Great perspective and challenge for all to think about. We need to shift our approach to being 80% wellness/prevention of illness care and 20% illness care instead of the opposite that it is today, and until we are able to do that effectively as an entire ecosystem we will never regain that trust. I think the other issue is that healthcare is still focused on illness care instead of wellness care and people are looking to take wellness into their own hands instead of waiting for something to happen. Unfortunately, this became significantly worse with the poor communication that happened during Covid so that trust in healthcare is at an all time low. Some of it is due to some very unethical things that have happened in the past (Tuskegee experiments and the like) And some of it is, I believe, just the ethos of beingĪmerican and our strong sense of individualism. Some of it is because of the challenges patients (and clinicians) have dealing with insurance providers who have a reputation of putting profits above the needs of the patients (and quality). Part of the issue is that (here in the US more than in other countries) the public has a very low level of trust in the healthcare ecosystem. #medicine #healthcare #innovation #healthcareinnovation #consumerism #health Others are lining up to step into that void. We're still the most well-equipped and qualified to deliver value, but we're not doing a good enough job convincing patients. In my mind, the rise of this version of consumerism means that those of us in traditional healthcare are failing in our mission. It starts with trust, and trust is gained through engagement and relationship building. Add in a great experience and watch value and consumerism come together. Patients would gravitate towards the highest quality, most clinically appropriate treatment that provides superior outcomes at a reasonable cost. In an ideal world, value and consumerism in healthcare would be synergistic, not antagonistic. They're willing to seek answers elsewhere. Patients are frustrated and fed up with poor experiences, inconsistent quality, and lack of engagement. (Unfortunately, there's also grift, selling quick fixes, and telling people what they want to hear). I suspect a large part of what's driving this version of healthcare consumerism is a lack of trust in traditional medicine and the decline of the doctor-patient relationship. Healthcare providers may not find this stuff valuable, but what if patients do? Does consumerism in healthcare mean that the customer (patient) is always right - even when the evidence would suggest otherwise? By traditional healthcare definition, most of this is low yield and, as a result, low value. Whole body scans, comprehensive lab panels, biohacking.the list goes on. More recently, there's been a lot of attention paid to solutions aimed at giving patients what they want, whether necessary or not. Clinicians, for their part, are expected to adhere to evidence-based guidelines. In many cases, this means circumventing traditional healthcare or serving as an intermediary to navigate patients away from low value providers. A host of companies have pegged their value proposition on helping patients and employers avoid such care. Most agree that low yield care like unnecessary tests or treatments drive up costs without a justifiable impact on outcomes. Is it possible to have both, or are the two mutually exclusive?
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