The Stephen K. Klasko Institute
for an Optimistic Future in Healthcare

Mission & Vision

Mission: To envision optimistic health care strategies for individuals, systems, clinicians and our society.

Vision: To become a leading incubator of ideas for change. To explore, develop and communicate this change using USF Health’s own programs and partners, modeling change for .
Stephen K. Klasko Institute for Healthcare Transformation
The institute will marshal the resources of opinion leaders in public health, medicine, nursing, pharmacy and personalized health toward the goal of creating, discussing and implementing the creative changes that will need to occur across healthcare disciplines to envision an economically viable and creative healthcare future.
The goals of the institute will be the following:
  1. To understand what aspects of medical education which have been underemphasized will be important for the future of health care in order to make students leaders as opposed to followers in healthcare transformation
  2. to understand the educational and selection mechanisms that have created biases which limit physicians and physician leaders from being successful in a changing healthcare environment
  3. to realize the power of creative and entrepreneurial thought in assisting health care leaders as they confront an ever changing environment
  4. to separate the myths from the realities concerning the skill sets necessary to succeed in a healthcare future based on quality, service and technology
  5. to import knowledge from leading industries in other areas that are applicable to a changing healthcare environment
Success of the institute will be predicated upon making Tampa Bay a hub for creative thought around:
Stephen K. Klasko Institute - Photo of Downtown Tampa
  • Redesigning and customizing care processes so that patient care is personalized and coordinated utilizing innovative IT approaches, customer service models and molecular genetics
  • Moving healthcare IT from an “electronic medical record” to an “electronic health record” where the patient has meaningful data with real “two way communication” with her providers
  • Developing an effective team approach with the appropriate payment incentives so that caregivers are incented to provide the right care for the right patient at the right time
  • Coordinating care across patient conditions, services and settings over time
  • Incorporating true performance and outcome measurements for improvements and accountability into a phased payment reform system which promotes health success
  • A fundamental change in the selection and education of physicians such that the physician of the future will have the necessary skill sets to work as a team member with other healthcare professionals, communicate effectively, make effective use of healthcare technology, incorporate best practice business principles into a healthcare mindset…and most importantly, accept and embrace transformational change
In order to achieve these goals, the institute will embrace the following values and principles in its educational, research and clinical activities:
1) Think TEAM:
The Institute will lead the nation in creating new models for research and learning teams. This includes new partnerships between patients and providers/researchers.
The new Morsani College of Medicine at USF will be among the first in the country to create a true partnership between health students and patients in the learning experience.

Bringing Science Home will be expanded and incorporated into the Institute in order to narrow the gap between bench and bedside with a direct link between cutting edge research in chronic diseases and the patient’s home
2) Think TIMING:
The Institute will investigate business best practices to utilize new technologies to provide the right care to the right patient at the right time.
PaperFree Florida, a grant funded information technology center, will expand its role in the institute to connect providers and patients with state of the art decision support models to promote optimal utilization

New educational approaches and degrees ranging from health care coaching to electronic healthcare ambassadors to nutritional and metabolic health will be offered across healthcare disciplines in order to disrupt the siloed mentality that prevents inter-professional learning and care and makes the patient a rue partner in their own healthcare
3) Think PERSONALIZED:
The Institute will be a leader in transforming healthcare to a model where prevention, diagnosis and treatment is customized to the individual. Because of the cross discipline nature of the institute and its entrepreneurial-academic framework, all aspects of personalized health can be incorporated including molecular, genetic, technology, behavioral, social and innovative service models.
The Personalized Heath Initiative will be devoted to the early identification of disease risk through genetics and the implementation of personalized prevention strategies and novel technologies to reduce health care costs and improve vitality for the aging population.

The Center for healthcare outcomes will move to the institute and expand their groundbreaking research on healthcare uncertainty
4) Think COMMUNITY:
Across all aspects of the Institute and its interactions with USF Health, an academic medical center’s role in improving the lives of the community will be imbued in our research, education and clinical activities.
The USF Health in The Villages Initiative will be the first University-full community partnership to provide an accountable care model and personalized health available to all residents with epidemiologic public health monitoring to ensure a healthier senior population.

A community and patient advisory board will guide the activities of the Institute. This advisory board will include representatives of the Tampa Bay, Florida, national and international communities toward the goal of maintaining the focus on community health
5) Think CREATIVE:
The Institute will begin with a premise first articulated by Buckminster Fuller that “you never change things by fighting the existing reality….to change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.”
The “history of the future” center within the institute will be a leader in creating, filtering and implementing visionary/crazy/innovative ideas about the future in healthcare and what can be done today to achieve those goals.
Stephen K. Klasko Institute - Art curator Megan Voeller