Healthcare Innovation: How can Governments be an Engine?

Innovation seems to be the latest buzzword in the healthcare sector worldwide. In India, healthcare itself is a new buzzword; there is perhaps no sector in the Indian market whose growth and returns parallel that of healthcare. But as with any buzzword, there are a lot more organizations hopping the bandwagon of innovation for the sake of publicity and image than those that have an actual interest in the philosophy or practice itself.

Innovation means using a new idea, or making a new idea, revolutionary thinking or actions, not necessarily drastic, but with drastic effects. or following wikipedia

Innovation is a change in the thought process for doing something, or the useful application of new inventions or discoveries.It may refer to an incremental emergent or radical and revolutionary changes in thinking, products, processes, or organizations.

Technology and the way medicine is practiced are growing, sure, but not at a rate that can catch up with the demands of the people of meet needs. It is becoming increasingly obvious that some of the core beliefs around which health-dispensing were built around need to be re structured and even trashed. The world has changed and what healthcare often has to offer is far less or totally different from what people want

Without innovation, new expectations and problems, which are many and increasing by the day, cannot be answered. So governments too are trying to innovate of at least fund innovation

Depending on which side of the political spectrum you stand on, you might think that governments are great or awful innovators. In any case, we often miss that in the bigger issue of innovation and government we are all not asking or answering the same questions.

1. Should governments foster innovation?
2. Should governments have departments or ministries for innovation?
3. Are governments innovating or fostering innovation
4. How can governments innovate or foster innovation
5. When do governments need to innovate?
6. And how good are governments at innovating or fostering innovation

These are some of the questions commonly clubbed under “innovation and the government” while forgetting that the core issue is what you believe needs to be extent of involvement of governments in industry innovations.
There is no doubt about the question of should governments innovate. It is an “innovate or perish” world. Innovation is not or shouldn’t be something that happens when you face a crisis, or run into troubles, but a part of the operating philosophy of daily life.

In an article titled “Governments as engines of  Innovation”  Lisa Suennen talks about one such initiative by the US government of us for fostering innovation, she puts the need for innovation very beautifully

We need to nurture companies that come out of left field with disruptive ideas that blow up conventional wisdom and replace it with completely new ways of doing things, particularly thing that impart convenience, personalization, health-optimization and cost-effectiveness into the healthcare equation.

Innovation also implies change, in fact often innovation is just change. Therefore the need for not just new ideas, but wholesome and widespread restructuring, dismissal of old structures and re-examining of core beliefs.

Among the key objectives that the administration has discussed is how to transition the collective mindset from one of healthcare to one of health. In other words, if a person is healthy, they do not need health CARE. This is a very important distinction; it puts the emphasis on prevention and wellness as opposed to what you do when somebody is already sick. In order to affect such a transition, there must be an emphasis on innovation to change the way we have traditionally looked at the healthcare world.

You might not, like me, agree that health-initiatives for making a healthier world are not healthcare, or that healthcare is limited to hospitals and other traditional care dispensers. I believe that instead of shrinking the role of care to just the sick, care needs to extend into prevention and wellness. But it is obvious that some serious thought about what this business and profession is all about now.

There is no guarantee (in fact it is outright impossible) that the same ideas a beliefs that propelled healthcare giants to where they are now will help them capture the markets of tomorrow. But at least some of them are well equipped to handle such change. Are they willing is another question altogether

Will today’s healthcare giants be tomorrow’s healthcare leaders? Good question, but not likely unless they are willing to reinvent themselves completely—something very hard to do. It’s a little like shooting your dog because he’s ugly, even though he gave you years of companionship.

The comments to this piece are definitely worth a read, though few of the commenter’s focus on what sort of innovations can be made, one post in particular lists some

• To reduce defensive medicine, we could take medical dispute resolution out of the hands of juries and transfer it to specialized health courts which would be empowered to hire neutral experts to sort through conflicting scientific claims.
• Access to robust, user friendly price and quality transparency tools that would provide actual insurer contract reimbursement rates for various services, tests and procedures provided by doctors and hospitals.

These are definitely worth thought and following up on.

The debate will range on in the US about all this, but here in India, I think we are in a uniquely advantageous situation, the government is awake, pro-market, and more importantly the market is huge and therefore hungry for innovation and new ideas. Their acceptance and viability will need visionaries and organizations that dare to do something different and adopt radical ideas and practices. The government in India has always followed the people, innovators and visionaries have set precedence’s and examples that the government learns and uses.

According to an IBEF report the Indian Healthcare industry is growing at an unbelievable 23% per annum and will touch $77 Billion by 2012. Most of it is going to mainline healthcare, with very little variation, and very little into innovative ventures. Therefore, time is ripe for both with capital and those with ideas to explore dare and make a difference.

What think you? should the government in India foster innovation, does it already ?