Dr. Vaccaro Discusses ‘AI and Value Based Care’ with Becker’s Spine Review

Dr. Alexander R. Vaccaro, President and Spine Surgeon at Rothman Orthopaedics, connected with Sophie Eydis of Becker’s Spine Review to talk about AI and Value Based Care in orthopedics. The two discuss how fifteen years ago, the surgeon initially realized that value-based care might finally bring reason to healthcare spending, and how he and the organization were able to reduce costs for patients while keeping the same standard of care.

“We started to move expensive care out of quaternary and tertiary hospitals to lower-cost centers that could handle the pathology,” Dr. Vaccaro told Becker’s. “We saved a tremendous amount of money, and the insurance companies were on board. Then Medicare made it a race to the bottom — they just paid you less and less until there was nowhere else to go.”

Dr. Vaccaro highlights how the current state of value-based care differs from its initial goals, as well as how AI can be used as a tool to correct areas in which the model of care went off course and where savings can be redistributed to. He explains the benefits of using AI to assist in redirecting resources, so that staff may pay additional attention to other highly important aspects of the care cycle, while also being able to use it as an assistant in the operating room by helping gather measurements for tailoring surgical plans by the individual patient. The article goes on to mention Dr. Vaccaro’s belief that AI has brought unparalleled change to the practice, but how that in itself will not solve access issues.

To read the full article from Becker’s Spine Review, click here.

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