I think,
- 16:38- it's no secret that the population is aging.
- 16:42- And it is no secret that technology
- 16:45- and,
- 16:46- including digital health tools and AI
- 16:49- is booming and only gonna grow. And so
- 16:51- as I think about the start of my
- 16:53- career,
- 16:54- I think about how do I integrate
- 16:57- these tools and instruments
- 17:00- to deliver on that strategic goal of value
- 17:03- for patients, of improving outcomes
- 17:06- while while making it efficient and keeping costs
- 17:09- the same or reducing cost. And so one
- 17:11- of the challenges is there's so many interesting
- 17:14- and cool gizmos and gadgets and tools and
- 17:17- instruments
- 17:18- out there.
- 17:19- But does it do they
- 17:22- achieve
- 17:23- the the strategy that has been laid out?
- 17:26- So as I think about my
- 17:28- career trajectory and career
- 17:30- aspirations,
- 17:31- I wanna make sure that I implement and
- 17:33- utilize tools that allow me
- 17:36- to improve clinical outcomes. But what does that
- 17:38- mean? That means that I have to actually
- 17:40- measure those outcomes. And I think measuring those
- 17:42- outcomes that matter most to patients should be
- 17:45- as routine
- 17:46- as taking up someone's blood pressure and their
- 17:48- vital signs.
- 17:50- As orthopedic surgeons, I wouldn't operate
- 17:53- on someone without an x-ray. So why would
- 17:56- I
- 17:57- deliver a care
- 17:59- journey,
- 18:00- expectation
- 18:01- without understanding their goals, without understanding
- 18:04- what their functional status is, without understanding what
- 18:07- their pain level is in a way that's
- 18:09- actually tangible and and real and not just,
- 18:12- oh, I have pain today. Oh, I'm not
- 18:14- functioning at the ability I want to, but
- 18:16- really digging into
- 18:18- validated ways of measuring that.
- 18:20- And so I'm super excited about these technologies,
- 18:24- but I also wanna take those technologies,
- 18:26- implement them in in a learning health system
- 18:29- type model, in a quality improvement rapid cycle,
- 18:32- and say, yes. This works. This doesn't. And
- 18:35- I want the flexibility in order to do
- 18:37- that. And that requires
- 18:39- a health system that understands
- 18:41- that the changes and challenges of tomorrow can't
- 18:45- be solved with the instruments and tools of
- 18:47- yesterday.
- 18:48- And so that's what I'm super, super excited
- 18:50- about. That includes those AI tools, as I
- 18:53- mentioned, robotics,
- 18:56- orthobiologics,
- 18:57- smart implants. All of these things have remarkable
- 19:01- potential,
- 19:02- but we have to make sure we're not
- 19:03- just using them because they're the sexy thing
- 19:05- to do in today's world, but that they
- 19:07- actually
- 19:08- improve patient outcomes that matter most to patients.
- 19:12- That's amazing to hear. I I love that
- 19:14- and truly inspirational about what the future may
- 19:16- hold.
- 19:17- Thank you so much, doctor Bernstein, for being
- 19:19- here on the podcast today. Is there anything
- 19:20- you want to leave our listeners with?
- 19:23- Thank you,
- 19:24- for having me. It's it's truly been a
- 19:26- pleasure talking with you,
- 19:28- and, I'm just excited. I'm excited about the
- 19:30- future of health care. Most people, as I
- 19:33- mentioned,
- 19:34- today are
- 19:38- care is broken. I don't think you'll find
- 19:39- a single person in this country or frankly
- 19:41- around the world, as I mentioned, who would
- 19:43- say health care,
- 19:44- is fantastic.
- 19:46- But what's exciting about is that we have
- 19:47- an opportunity to chart the the next
- 19:51- twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, a hundred years of
- 19:53- health
- 19:54- care. And by doing so, we can make
- 19:56- the changes
- 19:57- that align the incentives,
- 19:59- that
- 20:00- reward delivery of exceptional patient care,
- 20:03- and that ultimately leads to a healthier population
- 20:07- that can,
- 20:08- play with their families, deliver economic prosperity,
- 20:11- and can really make a difference in the
- 20:13- world. And so to me, this is the
- 20:15- most exciting time to be in health care.
- 20:17- And that's, I think, the that's
- 20:19- why I wake up every day excited,
- 20:22- for the day and and what I do.
- 20:25- Excellent.
- 20:26- Thank you so much again for your time
- 20:28- today. This has been a really fun conversation,
- 20:30- and I look forward to keeping it going.
- 20:33- I know, you know, a lot coming up
- 20:34- ahead, so we'll definitely have to stay in
- 20:36- touch.
- 20:37- Fantastic. Looking forward to that.