![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/releases\/html\/images\/RxSymposiumBootmanWeb.jpg\")
\nKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 September 17, 2012 \u2013 The United States currently spends $2.5 trillion on health care annually, the most of any country in the world, but America\u2019s infant mortality rate is 28th in the world.
\nOnly 30 percent of sick Americans receive same-day care, and medical errors kill as many as 98,000 Americans a year.
\nThose chilling facts punctuated Friday\u2019s keynote address at the University of Rhode Island\u2019s College of Pharmacy Symposium, \u201cDrug Therapy in the 21st Century: Discovery and Clinical Use.\u201d
\n\u201cWe also spend $4,500 per year, per individual, while Japan spends the least (about $2,000 per year per individual), and it has the highest life expectancy in the world,\u201d said J. Lyle Bootman, senior vice president for Health Sciences and dean of the College of Pharmacy at the University of Arizona.
\nMore than 300 students, faculty and health professionals listened to Bootman\u2019s gripping discussion as part of a daylong, six-speaker program organized as part of this month\u2019s opening of URI\u2019s new, $75 million College of Pharmacy building.
\n\u201cThe health care business is in very serious shape,\u201d he said as he opened his presentation, which featured funny, but telling videos about Betty and Bob Boom, aging Baby Boomers, who are taking care of a sick relative and dangerously sharing their prescription drugs. \u201cWe have some very serious challenges, but my job is to tell the truth.\u201d
\nHe said drug development companies have done some amazing work, and none of us could imagine a world without drugs. Ten percent of the health care dollar is spent on medications, he said, adding that effective use of prescriptions can reduce hospitalizations, improve productivity and prevent occurrence or progression of disease.
\n\u201cBut most of the time, you have a one in four chance of getting the right medicine for the right illness,\u201d Bootman said.
\nWhile 85 percent of current expenditures are used to treat 15 percent of the population, and the United States is last among 19 nations in preventable deaths,
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according to Bootman, there are several key steps that could be taken in the short term to save $2.5 trillion and improve the health of Americans:\n\u2022 Using technology, $162 billion saved<\/span>
\n \u2022 Maintaining a healthy weight, $117 billion<\/span>
\n \u2022 Smoking cessation, $158 billion<\/span>
\n \u2022 Increasing adherence (compliance) with medication regimes, $177 billion<\/span>
\n \u2022 Achieving outcomes with drug therapy, $200 billion<\/span>
\n \u2022 Eliminating\/controlling chronic disease, $1.7 trillion<\/span>
\nUnfortunately, the health care system helps health professionals make money on disease instead of on wellness and keeping people out of the hospital, Bootman said.
\n\u201cThis needs to change because these values (wellness and prevention) are not maximized,\u201d Bootman said. \u201cDrugs are inherently value-based technology.\u201d
\nHe told the audience that three buckets depicted on the screen representing biomedical research, health professions education and health care delivery value are all broken.
\nHe said it takes too long and it\u2019s very expensive to develop new drugs, 12 years is too long to prepare a family practice doctor and health care delivery has to reach more people and be more accessible, while outcomes, such as safety, prevention and promotion have to be improved.
\n\u201cIt makes no sense to train nurses over here, doctors over there and pharmacists over there and then throw them all together in the real world and say to them, \u2018Now get along\u2019.\u201d
\nHe also pointed out that when prescriptions are written, only 50 to 70 percent make it to the pharmacy, while only 48 to 66 percent actually come out of the pharmacy, and only 25 to 30 percent are taken properly. Bootman said only 15 to 20 percent are refilled as prescribed.
\nHe concluded his talk with a discussion of the effect of aging baby boomers\u2019 on health care.
\nThe total of Americans 65 years and older was about 40 million in 2010. That total will rise to 60 million in 2020 and 90 million by 2050.
\n\u201cCan we afford tens of millions living to age 80 and beyond?\u201d Bootman asked. \u201cCan we spend more years caring for our parents than we did for our children? There won\u2019t be enough practitioners to handle the amount of disease.\u201d
\nHe said the solution is empowering patients, so \u201cthey control their own information, their own genome.
\n\u201cHealth care must become more effective, safe, efficient, equitable, timely and patient-centered.\u201d
\nURI Photo by Nora Lewis.
\nMedia Contact:\u00a0Dave Lavallee<\/a>, 401-874-5862<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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