Team GoodCare

I have heard... “This is already being done.” 

I have also heard... “This can’t be done." 

The truth is... “It must be done."

-Karen A. Duncan, Ph.D.-

About Team Good Care

What's the Problem?

A broad consensus exists among both health professionals and the general public that our health care system is deeply dysfunctional, and not sustainable in its current form, for the patient-centered, high-tech possibilities of the future.

 

Where Do We Look?

Team GoodCare got its start while researching the underlying causes of this dysfunctionality. These are summarized here and will be expanded elsewhere.

1.  The need for an historically unifying professional identity among physicians, needed for
effective policy and leadership.
2.  The need for a professionally and clinically focused infrastructure for health care; research,
policy, and clinical medicine agendas can be formulated and carried out, and all aspects of
the health care system in support of these goals can be coordinated.
3.  The need for extensive examination and reformulation of undergraduate and graduate
medical education, and of support for physicians and teams in practice.

 

Clinical Error: The New Frontier

One of the leading causes of death in the United States is physician error. We need to reduce clinical error rates dramatically, especially in diagnosis, treatment planning and follow-up.  Paths for improvement include

  • Better undergraduate education,
  • Phasing out the apprentice system of graduate education, and
  • Widespread support and adoption into practice, of clinical research on new tools and approaches such as precision medicine.

All of these will require extensive support from artificial intelligence technology, which would only be possible when medical researchers create a comprehensive  medical knowledge base and design principles for its use.

This agenda is a manifesto for a patient-centered health care policy system. It will require a new conceptual layer of policy control that is guided by patient and public interests.

 

What Team GoodCare Will Do

Team GoodCare supports this entire agenda. Our process is as follows.

  1. Identify institutional/organizational players with expertise and a shared moral obligation with Team GoodCare to make this happen.
  2. Support involvement of these stakeholders in the Team GoodCare process.
  3. Act as a clearinghouse for ideas and collaborations.
  4. Be the keeper of its mission and goals – Team GoodCare is totally mission-driven.

 

To Begin…

Initially, Team GoodCare will focus our efforts on seeking ideas and support for a rapid evolution in medical education, and advocating for better methods of support for clinical practice.

Join us and lend us your expertise!

If not you, then who? If not now, then when?

karen pic

Meet Team GoodCare Founder Karen Duncan

Team GoodCare is the career-capping work of Karen Duncan, a caring visionary with a systems approach, solidly grounded in medical science and medical informatics.

As a child, Karen accompanied her dedicated, country-doctor father on house calls in rural Oklahoma.  As a teenager she worked in his clinic and 10-bed hospital.

Karen launched her career in medical settings as a microbiologist, steroid chemist, biostatistician, and Fortran programmer.  Enamored with computers in the laboratory, she obtained a Ph.D. in Biostatistics and Epidemiology to pursue medical informatics in academic medicine.

Subsequent experiences with large-scale national systems analysis and design rounded out Karen's dedication in her later career to understanding health care as a system, and as a key element in the larger cultural and social system of the nation.

Like most Americans, Karen believes that, in addition to its mission of guarding the health of the American people, the health care system has lost its way in the myriad of competing interests it serves.  Medical professional leadership is essential to re-balance the system.

To that end, Team GoodCare’s mission is to engage stakeholders in planning and preparing for physicians’ role in the high-functioning health care system of tomorrow.