Expanding Reach Beyond Clinic Walls is Essential to the Future of Health Care, says Investigator

Health care delivery suffers from a lack of reach beyond traditional clinic walls, observed Dylan Steen, MD, MS, in a recent interview with Patient Care® Online.

The coprincipal investigator of the recently published and well-recieved SuperWIN clinical trial provides a brief overview of health care's evolution, largely centered on institutional care, and the resulting stagnation in response to mushrooming epidemics of chronic disease.

Steen says the problem is "too big, too broad" for any medical system to address through new infrastructure. He steps outside that box and looks at a myriad of existing resources that could be harnessed to expand health care's critical reach.

"We do have huge industries...embedded in the fabric of communities," he says. Using local, familiar modalities and venues to engage citizens in healthier ways of living on a consistent basis could be a way forward, suggests Steen.

He shares his ideas on the past, present, and potential future of health promotion, health maintenance, and health care in our interview.

Dylan L Steen, MD, MS is adjunct associate professor, director of clinical trials and population heatlth research at the University of Cincinnati Heart, Lung & Vascular Institute, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.