Solutions to health care delivery problems cannot be found without collaboration among every sector involved in health care delivery, said Cornell President David Skorton in opening the Industrial Labor Relations School's health care reform conference May 11 at the Italian Academy in New York City.

More than 200 health care practitioners, researchers, frontline workers, labor leaders and policymakers from around the world convened for the two-day conference, "A Time for Change: Restructuring America's Healthcare Delivery System," to explore the future of health care delivery.

"I do think it's a very important time for ILR and Cornell to step up," Skorton said. "The world of work is superimposable on health care. ILR is very well suited to ask the questions, to listen to others ... to develop and test hypotheses and move forward" as the nation grapples with improving the ways health care is delivered.

Successful reform demands listening to each other and to workers in the midst of delivering care, he said. "It's very important to listen to frontline workers ... they have the knowledge, experience and chance to be responsive" to patients.

As a land-grant university, Cornell is ideally suited to facilitate health care reform by blending academic research and day-to-day applicability, Skorton said.

Sessions on patient safety, electronic medical records, the role of unions in improving patient care and other issues were also held at the conference, co-sponsored by Cornell's Clinical and Translational Science Center, the Business and Labor Coalition of New York, Cornell University Cooperative Extension New York City and Weill Cornell Medical College. Funders included ILR's Pierce Memorial Fund and Cornell University's Institute for the Social Sciences.

Mary Catt is the ILR School's staff writer.