Harel Deutsch, MD, serves as co-director of Rush Spine Center at Chicago-based Rush University Medical Center. Dr. Deutsch will serve on the panels "Spinal Robots: Current Trends and Outlook for the Future" and "Direct-to-Employer Contracting 101: Strategies to Ink Valuable Deals" at Becker's 19th Annual Spine, Orthopedic & Pain Management-Driven ASC Conference.
As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place in Chicago from June 16-18.
To learn more and register, click here.
Question: What issues are you spending most of your time on today?
Dr. Harel Deutsch: I am involved mostly in inpatient care, but I'm also involved in the education of resident physicians and several multicenter FDA spine surgery trials.
Q: What are your top challenges and how will they change over the next 12 months?
HD: General challenges are that patients are increasingly locked into their "systems." This was more common in the past when HMO appeared on the scene, but I feel that it's become more common, especially because Medicare Advantage plans increasingly limit patients to certain systems.
Q: How are you thinking about investments and growth in the next two years?
HD: Investments in healthcare are probably not tied into the business cycle as much as other cyclical investments. Because healthcare is increasingly dominated by the government, changes in the government could affect healthcare, but currently, the government is deadlocked and doesn't seem interested in change. Therefore, I would anticipate steady growth.
Q: What are you most excited about right now?
HD: I think increasingly minimally invasive spine procedures done with the assistance of navigation/robotics are going to make spine surgery results more consistent and improve patient outcomes. I had a chance to work with a navigation-controlled drill that used artificial intelligence to stop the drill when coming close to the spinal cord, which I thought was very neat.