The push to reform the U.S. health-care system has picked up steam again. Over the course of the coming months, an intense political debate is likely to ensue, and, in the end, we hopefully will emerge with an improved system that is comprehensive and high quality.

But in the sea of facts, figures, evidence and anecdotes that will be presented as the final product is hashed out among differing constituencies, we would be well-served to borrow a few guiding principles from an unlikely source: Operation Safety Net, a health-outreach program for the homeless, right here in Pittsburgh.

I recently spent a few days with the organization's founder, Dr. James Withers, and participated in the group's nightly "street rounds," during which teams of physicians and other volunteers walk the city streets to deliver hands-on medical care and supplies to the homeless. There I saw firsthand how the organization does what our national health-care reform aspires to accomplish: meet the needs of a population for whom the existing system is inadequate with strategically and effectively delivered health care.

To do this, Operation Safety Net starts with the principle that health care be patient-centered. Our current system is fragmented, with patients being shuffled through an array of networks, payers and providers. Patient-centered care serves to coordinate and integrate these varied domains of medicine. The concept is akin to "the medical home," a system advocated by several physician organizations in which primary-care physicians serve the care-coordination role.

During my visit, I saw this model in action as Dr. Withers and his team intently monitored the well-being of their patients -- who can be elusive at times -- and facilitated their use of important services.

One of the patients we encountered during street rounds, a man in his early 40s who had a sore back, hadn't been seen by Operation Safety Net workers in a few months. Even more important than the ibuprofen Dr. Withers provided for the back pain were the questions he asked about where the man was now living and what had happened to him in the interim. Our health-care system redesign should reflect this kind of commitment to patient-centered care.

Our system could also learn from Operation Safety Net's use of social networking to improve health. On my second night of street rounds, the weather forecast called for temperatures in the teens, which prompted the organization to open its severe weather shelter.

We spent much of the night telling the homeless men and women we encountered that the shelter would be open and -- as importantly -- implored them to spread the news to the other homeless we might not see that night. The effort was like a grass-roots, health-care version of Facebook.

Homelessness, because of its inherent social isolation, may be an extreme example of the power of peer networks to improve health. But recent research in other settings has revealed the importance of social connections in the development of disease and the delivery of medical treatment.

The clinic where I regularly practice offers "shared medical appointments" for patients with diabetes so that they receive the support of their peers in addition to education and treatment from providers. It would be a shift for our national health-care system to incorporate this approach, but one that could result in a sizeable improvement in our health.

At the core of Operation Safety Net's innovative ways of delivering health care is the group's commitment to the well-being of its patients.

At the end of my first night of street rounds, we stopped at a memorial wall dedicated to the homeless who died while living on the streets. Seeing dozens of plaques under a highway ramp at Grant Street, each with a name and the phrase, "We Remember," was sobering; but listening to Dr. Withers talk personally about each individual whose name he read from the wall was profound. He and his team build relationships with their patients based on compassion, respect and a fundamental dedication to their health.

Any future model of health care in the United States must likewise embody the humanistic values that are central to the practice of medicine. We could easily lose sight of this during a protracted debate over how best to reform our system. But we cannot let that happen. For this, and other guiding principles, we must learn our lesson from the street.