As medical technology progresses, changes must take place to accomplish connectivity:

• Standards. We must establish agreed-upon data standards for healthcare content. These standards must be open so they can interconnect devices, processes and data sets across the whole system. This would be a catalyst for real change.

• Collaboration. We need to build a diverse, multistakeholder industry where all parties work together on a daily basis, at the point of care. That’s where the system should be optimized for team-based care.

• Policy and ethics. We must come together around clear guidelines on how to manage our organizations and industry, from an ethical and societal point of view. For example, as home monitoring becomes more pervasive, device manufacturers and designers will want feedback directly on how their products are working for patients and consumers, and that requires a new policy framework for patient privacy.

Smarter systems are not some grand, futuristic ideal. We can build a true healthcare system—one that truly serves patients, and that, in so doing, achieves both societal progress and economic growth.