Leading Disruption in Healthcare 2023

According to what I've heard, adding a picture to your LinkedIn post elevates your status in the algorithm's scrolling order. Now that I've captured your attention with those adorable animals, below is something additional that should be of interest to you if you are a student of healthcare.

The proportion of Americans who put off getting medical care increased to 38% in 2022. (the highest rate in 22 years). Check out the specifics of this Gallup poll at lnkd.in/gSiDPp7v.

Another 20,000 surgeries are delayed just in Ottawa due to COVID in 2021.?

https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/more-than-20-000-patients-in-ottawa-region-waiting-for-surgeries-as-hospitals-deal-with-covid-backlog-1.5465534

This is hardly a surprise to healthcare executives, who in a recent PWC study identified "confronting affordability and disrupting cost" as the most important problem to solve in 2023: https://lnkd.in/gYP83_Uy

TeleMedicine still tops Q4 digital health investments, and there is certainly a change happening (see below), especially in mental health delivery.          

When does a problem become more than just a talking point and start to actually spur change? Let's not wait until this reaches a critical point before we take significant steps forward. In order to invest in capturing their share of the same healthcare dollar and discover our optimal position to accomplish health success for people, let's stop playing the game of "chicken" with payers, providers, and big tech. We've lost our way if delaying care results in people becoming sicker, right?

The passage that follows is taken from a position paper I prepared in September 2019—3.5 years later, I'm still working to contribute to something that is superior to what we currently have. When will the tide turn?

Imagine living in a society where everyone knows and talks about how much medical treatments cost. In a free market economy, cost would no longer be a major factor in the determination of need (an axiom that is true for nearly every other consumer-driven industry as well as the healthcare industry in nearly all of the 32 countries in the OECD). As a healthcare system, we might focus on things like market research, educating customers, and forming partnerships with the community in order to meet the real needs of social and public health gaps and make sure they are met. In order to create products and services that offer value, our understanding of the outcomes, comfort, and overall health of the whole person would need to be improved. Functions that have been set up to compete with each other instead of working together for the good of the patient would now form new, helpful partnerships.

Here are some results from a recent PWC study and focus areas for digital health in 2023.

In Conclusion

We would focus on the top priorities of the patient and consumer, which are being involved in their health and wellness, lowering their risk of disease by better managing their health, avoiding the financial tragedy of bankruptcy, and not delaying critical care because they can afford it.