by Wendy Johnson

The CEO of a Cambridge, Mass.-based hospital recently wrote a great blog post about how his own health issues have impacted his views of healthcare reform.

"The true promise of health care reform is a transformation to a system that prevents disease more than it treats it," Dennis D. Keefe, CEO of Cambridge Health Alliance, writes for WBUR, a Boston-based National Public Radio affiliate. "There's plenty of money in the system, we just aren't spending it correctly, or aiming it at the programs that produce the best results."

Noting how the proactive steps he has taken to control his diabetes has resulted in fewer medications and trips to his doctor's office, he writes that while "it may seem strange for a hospital CEO to be envisioning declining patient volumes...that's the point. If we are to really succeed with reform that lowers costs as well as improves outcomes, physicians and other clinicians will have to become health educators and hospitals and clinics will be wellness centers."

You can read the rest on WBUR's website.