UNSTRUCTURED
Shakespeare famously wrote, “What is in a name?” What is healthcare fusion? Why is it important? Perhaps the ultimate goal for healthcare management is the delivery of effective patient-centered care in an equitable and timely manner. One essential tool to achieve this goal is an integrated and comprehensive pathway for healthcare data storage, analysis, and utilization. The potential exists for a real-time, cloud-based system that links physicians, hospitals, public health agencies, insurance and pharmaceutical companies, and most importantly, patients. The envisioned system provides a way to improve clinical quality management and deliver consistent and effective treatments. Indeed, massive integration of personalized health and large-scale epidemiological and molecular data, compounded with the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning, is underway. Here, we propose the healthcare fusion framework, which unifies the data and business sectors involved in healthcare delivery. This fusion aims to achieve culturally and demographically relevant outcomes in precision medicine and population health, in ways that appeal to stakeholders and investors. The proposed framework may prove highly relevant in informing governmental and private sector responses to infectious disease outbreaks, such as the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).