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ME/CS 571: Surgical Robotics Seminar
ME 328: Medical Robotics

Dr. Catherine Mohr

Friday, January 18, 2019
9:30-10:20 am
Bldg. 320, Room 105

This seminar is open to the public. Students in ME 328 and CS/ME 571 are required to attend.

Seminar Topic: Innovation in the Era of Value Based Healthcare

In a traditional fee for service model for healthcare, new medical technology products were brought into a system that evaluated therapies by themselves in isolation -- were they effective enough in the single patient to warrant use of this new device or drug? Even government-funded single-payer systems have traditionally used a population-based average of this same concept of cost effectiveness.

The current global move to true value-based healthcare requires an expansion from this traditional narrow focus of evaluating the therapies in isolation. It is a systems-based approach, that must take into account not just individual patient outcomes for the episode of care, but the effects of therapies on the workflow in the hospital, dynamics at a population level, and even has repercussions into how a country trains and credentials its doctors and nurses. This level of complexity presents challenges to both providers of care, and those who would develop tools for those providers to use.

In her talk, Dr. Mohr will explore the history of our technological medical interventions, understanding measurements of value, and how to think about distinguishing price from value when developing the next generation of medical devices.

Speaker Bio

Dr. Catherine Mohr is Vice President of Strategy at Intuitive Surgical and President of the Intuitive Foundation. In these dual roles she evaluates new technologies and studies the dynamics of emerging markets for Intuitive, and in her Foundation role guides research and philanthropic programs aimed at improving education and reducing the global burden of disease.

Dr. Mohr received her BS and MS in mechanical engineering from MIT, and her MD from Stanford University School of Medicine. She has been involved with numerous startup companies in the areas of alternative energy transportation, high altitude aircraft, high efficiency fuel cell power systems, computer aided design software, and medical devices.

Dr Mohr has served as a scientific advisor for several med tech startups globally and government technology development programs in her native New Zealand. Website: http://www.catherinemohr.com

Catherine Mohr