Futurist Urges New Community Goals Consultant Says Focus Should Be On Health, ‘Sages,’ Computers

The futurist who put Spokane’s hospitals on the road to collaboration four years ago told medical professionals and business leaders Wednesday to erase lines between agencies and work together.

Leland Kaiser, a leader in the national movement toward healthy communities, said Spokane is making progress.

“I think you still have a long ways to go,” Kaiser said. “That’s why we’re talking.”

With combed-back white hair and a voice that bordered on evangelical, Kaiser challenged the 170 people in the audience to open their minds to new ways of thinking.

Kaiser, a 60-year-old health consultant and university assistant professor based in Brighton, Colo., wants health care to focus on health rather than disease.

He urges hospitals to work with law enforcement, and with business and community leaders, to create healthy communities.

A healthy community translates into a safe and profitable community, Kaiser said.

Spokane hospitals have collaborated on everything from helicopter ambulance services to information systems. Deaconess Medical Center and Sacred Heart Medical Center are trading trauma cases weekly.

Agencies, businesses and hospitals have formed the Health Improvement Partnership, or HIP, to advance community health and identify community “discoveries” deserving recognition. HIP presented Kaiser’s speech Wednesday.

Kaiser told his audience that it’s time to face new challenges, giving the audience four projects to consider.

Hospitals and businesses should pour at least $8 million into a foundation, he said, generating enough interest revenue to fuel programs and health discoveries that improve the community.

“I am a capitalist,” Kaiser said. “What disturbs me is there’s a moral element missing right now in capitalism.”

Spokane also should establish a “saging center” to work with the elderly, teaching them to be sages, retraining them and using their knowledge, Kaiser said.

Community agencies also should devote 10 percent of their budgets to a mix-and-match pot for community health programs. “Most problems are bigger than one agency,” Kaiser said.

And he said Spokane should become a fully wired community, with an intranet of computers networking people so they can meet and find information.

Other cities pursuing the same healthy community road that Kaiser preaches include Houston, Oklahoma City and South Bend, Ind.

Celebration City, Fla., a new city being created from the ground up by Disney and community partners, is a model for a totally connected community, Kaiser said. There are fiber optics wired into every home and business.

, DataTimes