The future of healthcare has industry as partner
Lode Dewulf
Chair and Board Member (IDP-C). Entrepreneur, Advisor, Coach and Consultant. Moderator and Motivational Speaker. English, French, German, Dutch..
The historical divide between those who deliver and pay for care on the one hand and those who develop the solutions that are being used on the other hand is understandable. Conflict of (financial) interest has been the main reason to create, maintain and even increase this divide, in spite of its negative aspects. I am a firm believer of the fact that this divide has no place in the future of healthcare. Every stakeholder who can contribute to bringing more value to people living with a health challenge will be needed. And that includes industry as a collaborative partner at the table.
Why do I feel so sure? Let me give you the main reasons I see:
Firstly, the financial conflict of interest is no longer limited to industry. Every physician now feels the pressure to maintain and increase revenues, as does every hospital and every payer. That means at times what is “best” for the patient is simply not financially rewarding or even feasible. The US healthcare system has been overly described as “a business driven by money”, not care. So no reason any more to single out industry because of “financial conflict”. The realities of the economics of our health are now shared by all of us.
Secondly, of all the stakeholders it is industry (and to be clear, that is not just pharma) actually has the strongest track record of innovation, and boy do we need innovation in healthcare! There is no denying that a lot of the medical progress, and public health, in the last decades has been driven by the contributions of industry, be they medicines, devices or other technologies. With a few notable exceptions, the bulk of the scientific explosion that is currently happening in both the biological/genetic and the technological/digital fields also comes from industry, more than academia or medical practitioners. Traditionally, the chemical/pharmaceutical industry was the only one providing solutions used in healthcare, but today this is no longer the case. All the diagnostic tools that are used, from ?a ?needle to ?a ?PET scan to a health App on your phone, are also developed by industry. Indeed, we now see the non-pharma and especially the digital industry having a huge impact, be it through data capture and transfer or social media that empower all stakeholders in the health ecosystem. Last but not least, two very large industries (foods and leisure) are increasingly moving into the health (and sickness) space. When developing new solutions for the healthcare system, industry today is no longer a distant producer that remains at arm’s length; rather, increasingly industry will be part of the actual processes in healthcare, to understand them, to (em)power them and to make them effective. Thus, the second reason to involve industry in redesigning healthcare for the 21st century is that they are de facto already there and cannot be ignored as an innovative partner.
Thirdly, industry is the only healthcare stakeholder with a proven business model, defined as being both sustainable and scalable. And these are exactly two of the fundamental challenges that the public health system continues to struggle with. Both academic and health care provision models have in essence not changed over the last decade, and both often depend on external funding (often through our taxes) to merely survive.
Last but not least, there is a lot of competency and experience in industry when it comes to communicating with the public and/or driving behavioral change. Indeed, in the fear itself for industry lies hidden an awe and fear of its efficiency to steer outcomes. Any new solution will need these qualities.
Thus, industry brings a lot to the table that we need to design the better healthcare of our future. Like my company, I cannot wait to be part of that revolution.
Please share your comments and thoughts.
UCB: Our purpose
Everything we do starts with one simple question: “How can we create more value for people living with severe diseases?" Learn more
Sales Director Iberia en STERIS Corporation
8 年Totally agree. ..
Dear Lode, thank you sharing your thoughts. How would you define innovation? What stands behind this word? Thank you.
MBA, MSC, MA, FRSA ? Access & Policy Research at J&J
8 年Lode, do you by industry mostly mean drug manufacturers? If so, I would argue that the business model is anything but sustainable , and the change over the past decade in drug development on a process level has been far from desirable while healthcare delivery has fundamentally changed if you only think of tun adoption of electronic health records. Now innovation is the reason d'etre of life sciences on a product level, but other players in healthcare have certainly developed profitable ventures. Certainly provocative is your point that the industry has developed a competent way to talk to the consumer but we are seeing way too little evidence of that to date. I think the fundamental question is whether you want a collaborative model where everyone does what they do best , or one where pharma accepts the challenge and anapologetically takes on some of the shortcomings in healthcare delivery through its own services and solutions. It certainly has thr scsle and know-how . More pointedly put, is a division of roles in healthcare still in the best interest of the patient?
Senior Pharma Executive & Physician- R&D, Medical & Regulatory Affairs.
8 年Hi Lode, both pharma and medical device/IT companies have indeed driven most of the innovation in healthcare. However they have a different view on the future of healthcare. The smarter medical device/HIT companies start to realize that they should focus on making healthcare not only better but also more efficient, thereby decreasing cost, or at least not increasing it. Some of them start to talk about creating partnerships with payers in order to create a better and/or more affordable healthcare. Earlier diagnosis, healthcare IT networks, remote and home healthcare are some of their focuses of attention. Pharma is still very much focused on just providing better (and often very expensive) treatments but at the same time we see more and more EU governments getting worried about the cost sustainability of giving every patient access to every potential treatment. I think we should learn from our colleagues in med device and also start that dialogue with the payers.