PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 334 - 13 Oct 2001

Changing the way we think abouthealthcare delivery

The healthcare industry is awakening to 3 emergingtrends that will revolutionise the way healthcare isprovided, presenting the opportunity to stretchboundaries in terms of quality of care, provider andpatient satisfaction and, of course, costs, says chiefexecutive officer of the Haelan Group, US, Julie Meek.

The Holy Grail of managing the health and associatedcosts of a population comprises 2 questions, says Meek.Can you find the people you can help? Can you help thepeople that you find? The healthcare industry is in themidst of a shake-up, and traditional thinking is beingchallenged with the following emerging trends.

First, what we look with and what we look fordetermines how we view health and subsequently howwe choose interventions and build solutions. Since theetiologies of care-seeking are multifactorial (includingbeliefs, preferences, health practices, psychosocial andperceptual/attribution factors), the medical model oftreatment and prevention of disease/injury is restrictive,says Meek. These factors have received little attention,despite their powerful influence on health outcomes,care-seeking and compliance levels and cost.

Second, finding the people we can help requires theindustry to broaden its thinking to include non-disease-based factors as drivers of care-seeking behaviour. Andthird, the convergence of new knowledge and newtechnologies sets the stage for disruptive innovation inthe way care is delivered, thereby providing anunprecedented opportunity to extend performanceboundaries and transform the delivery of care.Meek JA. Can you find the people you can help? Can you help the people that youfind? Disease Management and Health Outcomes 9 (Suppl. 1): 13-19,2001 800850896

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PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 13 Oct 2001 No. 3341173-5503/10/0334-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved