NYC Health + Hospitals' Chief Value Officer Named to Modern Healthcare's 2021 Top 25 Innovators List
Dr. Cho recognized for his innovation and leadership in a number of
value and safety initiatives for the City's public health system that have
reduced unnecessary testing and increase system's cost savings
Dr. Cho is the inaugural Chief Value Officer for NYC Health + Hospitals
Aug 27, 2021
NYC Health + Hospitals today announced that Chief Value Officer Hyung (Harry) Cho, MD, FACP, SFHM, has been named to Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Innovators list for 2021. This year’s Top 25 Innovators championed solutions to reshape the industry in big and small ways, pushing boundaries to help solve healthcare’s greatest challenges. Dr. Cho is recognized for his innovation and leadership in a number of value and safety initiatives for the City’s public health system, including preventing unnecessary testing and treatment that leads to patient harm. Such programs have helped secure over $11 million per year in estimated cost savings and improving safety for patients. Dr. Cho is the inaugural Chief Value Officer for NYC Health + Hospitals.
“I am incredibly honored to be named onto Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Innovators list, but this recognition is only representative of the forward-thinking and innovative nature of NYC Health + Hospitals as a whole,” said Dr. Cho. “My colleagues and I question what’s become status quos in healthcare and develop out-of-the-box solutions that streamline care for providers, improve comfort and clinical outcomes for patients, and reduce costs – all critical variables for our public health system.”
“Dr. Cho is an incredible asset to our public health system, whose innovative thinking have contributed to the comprehensive, high-quality, affordable care we provide all New Yorkers,” said NYC Health + Hospitals Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer Eric Wei, MD, MBA. “I’m proud to call Harry a friend and colleague, and witness his teams’ triumphs in care delivery.”
Since becoming NYC Health + Hospitals first Chief Value Officer in 2019, Dr. Cho founded the High Value Care (HVC) Initiative, which has a vision to eliminate overuse or unnecessary testing and treatment that results in patient harm. Through the creation of a systemwide High Value Care Council, an iterative and collaborative process was developed to identify overuse targets. Overuse is defined as any healthcare service where the harm outweighs benefits for patients. The HVC Initiative also takes under consideration equity, ensuring that marginalized groups have timely and equal access to care.
Overuse is common in healthcare systems in both inpatient and ambulatory settings, leading to wasted resources and unnecessary costs for both patients and facilities. In collaboration with clinical councils, lab, pharmacy, nursing, Epic and other key stakeholders, the HVC team implements evidence-based recommendations to help guide front staff in eliminating low value care. Targets range from CKMB (a test previously used to detect heart attacks) to Vitamin D (a lab that is often unnecessarily retested). Identifying pockets of opportunity to eliminate waste has led to an estimated $11 million per year in patient cost savings, bringing a whole new meaning to innovation in a safety net system.
“There’s never been a more urgent time for the industry to experiment with innovations that can reshape how care is delivered. The members of this year’s class of Top 25 Innovators have introduced ideas that engage consumers in new ways, lower healthcare costs and take unique approaches to managing population health. The honorees were selected for their work in one of four areas: consumerism, cost reduction, population health and quality/safety. They were selected from nearly 200 nominations. We congratulate this class of honorees and look forward to following their careers,” Modern Health Editor Aurora Aguilar.
The complete ranking is featured in the August 16 issue of MH magazine, and profiles of the honorees are available at www.modernhealthcare.com/awards/top-25-innovators-2021.