The keynote speaker will be Dr. Mitch Morris, Executive Vice President, OptumInsight and leader of Optum Advisory Services, the prominent professional services arm of Optum serving payers, providers and life sciences companies. Healthcare thought leader Dr. Morris will share some of the latest Advisory Board research results as well as his views on the current and future landscape informed by his experience and background in US and global health economics and strategy. As the debate on healthcare continues to gather steam in Washington and the media it can be difficult to sort reality from the hype. Dr. Morris will provide his insights into industry direction and challenges and cover current status vertical integration and physician partnership models, managed care and payer contracting, horizontal integration and system economics of scale, and quality-based payment models.

Dr. Morris has more than 30 years of health care experience in consulting, health care administration, technology, and clinical care. Prior to joining Optum, Dr. Morris was Vice Chairman and Global Leader for the Life Sciences and Healthcare Industry at Deloitte. Dr. Morris also served as Senior Vice President for Healthcare Systems and Chief Information Officer at MD Anderson Cancer Center where he was also Professor in Surgery and in Health Services Research. At the University of Texas, Houston, he was Professor of Biomedical Informatics (adjunct) and now serves on their advisory board. During his academic career, he received international recognition as a leading clinician, researcher, and educator. Dr. Morris’s career focus has been on health systems, academic organizations, and government agencies, assisting them with the development and implementation of strategies around health reform, growth, technology, and innovation. He has published extensively and is a frequent speaker on healthcare reform, technology, and policy at the national level.