Forbes.com recently tapped IMS Chairman and CEO Dave Carlucci to offer his perspectives on how best to solve the healthcare dilemma. Carlucci is just one of the commentators featured, saying that one way to assure quality, affordable healthcare is greater access to healthcare information.

The September article is part of Forbes.com’s periodic series called Solutions, in which the editors ask key players from government, business, academia, and the think tank world to provide their recommendations on major public policy issues.  Fellow contributors include former House Speaker and founder of the Center for Health Transformation Newt Gingrich, who advocates new payment systems making all healthcare “paperless;” Princeton Prof. Uwe Reinhardt, who says it’s time to spend money on an information infrastructure to address cost and quality issues, and Schering Plough CEO Fred Hassan, who believes that a top priority is protection of intellectual property when it comes to pharmaceuticals.

In his essay, Carlucci says that an aging population, combined with breakthroughs in medical technology that enable people to live longer, are placing demands on the system as never before. Public and private sector stakeholders must therefore come together and better leverage the healthcare information already in their possession.

“There is an abundance of information available that can help create a unified approach to improving the treatment of patients, measuring the quality of care and better managing costs,” he says. “The challenge is becoming smarter about putting that information to use.”

Better understanding of treatment patterns and agreed metrics of patient outcomes, he says, can help avoid widespread variability of patient care, which costs billions of dollars every year and puts patient safety at risk.

"The more we know about which treatments are truly efficient for which people,” he writes, “the closer we get to ensuring good health for everyone. The time is now for private companies to set aside their competitive interests and join with the public sector to serve the interests of patients."

To read the full text of Carlucci’s piece, click here. To read about what other contributors had to say, click here.