The newly minted CEO of a highly anticipated healthcare venture has said he views his appointment as an opportunity to implement ideas he has been championing for years.

Atul Gawande, who will lead the venture being established by Berkshire Hathaway Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Amazon.com Inc., told a conference that he will be able to put into practice his visions of integrating digital tools in healthcare while still maintaining traditional approaches. The three companies revealed the technology-focused project in January, seeking to lower costs for more than 1 million U.S. employees and their beneficiaries.

Speaking at an America's Health Insurance Plans conference in San Diego, Gawande confirmed that the venture would be nonprofit but offered few details on the company's prospective strategy or operations. He acknowledged that his already-scheduled presentation would "take on some greater significance" in light of his appointment, saying many of the issues he has been discussing for years "could get to matter."

The surgeon-turned-author, researcher and Harvard professor outlined his vision for a healthcare system that he said should slot as seamlessly into people's lives as driving. He observed that millions of people a day are able to drive at high speeds within a few feet of each other, despite minimal training and sparse policing, because the system is broadly efficient and adequate.

Transforming healthcare, Gawande said, should be about "ultimately making the right care the easy thing to do." The key finding in his research about healthcare complexity trends is that high costs are not the core issue: "That's the symptom, it's inadequate systems."

Diane Meier, a palliative care physician and founder and director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care, described in a separate session the story of a patient who was repeatedly directed to call 911. The patient, in his 80s, was in need of simple, cheaper care, but was put through a redundant system that regarded every medical need as an emergency.

She described Gawande's vision as one of a system that identifies a patient's need in a seemingly obvious way: by asking him and then coordinating care around those needs.

"Strengthen your care management for these very complex patients," Meier told a group of health insurance and other healthcare professionals, "by training them to have a conversation that Atul described: By asking people what is most important to them and then design a care plan to help them achieve it."