How to overcome the barriers to Global Physician Entrepreneurship

Health systems all over the world, not just in the US, are under stress. They all have to address quality, costs and access with limited resources. There are many disparities both within countries and across countries. Here's an example from South Korea.

Here is why global digital transformation of sickcare is so hard.

Every nation's economic progress is significantly influenced by entrepreneurship. Since women comprise more than half of the population in Sri Lanka, yet only 35 percent of them actively participate in the economy, female entrepreneurship is crucial for the country (Department of Census and Statistics, 2007).

Physician Innovation and entrepreneurship has the potential to fix some of these things, but there are significant barriers:

1. Cultures, political and economic?systems and differing approaches to sick care and health.?

2. Varying definitions of physician entrepreneurship. To some, it means creating companies. To others, it?means running a private practice. My definition is the pursuit of opportunity under volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) conditions with the goal of creating stakeholder defined value through the deployment of innovation using a VAST business model to achieve the sextuple aims.

3. Fear of political leadership to unleash forces beyond their control combined with graft, greed, and corruption in response to international macroeconomic cycles affecting resources, e.g. the global drop in oil prices threatening petro-economies heavily dependent on oil revenues as well as global exchange risk.

4. Varying entrepreneurial ecosystems and access to capital

5 Most doctors around the world don't have an entrepreneurial mindset

6. Differing medical education systems that frequently are not interoperable and resistant to change

7. Fear of physician entrepreneurs.

8. Shifting political winds and geopolitical risk, like he most recent movement from left wing to right wing election wins in Latin America

9.?The emergence of Africa and other developing countries

10. The aging global population, declining birth rates and technology stressing the systems

11. Stereotypes that are wrong about people from other countries that preclude trust and international cooperation.

12. Conflicting business practices and cultures and difficulties doing business in a particular country.

13. Geopolitical resistance to cooperate

14. Immigration policy

15. Policies and procedures that prevent doctors from working with industry

Free market capitalism is coming under attack and markets, particularly in finance, are failing. What's more, attitudes about entrepreneurship differ around the world

Each of these problems represents an opportunity for biomedical and clinical entrepreneurs. Look outside of?your borders for opportunity, research collaborations, sales and distribution channels, supply chains, money, technology, and talent.?

Whether to pursue an international partnership means you have to answer two critical questions: Are the potential benefits of this deal worth the risks? And are the potential risks manageable?

For example, the global market for prescription drugs will grow from $950 billion now to $1.2 trillion in 2016 according to a report from the IMS Institute.?Generics, expiring patents and local sales and distribution , though, are a threat to Big Pharma.

Emerging markets in?Brazil, India, Russia, Argentina, Egypt, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Venezuela, and Vietnam are not just hungering for drugs, but for devices, digital health products and services and innovative care delivery models to address the global issues of aging, dropping birth rates, infectious disease outbreaks and the budget pressures resulting from the increasing prevalence of?Western- life style chronic diseases. All of those challenges will be impacted by the global macroeconomy and that the world might be slowing.?A recent analysis indicates automation, commodities price stagnation, and the lack of economic diversification in BRICS countries are causing potential problems and opportunities.?Targeting unmet needs mean rethinking your customer profile, your value proposition and your business model.

Social media has become a platform for illegal or counterfeit drug use and has created a black-market distribution network, particularly for prescription opioids and marijuana.

Finally, international bioentrepreneurs must understand and comply with diverse international standards and agencies that oversee intellectual property, payment and drug and device safety and efficacy. National open innovation open science should be a priority, focusing on four areas:

1. The public sector, by providing a regulatory framework that supports and incentivizes open knowledge and cooperation
2. The financial sector, by ensuring that innovation-friendly funding is available
3. Innovative businesses, by reducing market fragmentation throughout Europe to help companies commercialize their work
4. Academia, by supporting the development of co-creation capabilities and the ease with which research finds its way into business

• The opportunities for global bioentrepreneurship are big and need to focus on Infrastructure
• Human capital and research
• Institutions
• Market sophistication
• Business sophistication
• Knowledge and technology outputs
• Creative outputs

Educators and administrators need to understand the importance of international business in the design of bioentrepreneurship education programs.

International physician entrepreneurship will not mean the same thing to all doctors. However, the common thread is to create multi-user defined value through the development and deployment of innovation while navigating?the treacherous innovation waters in each country.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs on Substack