"Health Care: Society’s Greatest Challenge"

Alex Gorsky, chairman and chief executive officer of Johnson & Johnson, spoke at the September 11 meeting of Boston College’s Chief Executives Club about innovations and challenges in today’s health care industry. The industry’s strength, he told attendees, lies in its ability to “take science and translate's that into clinical outcomes that ultimately can be put in the physicians’ hands, the patients’ hands” to achieve tangible improvements. Although Gorsky expressed his excitement about breakthroughs in the industry, he cautioned that “innovation doesn’t cure everything.” To meet the rising global demand for health care, he prescribed “more coordination of care” and “care approaches that consider the total cost of health care.” Jeffrey Leiden, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, introduced Gorsky.