Delivering better outcomes for America's seniors

A discussion with Welltower CEO Tom DeRosa

The aging U.S. population is growing at its fastest rate in history. This large-scale demographic change brings with it new challenges — challenges that need innovative solutions.

In June, Tom DeRosa, CEO of Welltower and a MATTER board member, joined us at MATTER to share advice on how healthcare companies can deliver better care to the aging population in the United States. Tom discussed the importance of building sustainable ecosystems free of social isolation, with an emphasis on housing retail and technological advances, as a way to promote wellness.

Below are some of our key takeaways from Tom’s talk:

New challenges drive innovation.
“We’ve never lived in a society where the old people are outnumbering the young people. Where routinely people will live to 100. So, what’s exciting to me is, if we can align payers and providers, the government and companies like Welltower, I think we have a shot at navigating this population along a much more productive 40 years of life. I think that should be a gift, not a liability…It’s opening up the opportunity for innovation in healthcare services where historically there wasn’t much of a need.”

Collaboration as a solution.
“When you can create ecosystems where you take acute care, post-acute care, hospice and senior care, you can actually start to align people around the concept of keeping someone out of the acute care system. That will help us deliver better health outcomes at a much lower cost, which ultimately will free up capital to treat those who were unable to pay, who were outside the circle.”

Spreading wellness through technology.
“I think technology is going to help us in many ways including lowering the costs of delivering health and wellness services. And in the provision of care, we’ve seen very little use of technology. This [need] is what makes talking to people here at MATTER so exciting because this is an innovation hub. [Healthcare] is a sector where there wasn’t really much interest in innovation for decades but now there is this movement to value-based healthcare and the aging population is demanding innovation, demanding new ideas, and I’d like to think that Welltower and its platform can help evaluate and actualize innovation at scale. It’s a very interesting time to be in this space.”

On dementia.
“We still don’t know why some people get it and why some people don’t. We are dealing with a mystery, so in the meantime having settings that are designed to keep this population safe and maintaining their social determinants of health is our best shot at managing someone who had this terrible disease…There’s a need for technology to help keep people in environments where they’re safe, where you can use and understand different methods to quieting an unquiet mind and settle people down. ”