Golden Age of Healthcare Innovation
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 at 10:59AM On the day when President Obama is getting ready to have a primetime news conference that will likely feature healthcare reform efforts in Congress, it is difficult to divine the final form that reform legislation will take. It is easy to get mired in the politics of reform and overlook that the healthcare industry is at the beginning of what may be an extended period of innovation.
Many people are familiar with the type of innovation that emerges from a known need, economic or societal, that spurs innovation. A good example of this is the biotech industry that devotes billions of dollars a year on developing drugs and devices to solve health-related issues. Last quarter alone, the biotech industry got $1.5 billion of venture capital, the most of any sector and the highest percentage of venture investment ever.
The explosion of Internet websites and applications, social networking in particular, set the stage for broad changes in the way consumers seek health information and interact with others who share their condition. A recent Pew Research Center study found that 61% of Americans adults go online to seek health information. With the average doctor visit lasting 8 minutes, it is no wonder that adults go online to find out more information, whether it is for their own consumption or for a loved one. Sadly, the shortage of primary care physicians ensures that this impersonal relationship with doctors will not improve any time soon. As long as these conditions remain, the opportunity for consumer-facing innovations in the healthcare industry in the fields of health social networking and telemedicine will remain.
A lesser understood driver of innovation is legislation and regulation. It is safe to say that the development and adoption of coal plant "scrubbers" would probably not have occurred at the pace that it did without the involvement of government. The same type of innovation is now occurring with electronic medical records. Studies indicate that EMR adoption increases productivity and lowers medical errors. While challenges to EMR adoption are daunting, the government mandate for adoption provides vendors a guaranteed market. This market helps eliminate uncertainty and this type of uncertainty is the enemy of the entrepreneur.
There are numerous forces aligned both for and against healthcare reform. It is likely that some form of reform will be passed. The sooner market participants understand the rules of the game the better.
Reader Comments (2)
I couldn't have said better. You explain where I am on the issues...wait and see.
Yes, to health care innovation that will improve quality, access and affordability to medical and preventive care. In a sentinel study “REDEFINING HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA: QUANTIFYING UNIVERSAL ACCESS AND A SINGLE-PAYER FINANCIAL SYSTEM” (Sizemore, R., C., 2008) analyzed, measured, and contrasted the advantages and disadvantages of unrestricted access to a single, simplified-payer financial system. The U.S. has one of the best health-care systems in the world, while 61,000,000 residents live without affordable access to health and preventive care, they lack medical insurance or have insufficient insurance coverage. The complexity is a conglomerate of health insurance programs with thousands of plans, modifications, exclusions, limitations and escalating costs. Access to a simplified financial system are compared and contrasted with health-care systems that economically compete with the U. S., (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom). These industrialized nation report reduced infant mortality rates during the first year of life, increased life expectancy at age 65 and reductions in total health-care expenditures as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) when measured against the U.S. Barlett & Steele, (2004), reported the need to for a fresh approach, a new organization that is independent and free from politics. A Federal Reserve-like system assuring unrestricted access to health and preventive care, strict cost controls, addressing geographic variations, and curtailing over-diagnosis and over-treatment practices (Barlett, D. L., & Steele, J. B. (2004). Critical condition: How health care in America became big business-and bad medicine. New York: Doubleday, p. 239). The merits to unrestricted access and a simplified financial system need to be studied, analyzed, and efficiently and effectively adapted within the U.S. There are viable opportunities to set up a free enterprise medical system with access to affordable health and PREVENTIVE CARE for all U.S. citizenry!