healthcare innovation
Healthcare Innovation
The healthcare industry has experienced a proliferation of innovations aimed at enhancing life expectancy, quality of life, diagnostic and treatment options, as well as the efficiency and cost effectiveness of the healthcare system. Information technology has played a vital role in the innovation of healthcare systems. If the concept of healthcare innovation can be clarified, then it may become easier for health policymakers and practitioners to evaluate adopt and procure services in ways that realistically recognize, encourage and give priority to truly valuable healthcare innovations. Innovation is considered to be a critical component of business productivity and competitive survival. Technological innovations present vast opportunities for 1) product innovation – the introduction of new types of goods and services for the external market and 2) process innovation – enhancement of internal production processes for goods and services. Product innovations are essential to the life of any organization since they provide the most obvious means for generating incremental revenues. Many innovations will present differential benefits for different types of patients based on their clinical states. For example, while the team-based care embodied in patient-centered medical homes is good for all patients, it clearly should be of the greatest benefits to people with the most complicated and chronic conditions. Reimbursement amounts and policies can create incentives or barriers to the development and adoption of innovations – and thus greatly influence the benefits patients and society will eventually derive from any innovation. Without innovations – and without the adoption of innovations – healthcare delivery will not improve, and progress towards better quality care and lowered costs, (a.k.a. bending the cost curve), will be very slow and overwhelmed by the wave of Baby Boomers soon to hit our healthcare systems.
The healthcare industry has experienced a proliferation of innovations aimed at enhancing life expectancy, quality of life, diagnostic and treatment options, as well as the efficiency and cost effectiveness of the healthcare system. Information technology has played a vital role in the innovation of healthcare systems. If the concept of healthcare innovation can be clarified, then it may become easier for health policymakers and practitioners to evaluate adopt and procure services in ways that realistically recognize, encourage and give priority to truly valuable healthcare innovations. Innovation is considered to be a critical component of business productivity and competitive survival. Technological innovations present vast opportunities for 1) product innovation – the introduction of new types of goods and services for the external market and 2) process innovation – enhancement of internal production processes for goods and services. Product innovations are essential to the life of any organization since they provide the most obvious means for generating incremental revenues. Many innovations will present differential benefits for different types of patients based on their clinical states. For example, while the team-based care embodied in patient-centered medical homes is good for all patients, it clearly should be of the greatest benefits to people with the most complicated and chronic conditions. Reimbursement amounts and policies can create incentives or barriers to the development and adoption of innovations – and thus greatly influence the benefits patients and society will eventually derive from any innovation. Without innovations – and without the adoption of innovations – healthcare delivery will not improve, and progress towards better quality care and lowered costs, (a.k.a. bending the cost curve), will be very slow and overwhelmed by the wave of Baby Boomers soon to hit our healthcare systems.