Is your health worth a Billion?
Jason Allan Scott
Investing in & building 7-figure 1-person businesses | Sold companies on 3 continents | 2x Forbes featured | NeverBeABoss/NeverHaveABoss | Founder, Speaker
Where I am from we say.
He who has health has hope and he who has hope has everything.
And here in the UK, Sir Winston Churchill is quoted to have said,
“Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.”
And anyone who knows me, hears me say
“To get rich, never risk your health. For it is the truth that health is the wealth of wealth.”
So when I saw this essay by George Mac I was stopped in my tracks.
The truth is I see people all the time with all the money in the world, offer so much of it away to just get the pain to stop.
Tooth pain, throat pain, body pain, etc.
What use is money, if it can only solve money problems?
Can Ai stop me from aging sick, as opposed to aging healthy?
In 2019, only eight percent of Americans had used telehealth.
Now, more than two-thirds of us have had a telemedicine visit.
As we look back on the pandemic, you might wonder:
Was telehealth just a band-aid fix?
Can my doctor manage my health long-term over a computer screen?
The forced transition to telemedicine revealed a completely new era in healthcare.
It's present in every aspect - from primary care to critical care, chronic disease management, and mental health.
Even startups specialize in niche areas like diabetes monitoring and LGBTQ health.
But what truly excites me is how telemedicine improves human connection - the root of healing.
This combination of in-person and virtual care, called digitally enabled care, will transform our healthcare experience in the future.
I would like to tell you about a revolutionary doctor from the past. Dr. Laennec was used to assess patients with a history and physical exam.
But one day, he discovered something interesting. When it came time to listen as part of the exam, he took a step back instead of getting up close.
He found a way to hear more clearly what was going on inside a patient's body by doing something revolutionary - not touching the patient.
Dr. Laennec wasn't doing telemedicine or hundreds of miles away. He was only a few feet from the patient when he discovered the value of the stethoscope in 1816.
Before this, doctors put their ears directly on a patient's chest to listen to their heart or lungs.
This exam could be invasive, even scandalous.
By taking the contrary idea not to directly touch the patient, the stethoscope allowed for more comfort, clearer listening, and even prevented the exchange of germs.
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Sound familiar to telemedicine?
Look at the stethoscope now - it's the very symbol of good medicine.
Similarly, telemedicine is pushing us to listen more intently to our patients.
With telemedicine, we have expanding technology for remote diagnostics, from phone attachments that can diagnose ear infections to watches tracking our heart rates. We save time and money by cutting out travel and waiting room time.
Studies show that for conditions like high blood pressure, telemedicine can lead to better control and cost savings.
Most importantly, telemedicine forces doctors to focus on listening and communication.
Without relying on the physical exam, we must listen more carefully to get our information. This focus on communication has been shown to improve patient outcomes, satisfaction, and even decrease physician burnout.
Lets talk about money and time, as we started this with how much is your time on earth worth and how much would you pay to not have pain in your life or to live longer, and healthier?
A close friend of mine had a baby recently, she used telecare for the majority of her pregnancy visits.
She also tells me that one day her doctor was over 2 hours late for their appointment.
But it didn't bother her as she was home, watching Peppa Pig and Bluey.
She had not needed to drive through traffic, figure out parking, and sit in the waiting room.
She didn't need to organize baby care for her other kids at home either.
Data shows that the average person spends 121 minutes in a healthcare visit and
only 20 minutes are spent with the doctor!
20 minutes are spent with the doctor, this is insane. Forget Work from Home, why are we not talking Health from Home?
Ultimately, telecare is a tool to improve your health - a modern house call focused on the patient's story.
With digitally enabled care, we can get better data, achieve better health outcomes, and most importantly, tap into the human connection in ways we never could in a traditional clinic.
When it comes to our health, don't forget about the distinct advantage of being able to open up more personally and create a better human connection with, ironically, a virtual screen.
Just as the stethoscope revolutionized medicine in the 19th century, telemedicine is set to do the same in the 21st.
The overall message is that telemedicine, when combined with in-person care (digitally enabled care), has the potential to enhance the doctor-patient relationship and improve healthcare outcomes.
I know this newsletter is about the entrepreneurs' advantage, but there is no bigger advantage you can have, than good health.
So I wanted to ask you, what is your health worth to you?
"Happiness is the new rich. Inner peace is the new success. Health is wealth."