Reed Tuckson, M.D. Senior Vice President for Consumer Health and Medical Care Advancement UnitedHealth Group

Last year, Reed Tuckson, M.D., joined UnitedHealth Group (UHG) as senior vice president for consumer health and medical care advancement. Dr. Tuckson brings to his new position an impressive, diverse background, including stints as the American Medical Association's senior vice president of professional standards and president of the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science.

Dr. Tuckson talked to the AAMC Reporter about how his AMA and academic medicine experiences will influence him in his current role at UnitedHealth Group and how an integrated delivery system can improve the nation's health care.

Q: What attracted you to the payer side of health care?

A: It became clear to me that the problems in health care today revolve around fragmentation, lack of coordinated care, and lack of information to allow better decision-making by physicians, patients, and health policy leaders. I felt it was time to move from the periphery into a company that is actually taking a leadership position in solving today's health problems. We address these problems in a manner consistent with the values and principles that I have grown to admire in the medical profession.

Q: How do you think your experience - in academia and at the AMA - is helping you now?

A: The values of physician professionalism are at the core of who I am, and these values have been enhanced through teaching medical students, interacting with faculty, and my exposure to AMA members. We have a noble tradition in this profession. Physicians have ethics and a code of behavior that is fundamentally based on the reality that medicine is a science-based profession requiring continual replenishment of knowledge and commitment to meet standards that are set by the profession itself. I believe in the values of this professionalism to my core. It is not only noble, but it is appropriate as a guide and model as we try to fashion physician participation in the health care experience of the future.

Q: How do you think health in the United States can be furthered through the managed care system?

A: UHG's size, scale, and access to information and resources give it the ability to make sophisticated health care available to people at affordable rates. Equally important is its ability to support physicians and other health care professionals in making the best use of information and resources in order to make the best possible clinical decisions. Key to improving health is our support of physicians in providing the quality of care that they want to provide, that they have been trained to provide, and that they aspire to provide.

The bar we set for ourselves is very high. We have reason to be very proud of what this company has accomplished, and we have every reason to expect that we will accomplish a great deal more in the short term. Programs that coordinate care, the elimination of preauthorizations, and many other innovations across the company position us to continue to be an industry leader.Physicians provide medical care. Our goal is to support physicians in making the best possible decisions. We want to continue to make it as easy as possible for them to do their work.

Q: What are your greatest professional challenges in your position?

A: One is to continue to advance the existing culture of commitment to quality, innovation, and putting both the patient-physician relationship and the comprehensive needs of patients at the center of the health care experience.

Another big challenge is to use everything that I have been taught, every experience that I have had in almost every sector of medical care to help advance and add value to the direction already established here. I hope to continue to find ways of helping our company support physicians, so that they can concentrate their energy on the practice of medicine without undue administrative burdens. I feel this company aspires to let doctors provide the best possible care they can, to facilitate their continuing professional development, and to eliminate the administrative distractions that too many physicians suffer through today.

Q: Public, provider, and academic perceptions of managed care are often negative. What can managed care organizations do to combat these images?

A: The proof is in the pudding. UHG doesn't subject physicians to preauthorization reviews and other onerous burdens. We will continue to work through our care coordination programs, help to be a partner for physicians, and assist them in providing a comprehensive array of services that chronically ill patients require, respect, and deserve. We have to continue to do our part to eliminate administrative distractions, and we have to work with physicians to create a climate that leads to even greater improvements in patient care.

Q: How can academic medicine and managed care better collaborate?

A: I appreciate and respect the role of my academic colleagues as they develop new clinically relevant knowledge. This company has the resources and opportunities to be a good partner, to help ensure that new knowledge is appropriately translated into clinical practice, and to improve the quality of medical care.

Specifically, we can collaborate in the areas of quality and physician performance measurement. The profession needs to continue to step up to the plate and define reasonable expectations, milestones, and other measures that can help physicians understand how they are performing in comparison to the best clinical evidence and medical practice.

In addition, academic medicine has a great opportunity to enhance its leadership role in the continuing professional development of the physician in an increasingly complex environment. The academic community can work with managed care organizations to lead the integration of new learning methodologies with new scientific accountability for continuing professional development.

As a former president of an aca-demic medical center, I decided to come to UHG, in large measure, because of its commitment to work with physicians to successfully accomplish these goals and advance clinical practice.