Major obstacles must be overcome before crucial advances such as nationwide electronic medical records or gene-targeted drugs are available to most Americans, according to health communications professor Gary Kreps. So many of us are frustrated with the deficiencies of our health-care system that sooner or later, we’ll force a "modern revolution" from the bottom up, he predicts. Once the dust settles, a new health-care model will emerge with an increased focus on prevention and early detection of disease. But Kreps foresees other changes, too, including "a shift from a provider to a consumer revolution" that mandates much more home-based care, customer-friendly doctor’s offices and clinics, and a stronger emphasis on eliminating pain and discomfort.

When Thomas Donohue scans the American health-care landscape, he sees an opportunity. Despite the critics, regardless of the estimated 45 million in the nation without health-care coverage, no matter the annual double-digit cost increases, Donohue believes that — with hard work and some common business sense — a broad-based coalition can put health care on the path to positive change. We should no longer spend time worrying about what government is going to do about health care, says Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in a recent address before the Transforming American Healthcare National Symposium sponsored by the W. P. Carey School of Business. “It is time for us to decide that there are lots of things we can do as institutions, as businesses, as universities, as communities, that will improve the system.”