I heard Jim Greenwood (bio here), President & CEO, Biotechnology Industry Organization state on CNBC:
"Government can spur innovation, it can incentivize innovation... but the government cannot innovate."
Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Breakthrough Health Care Consumer Innovation in India
I am excited to showcase India Institute of Technology at Kharagpur, India here on my blog yet again (see previous entry here). The Economist has published an article "On the pulse" here regarding development of an artificial heart at IIT-KGP that will be going into human trials in a matter of a year or so. The cost will be 1/30th of the average cost of one developed in the USA with much less failure rates. Please click through to the article for detials.
I like to share the trend I have been observing - South Asian educated mind's movement from memorization of best practices and replication to challenging the learned behaviors and "creating" the next breakthrough.
"A new, low-cost design for an artificial heart takes its inspiration from an unusual source—the cockroach."
My congratulations to IIT-KGP! Brilliant.
I like to share the trend I have been observing - South Asian educated mind's movement from memorization of best practices and replication to challenging the learned behaviors and "creating" the next breakthrough.
"A new, low-cost design for an artificial heart takes its inspiration from an unusual source—the cockroach."
My congratulations to IIT-KGP! Brilliant.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Health Care Consumers Winning in India
"America's spending on health care is soaring, yet its medical outcomes remain mediocre."
So states "Lessons from a frugal innovator" in the Economist here. The article begins with the description of a complex heart bypass surgery, while the patient is having a chat. This approach has been pioneered by Dr. Vivek Jawali at Wockhardt, an Indian hospital chain. According to the article this is just one of the many innovation in health care in India. The article goes on to share other innovation-in-practice examples like the one above.
The article highlights how the Western prowess in the medicine perhaps may be detrimental to itself:
"Dr. Jawali is feted today as a pioneer, but he remembers how Western colleagues ridiculed him for years for advocating his inventive “awake surgery”. He thinks that snub reflects an innate cultural advantage enjoyed by India.
Yet, as the article shows, the Western organizations themselves are tired of their own system.
"Columbia Asia, a privately held American firm with over a dozen hospitals across Asia, is also making a big push into India. Rick Evans, its boss, says his investors left America to escape over-regulation and the political power of the medical lobby."
India is offering another advantage to the breakthrough innovators, faster improvements at speeds unparalleled in any other part of the world.
"[Aravind, the world’s biggest eye-hospital chain] staff screen over 2.7m patients a year via clinics in remote areas, referring 285,000 of them for surgery at its hospitals. International experts vouch that the care is good, not least because Aravind’s doctors perform so many more operations than they would in the West that they become expert."
Perhaps, this is an approach to perfection through practice, as the old adage goes! The article closes with:
"[Tim Brown, head of Ideo] says, "In health care, as in life, there is need for both Ferraris and Tata Nanos."
So states "Lessons from a frugal innovator" in the Economist here. The article begins with the description of a complex heart bypass surgery, while the patient is having a chat. This approach has been pioneered by Dr. Vivek Jawali at Wockhardt, an Indian hospital chain. According to the article this is just one of the many innovation in health care in India. The article goes on to share other innovation-in-practice examples like the one above.
The article highlights how the Western prowess in the medicine perhaps may be detrimental to itself:
"Dr. Jawali is feted today as a pioneer, but he remembers how Western colleagues ridiculed him for years for advocating his inventive “awake surgery”. He thinks that snub reflects an innate cultural advantage enjoyed by India.
Unlike the hidebound health systems of the rich world, he says, “in our country’s patient-centric health system you must innovate.” This does not mean adopting every fancy new piece of equipment. Over the years he has rejected surgical robots and “keyhole surgery” kit because the costs did not justify the benefits. Instead, he has looked for tools and techniques that spare resources and improve outcomes."
Yet, as the article shows, the Western organizations themselves are tired of their own system.
"Columbia Asia, a privately held American firm with over a dozen hospitals across Asia, is also making a big push into India. Rick Evans, its boss, says his investors left America to escape over-regulation and the political power of the medical lobby."
India is offering another advantage to the breakthrough innovators, faster improvements at speeds unparalleled in any other part of the world.
"[Aravind, the world’s biggest eye-hospital chain] staff screen over 2.7m patients a year via clinics in remote areas, referring 285,000 of them for surgery at its hospitals. International experts vouch that the care is good, not least because Aravind’s doctors perform so many more operations than they would in the West that they become expert."
Perhaps, this is an approach to perfection through practice, as the old adage goes! The article closes with:
"[Tim Brown, head of Ideo] says, "In health care, as in life, there is need for both Ferraris and Tata Nanos."
Monday, December 15, 2008
Health Care Consumers - Choices?
By way of Mr. Harish Mamtani, an excellent article in WSJ "Outsourcing Health Care to India" here. This is a consumer service market place that has come to a head in deciding what direction it is going to take.
One of USA's leading companies in this sector is Indus Health (see here) founded by a good friend Mr. Rajesh Rao who currently is its CEO. Rajesh is a visionary entrepreneur with breakthrough successes to his name. While discussing Rajesh's proposition with folks in the USA in the last couple of years, I used to get the distinct impression that the health care service providers considered Rajesh to be ahead and early to market. Yet, I believe Rajesh has shown himself to be a true trail blazer... his perseverance and commitment has resulted in Indus Health perhaps defining the right path to successful implementation.
An article this month on Business World "In Sickness And Recession" here states:
"Rajesh Rao, CEO, of IndUShealth, a North Carolina-based company that facilitates medical travel of American patients to Indian hospitals, estimates that a company with 1,000 employees typically can hope to cut its healthcare costs by half a million dollars every year by outsourcing treatment options for its employees to India. Rao should know because even before the Serigraph announcement made headlines across the US, he has been helping American corporates send employees to India. Today, Rao, has at least 12 mid-sized employers availing his corporate programme (translating into 40,000-50,000 subscribers) and he says he has been tripling his volumes year on year since he started in 2005, when it was just a trickle."
Another article from Smart Money "As Health Costs Soar, More Find Care Overseas" provides an excellent overview of the "what" and "why" of outsourcing of health care, see here.
UPDATE: Upon reading my blog, Rajesh forwarded two excellent articles from the Economist weighing in on outsourcing Health Care.
In the article "Operating Profit" here, the Economist asks: "Why put up with expensive, run-of-the-mill health care at home when you can be treated just as well abroad?" A question every health care consumer is going to start asking if already not doing so. This article especially focuses on the costs associated with various medical procedures.
In any service model with a distributor going out to the end consumer, the consumers continuously strive for better value... just like WalMart did not run the mom and pop stores out of business necessarily - the small store did not have a competitive advantage or distinction that could compete with "Every Day Low Prices" equity and delivery on that equity of WalMart.
Similarly, the article concludes that:
"Medical tourism promises to be what Aetna’s Dr Cutler calls “a disruptive market force that improves cost and quality here in America.” Whether or not it turns out to be all its boosters wish for, it will be a force to be reckoned with."
The secret here is that the multi-nationals are not driven to become international, it is the consumer who will reach out if the corporation does not deliver on the need. It is true with products, it is true with services!
In the Economist article "Importing Competition" here, the Economist declares - "The coming boom in medical travel could help both rich and poor". This article highlights the issues with a health care system (i.e. US) which is not being repaired as the consumer is leaving it as they would a rusted out car for something new... and not improved, but a fundamental shift in how the service is organized and conducted, the anciliary opportunities for the distributor, the provider and finally the customer of it all. Hence, outsourcing health care to corporate while health tourism to the consumer.
In the end the consumer always wins! The one who delivers on the need successfully, is a bigger winner.
One of USA's leading companies in this sector is Indus Health (see here) founded by a good friend Mr. Rajesh Rao who currently is its CEO. Rajesh is a visionary entrepreneur with breakthrough successes to his name. While discussing Rajesh's proposition with folks in the USA in the last couple of years, I used to get the distinct impression that the health care service providers considered Rajesh to be ahead and early to market. Yet, I believe Rajesh has shown himself to be a true trail blazer... his perseverance and commitment has resulted in Indus Health perhaps defining the right path to successful implementation.
An article this month on Business World "In Sickness And Recession" here states:
"Rajesh Rao, CEO, of IndUShealth, a North Carolina-based company that facilitates medical travel of American patients to Indian hospitals, estimates that a company with 1,000 employees typically can hope to cut its healthcare costs by half a million dollars every year by outsourcing treatment options for its employees to India. Rao should know because even before the Serigraph announcement made headlines across the US, he has been helping American corporates send employees to India. Today, Rao, has at least 12 mid-sized employers availing his corporate programme (translating into 40,000-50,000 subscribers) and he says he has been tripling his volumes year on year since he started in 2005, when it was just a trickle."
Another article from Smart Money "As Health Costs Soar, More Find Care Overseas" provides an excellent overview of the "what" and "why" of outsourcing of health care, see here.
UPDATE: Upon reading my blog, Rajesh forwarded two excellent articles from the Economist weighing in on outsourcing Health Care.
In the article "Operating Profit" here, the Economist asks: "Why put up with expensive, run-of-the-mill health care at home when you can be treated just as well abroad?" A question every health care consumer is going to start asking if already not doing so. This article especially focuses on the costs associated with various medical procedures.
In any service model with a distributor going out to the end consumer, the consumers continuously strive for better value... just like WalMart did not run the mom and pop stores out of business necessarily - the small store did not have a competitive advantage or distinction that could compete with "Every Day Low Prices" equity and delivery on that equity of WalMart.
Similarly, the article concludes that:
"Medical tourism promises to be what Aetna’s Dr Cutler calls “a disruptive market force that improves cost and quality here in America.” Whether or not it turns out to be all its boosters wish for, it will be a force to be reckoned with."
The secret here is that the multi-nationals are not driven to become international, it is the consumer who will reach out if the corporation does not deliver on the need. It is true with products, it is true with services!
In the Economist article "Importing Competition" here, the Economist declares - "The coming boom in medical travel could help both rich and poor". This article highlights the issues with a health care system (i.e. US) which is not being repaired as the consumer is leaving it as they would a rusted out car for something new... and not improved, but a fundamental shift in how the service is organized and conducted, the anciliary opportunities for the distributor, the provider and finally the customer of it all. Hence, outsourcing health care to corporate while health tourism to the consumer.
In the end the consumer always wins! The one who delivers on the need successfully, is a bigger winner.
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