Healthcare Challenges and Trends

Quality healthcare is one of the most important factors in how individuals perceive their quality of life. In most countries, alongside the economy, it is the major political issue. In some countries, such as the UK with the National Health Service (NHS), the healthcare delivery organisation is a part of their national identity.

Global Challenges
There are global challenges that will impact healthcare in the near future. These include:

Rising costs
Spending on healthcare almost invariably grows faster than GDP; the rate of growth of healthcare spend has exceeded that of GDP since records began. Moreover, spending and economic recession are closely linked. We can expect to see the rate of growth of healthcare spend in Europe outstrip GDP growth significantly during the current economically difficult times.

Macroeconomic factors like aging populations or insufficient public funding are challenging both receivers and providers of healthcare. Adoption and penetration rates of clinical information systems vary greatly. In fact, the number (and size) of buyers varies from country to country, and is not necessarily dependent on the size of the country but rather on the structure of the healthcare system. Additionally, purchasing behaviour is shifting towards more coordinated, joint purchasing.

Changing demographics
There is increasing demand on the healthcare delivery organisations. And this is happening in every country. Thanks to advances in our understanding of the causes of diseases, and consequent improvements in diagnostic techniques and treatments, people live longer. The average life expectancy in OECD countries has now reached 80 years and continues to lengthen. However, not only are people living longer, but increasingly people are living longer with chronic disease.

Global Healthcare Trends

Move from being supply driven towards a demand driven consumer model
As a society, we are changing rapidly, and this is apparent in the relationship between care providers and the citizen. Patients are increasingly becoming stakeholders in their own care journeys; they demand transparency in access and information about their care and importantly, about the quality of service provided. Universal access is the basis of virtually all socialised healthcare economies. But citizens are now demanding access on their terms. They want to schedule appointments when and where it suits them, not the provider. They want the latest drugs or clinical trials; and of course, an end to surgical waiting lists. Or they want to be given the option to ‘go private’ without incurring a personal cost.

The internet is changing citizen behaviour. This means the way governments interact with their citizens has to change too. Municipalities are providing more services to the citizen using technology. We will see healthcare providers do the same - adopt technological solutions to streamline processes such as setting up virtual appointments with doctors or looking up lab results online.

Healthcare is the last of the major supply driven industries. It will not be so for long. It will be the citizen that demands the transition to an industry that answers their needs, fears and aspirations.

Informed patients and the rise of social media
Patients are becoming more and more involved in their healthcare, with a higher stake in the journey than before.

Patients are simply better informed than ever before. Information about medical conditions and treatments are now easily available on the Internet. This has to some extent, shifted the focus of the patient-provider relationship towards the patient. The advent of social media is also driving healthcare interactions in new ways. Patients are exploiting these resources to discuss treatments, procedures and even individual practitioners. Alongside, healthcare practitioners, agencies and charities too will need to use social media to communicate with their citizens; in times of crisis this will become a critical mechanism.

Patients exercising choice
Healthcare systems are under close scrutiny by society. With patients having a bigger say in what they choose and demand for, government policy is impacted and in turn, healthcare providers.

Healthcare needs to become demand-driven to satisfy the needs of citizens and governments. Patients increasingly want to decide how and when to engage with their healthcare environment. Governments, health authorities and the medical profession will be challenged to provide patients with the information and services that will allow citizens to make informed choices about their healthcare. This will mean publishing data on indicators of quality (such as outcome data, readmission rates, so on) and also introducing ways for patients to book appointments at hospitals at times that suit the patient, not the provider.

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