The former director of Scotland’s National Health Services said the U.S. health care system would benefit from further integration.

Derek Feeley, speaking at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s national forum on quality improvement, said the U.S. should blur the lines between health care and social services.

Feeley imported the U.S. model for patient safety.

“We’ve done a big national patient safety program which came out of people from Scotland coming to this event here in Orlando, learning what IHI was doing on patient safety, and we took it back to Scotland,” says Feeley.

“I think innovation works in both ways.”

5,500 doctors, nurses, health care CEOs and patients are expected at the conference.

Feeley is one of the keynote speakers at the conference.