This conversation has closed. Start a new conversation
or join one »
What is the future of healthcare? How can it become health care vs sickness treatment? What role do technology and innovation play?
Healthcare costs are rising, the population is aging and medical needs are greater than ever. How can patients receive better quality care at an affordable price? How can we leverage technology to provide better and more affordable healthcare around the world?
Topics:
Healthcare e-health innovation medicine
Mustafa Ozkaynak
The mhealth technologies, smart homes, patient portals are not widely common yet. But they can support patients' decision making and help them monitor and record their daily livings.
Courtney Young
joseph martino,p.
i would suggest that medical students who cannot pay for a medical school education be giving a free medical school education. instead of being burdened by student debt medical students upon inception of practice
would not be burdened with medical school debt.
participating medical students would be giving the option of a free medical education provided they are willing to provide a free percentage of medicare care for poor deemed eligible by government for a set period of time and set percentage of poor patients.
patients must be deemed eligible poor by the federal government. the time of obligated service and percentage of patients set by federal government. the government would soon recover their initial outlay of providing a free medical school education to students 5 fold, plus because of
the no billing proviso to medicare/medicaid . the federal government would recover much more than their initial financial outlay to students. students would not be burdened student loan obligations. this program would be for office visit only.
we can take this program one step ahead with a little vision and insight.if the doctor would be willing to have the
government pay their opening office costs the doctor would be obligated to provide free care according to their specialty for exp: lab tests, x-rays,
cat/mri and other special precedures etc.time and obligation of of free service set by governments. the no billing proviso to medicare/medicaid would apply. the government would really save large amounts of money.
in the long term the saving to governments could amount to trillions of dollars.
from what i understand in the usa for every 1% medicare saves over a 1 year period
over 15 years comes to a 1 trillion dollars saving?
joseph p.martino
Random Chance
How do you "redesign" something such as the health industry, or health care that is basically a criminal activity? Doesn't the "average American" want to "get rid of" crime and crime syndicates? Even if, or especially if, they have the appearance of being legitimate? All white-collar crime likes to appear legit.
Seven years ago the figures I found showed around 30 million Americans living in daily, acute pain, because they could not afford medical coverage and they could not afford medicine. Are they "average Americans" or is there something wrong with their morals? Today, the latest check I made showed the figure had risen to around 39 million Americans. I'm one of those.
It's taken me awhile but I get it now. People really do like inequality. That is how business thrives and profits are made. None of it has a thing to do with health care that is humane. Health care is not about being humane or serving humanity. What they serve you is a plate for you to place your money on. How do you fix that? How many times have we learned or heard about "previous existing conditions"? How many times have we learned or heard about, "that condition is not covered in your policy?"
How many times have we learned or heard or know about someone who is ill, unable to work, so they can't continue putting in the hours to keep their benefits alive?
And as time goes by, less can afford coverage that covers, and more become ill and uncoverable. Also, those few who are able to do so, maintain a distant and unfeeling attitude towards those who are in pain and suffering. I will keep saying it until I die, which is very near now, and I might add, extremely painful.
"Things don't, "get done because of money." Things "don't get done",.....because of money!"
That is the future of health care. A healthy economy needs more ill, diseased and dying people. It doesn't need or want healthy ones.
Lucien Engelen 500+
Salim Solaiman 50+
Drew Bixby
Salim Solaiman 50+
Whenever someone talks about healthcare cost, immediately most of us talk about cost of medicine , but we need think of what % cost goes to medicine cost in to the total cost structure ?
Even with a product of innovation once econmy of scale is there cost of products goes down.However here the point I focuesed is Human Genome project , which can offer us the ability to detect many diseases much earlier of it's outbreak so can take preventive measures.
Usually preventive measure is cheaper.
Please check the link below , which says how genome project cost can go down
http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_resnick_welcome_to_the_genomic_revolution.html
Jaime Lubin 10+
Why we dont doing something with the present.....? Our present time to be healthy.
Why we dont learn from the past?
Bryn Morgaine
Using Medicare spending as a model, "the big four" illnesses by cost are Heart Disease, Diabetes, Stroke and Lung Disease. The total medicare spend on these four was nearly $500 Billion in 2007 compared to $10 Billion on Cancer. The issue is that ALL of these are lifestyle related and controllable diseases. These huge numbers however are clear evidence that we are not changing our lifestyle or controlling these diseases, we are opting for long term care.
The answer to the growing health care crisis is for us as consumers to address what is making us sick, seek expert advice, take advantage of the most advance health care available on the planet for short term care and whenever possible, take responsibility to change whatever you need to recover.
It is possible that the collapse of the current health care model will finally drive that change in our collective psyche.
Drew Bixby
Anne Dagen
An increase in professionalism and a reduction in bureaucracy would both reduce costs and improve health. The reason it would improve health is that it would provide people with timely and appropriate treatment, reducing the inevitable health decline which comes when an illness goes a long time without treatment.
A side effect of this would be that a highly professional healthcare sector, without the deadweight of excessive bureaucracy, would have the time and the knowledge to keep up to date with developments and discuss the options openly with patients.
Drew Bixby
Patricia Larsen
Now, for the second part of it... healthcare.. oh my! the endless debates on the subject, so political, so exhausting! I just always wonder, why do we expect the government to take care of everything? We complicate things so much... let the government take care of those who can't take care of themselves (I am aware that there are many that simply don't want to do it and rather have the gov do it for them) and those of us who are lucky enough to have a job accept our responsibilities and keep paying for our health care, and yes, our taxes will take care of those who don't work and don't get their own care... so what? am I happy about it? No, I am not, but you can't force people to work, you can't force people to do anything they don't want to do, it is the way of life. It is endless, we can go on an on about why people don't work, how they abuse all established systems, where our tax money goes, etc... unless we are in some position of power there isn't much we can do... of course we can all be activists and push for what we believe, sure.. lets work on that.
Larry Holmgren
While quality of life is important ones freedom of choice is also important.
Education is very important, for example, teaching healthy lifestyles cf. bad habits and risky habits like smoking tobacco, drinking alcohol, smokeless (spit) tobacco, injected illicit drugs, eating burnt meat from the BBQ grill, or getting sun burnt.
Unfortunately, some Public Service Announcements and public school educational programs tend to be propaganda.
Finally, the pharmaceutical cartel has an agenda, maximizing profit. Chronic illnesses are succored with palliatives. This cartel is necrophylic. It is hostile to dietary nutrients, vitamins, and herb supplements like garlic, ginger, Aloe Vera gel, oregano oil, manuka oil, manuka honey, cayenne pepper, (mega doses of intravenous) vitamin C, and the innovation of liposome encapsulation which delivers the nutrient or vitamin directly into the cell.
Lia Lagiou
Lucien Engelen 500+
more video's to be seen on http://www.tedxmaastricht.nl/videos/ (where Daniel Krafy gave his great talk "there is an app for that"
or join us on the second TEDxMaastricht "the future of health" April 2nd www.tedxmaastricht.com
Lucien Engelen Founder and Curator TEDxMaastricht (@zorg20)
Christina Nesheva 50+
Elena Rosa Brown
Jo Rowkins
Albert Ip
Should health be a person's right in a modern society?
If yes, then government has the responsibility to provide health care.
If no, then it is up to individual to maintain health, and if bad luck strikes, we will just fold our hands and see how this person can cope.
In our modern society (especially in developed countries), what is health care?
Krisztián Pintér 100+
no, even if something is a right, it does not mean that the government should provide it.
no, if government does not provide healthcare, we still can finance it through private health insurance. we can have charity organizations. we can have crowd financing. there are infinite number of solutions.
i don't understand the last question.
Albert Ip
I am sorry I did not make the contrast clear enough.
Let say free speech. Is that a right or not? Many western countries have free speech as a right (USA constitution makes it a right), but this is not universal.
Education - is that a right or not? Should every child get an education? Again, some countries provide education and to different levels. Some see education as a private matter to be determined by parents.
I can see argument on both sides whether health should or should not be seen as a right for citizens of a particular countries. Of course, if health is not a right, that does not imply there are no other means of providing health care - as you have adequately made clear.
If the social good of a healthy citizenship outweighs the burden on the government, then making health as a right makes sense. The eradication of small pots is a good example of collective action. Government is for collective actions which individual or corporations cannot or unwilling to do. If the social good of healthy citizenship is important (just as free speech is important for a democracy), why not makes it a citizen right?
Of course the flip side of the argument is to ask if government is the best agent to provide health or should health be provided by free market. Which is economically more efficient?
I guess the answer depends on one's the political view. As the population in developed countries are getting old and we generally have a smaller number of children, the burden of health care in the next 10 to 30 years is a big issue especially if the population is not healthy.
Krisztián Pintér 100+
education is not an action of the subject. education is not a right. learning is an action, and thus learning is a right. nobody should be able to prevent you from learning. teaching is a right. nobody should be able to prevent you from teaching something. it is also a right not to learn. not learning is an action. forcing people into learning something is unethical.
health is not an action, but a condition. healing is an action, but not an action of the subject. thus neither of them is a right. pursuing health is an action, and it is a right. nobody should be prevented from pursuing health. thus, the FDA for example is unethical.
having food is not a right. it is not an action. being able to pursue food is an action, and is a right. producing and selling food is an action, and is a right. buying food, provided that there is a seller, is a right. thus tariffs, quotas and regulations are unethical.
Albert Ip
Thanks again.
Edgar Munoz
Albert Ip
After thinking a little about this. I cannot agree with you.
"speech" is noun - "free speech" is a qualified noun. A special kind of natural ability of human.
"health" is a noun, but also a qualified noun (a well being living ). A special kind of living, again a natural ability of human.
If "free speech" can be a right, there is no reason why "well being" is not a right. Just like we have the right to live in a safe environment. If there is thief, e.g., police (a government agent) has the responsibility to make right for us. Health is the right to live healthy. To live healthy is an action and it is a right.
Krisztián Pintér 100+
health is not an action, and being healthy is also not an action. it is not your decision whether you are healthy or not, and what illnesses you have.
safe environment is also not a right. having a safe environment is not an action. you cannot decide if you want to be safe or not, and if not, how.
Albert Ip
Capt. T. C. Randall
A solution will never appear through the same illogic that brought us to this point of sickness, bankruptcy and delusion. Personal empowerment, real nutrition and an understanding of simple remedies will not be found in this ocean of ignorance.
Embellishing a system built on a crooked foundation and faulty thinking will only deliver more of the same.
Albert Ip
Omprakash Ranjan
Now,new approach of healthcare are evolving like Co-design, Co-production and co-creation
Co-design:- Co-design in healthcare means when patient, professional and community working together to design solution for healthcare but final solution is implementing by professionals.
Co-production:- When patient and community are helping equally to improve healthcare system using their capacity. Here shifting of power and responsibility from professional to patient and community. For example: Merevalehouse of UK, it is a private residential home for people living with dementia where residents are encouraged to design and deliver services.
Co-creation:- When patient or users are in center not only in design of service but also in production. Like mobile app for healthcare, various healthcare tools for healthcare, various healthcare tools to take care of self well being.
Capt. T. C. Randall
Truthful information is not forthcoming from the pharmaceutically oriented sick-care industry that dominates govt agencies and the corporate media. Disinformation on nutrition, toxins, radiations and emotional stress abounds while truly effective, inexpensive natural therapies have been discredited, suppressed and even outlawed. And so, personal responsibility is thwarted by illogical drug-care dependency. Ignorance allows and perpetuates this and other corporate monopolies. Would this for profit industry ever embrace an economical approach?
We also place too much importance on high-tech solutions. In reality our technology is the problem! Modern chemical grain-based agriculture produces disease causing processed cereals, corn syrups, vegetable oils, CAFO meats/milks/eggs and GMOs while destroying the environment. Then side effect laden drugs are prescribed to counter this mis-nutrition. Sustainable progress is invariably killed in the crib. Simple cures for cancer, arthritis, atherosclerosis, etc. have been used by millions. These protocols are holistically aimed at total health restoration, not temporary relief of symptoms.
Our collective belief structure ignores common sense self care and is programmed to disbelieve even truly scientific alternatives to the expensive "officially endorsed' system.
Simple scientific principles offer informed prevention and effective reversal of disease. We as well as other life forms on Earth suffer acidic hypoxia, an electron energy shortage, oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is "unbelievably", but ultimately at the root of all modern disease. This at the hands of industrial pollution, bad foods, economic anxiety, media induced delusion and psychological terrorism,.
The 99% must not fail to install intelligent management of this planet. For more information; www.forbiddenhealingforum.com.
Robert Armstrong
1. Citizens have to take responsibility for their personal health. When over 60% of all North Americans are now either overweight or obese bad health has reached epidemic levels. It’s going to bankrupt our country, or many people will die young with poor quality of life.
2. We have to change the system from Illness care centric to health care. Currently we don’t have a “healthcare” system, as the only time you use the system is when you’re ill.
3. Doctor’s compensation must be completely overhauled. Currently doctors are compensated on treatment, not outcomes. Your doctor is not incented to make you healthy, only treat your illness and the associated symptoms.
4. The cure too many diseases is prevention. Charities that raise billions each year on the “cure” should be redirected to Prevention initiative. Also, Big Pharmaceutical organizations have to invest more in prevention and not treatment through pills. The result of the current model is our Doctors are simply drug pushers for the Big Drug Company Cartel.
5. Government has stop subsidizing “Big Food” and the unhealthy products they market to us and our children that are known to cause long term degenerative diseases and start supporting the natural (organic if possible) foods that will have positive health outcomes.
6. Understand that the lifestyle choices made today will impact the long-term health outcomes decades into the future and leverage “behavioral economic” techniques that incent people for the good choices they make today that have long-term positive health outcomes in the future.
For more, go to www.nofinishlineblog.com
Sten Ekberg
We need to understand that there is a built in intelligence that created the body from 2 cells, and that intelligence hasn't left the body. It is still there - running the show. Most people would agree that there is no process in the body that happens independently of the brain. If we truly understand this fact, we also must understand that any dysfunction (except acute injury, and a handful of congenital errors) is the result of aberrant function in the brain.
Therefore healthcare isn't health care, but rather merely disease management, unless it addresses brain function. Perhaps the most revolutionary discovery and paradigm shift in the past decade is that the brain changes. Neuro-plasticity. The principle and fact that the brain physically changes size, shape, pathways, wiring and strength based on our environment and exposure in order to learn and adapt.
It is possible to measure the function of the brain and define the parameters of normal or optimal. We can do this with posture, balance, muscle testing, reaction time, qEEG etc... If we can then render care and show improvement toward optimal, we have improved health, reduced the probability of disease, and slowed or reversed parameters of aging.
This is the only way health care can go. We have to let the medical "disease care system" take care of emergencies which they do brilliantly, but stop giving people drugs to mask symptoms.
Go to the source of the problem. Chiropractors have done that for over a hundred years.
Neuro-science is just now catching up with the mechanisms why it works.
Shaju Davis
If everyone is brought under this umbrella insurance the insurance costs will explode or the quality of service will take a significant hit with no long term solution.
So maybe
1. Increase the deductible that the employee has to pay for healthcare while simultaneously requiring employers to transfer a certain said sum as healthcare allowance. This sum will accrue to the employee if he does not have to visit doctors as much. This will give hime an incentive to live healthier.
2. Increase the level of education about health through nationwide campaigns.
3. Maybe spend billions on nationwide get- fit programs instead of supporting defunct bankrupt institutions.
Sue Clark
Ask yourself these questions about what is being done "now". It starts with you, me, and our family history.
What is the relationship between you and your physician(s)? How many times a year do you see your primary physician? Do you only see them when you're sick, need a Rx, referral, or do you actually go in for a wellness check/exam each 1-2 yrs? Has your primary care physician seen you when your healthy and sick? If so, chances are you are getting better care than those who only see their physician when sick.
Do you lie to your physician? Recently there was a woman who comes and wants a referral for a CT scan of her lungs, but tells her physicians and nurses that she doesn't smoke. Her family rats her out finally... Or how about how many drinks you really had in a week? You cant lie to your physician if you want the best care possible.
How many times have you made an appointment with a physician and became a "no show". This is just bad karma my friends, bad karma all around. If you think you free'd up their time, you are absolutely wrong. You burned a whole days salary. There is no good care, no care at all for that matter if you don't show up to your scheduled appointment.
Do you know your family medical history? Talk about patient empowerment! You must educate your provider with your family history. Cancer, Heart, birth defects, there's so many ways you can educate your physician to better treat you in sick or health. Not enough characters here to talk tech & need to get back to work anyway. See your doctor and build a relationship, start now.
Gregory Klopper
julie hagigeorges
Stephan Kafka
Crohn's Disease & PTSD & I am med free. I am not completly healthy yet but I am doing a lot better than all those med addicts believing in this "incureable" BS.
The answer to the problems would be a resource based economy.
Harish Patel
The challenge I see is communicating this effectively to people across the planet. People in societies with more money should have more resources to tackle this but ironically health concerns such as obesity tend to be higher in the developed, economically better off world.
Technology is improving but talk of things like 3d printers coming up with ready made organs sounds like fantasy at present but may become reality- possibly at a huge cost. Healthy solutions need to be cost effective for individuals for them to be feasible for society otherwise there will always be a divide between the haves and have nots.
Prevention agendas, in my experience, tend to focus on preventing particular illnesses, diseases or illness producing behaviours such as smoking which focusses the mind on these illnesses rather than wellness.
There's a lack of focus on the paradox that is both the joy of health and the inevitability of death that can focus peoples awareness on their individual circumstances and responsibility... to themselves and their own futures.
Albert Ip
You have identified an important distinction which we need to make when talking about preventive medicine: prevention of particular illnesses vs general health or well being.
The first type of prevention is for genetically biased illnesses of diseases and the second is for the general public. If someone's family members have been identified for a particular genetically related diseases, preventive measure should be taken for each and every members who may be affected.
General public awareness of health and the benefit of being well should be communicated to the public and must not be overwhelmed by misinformation (in form of advertisement of bad food). To prevent the overwhelming of misinformation, corporations should be held responsible for the claims they make in any advertisement and held corporations to moral guidelines to the same standard we held moral guideline to persons. If anything, corporation's moral obligation should be set higher than personal because they have the resources to properly investigate the statements they are making is evidence-based. CEO or executive officers of corporation should be held responsible *personally* for *repeated* false statements.
Edgar Munoz
Edward Briggs
1. Better adoption of evidenced based practices. We spend far to many dollars of unnecessary, ineffective and overpriced interventions when the clinical evidence contradicts these interventions.
2. Expansion of patient empowerment. We need to invest much more time and resources into education of the public in the appropriate management of their health and their illnesses. This is where technology can play a vital role in developing targeted educational products that individuals can easily access and utilize. These educational interventions must be cognizant of literacy limitations and language barriers AND be free of profit driven bias.
3. Development of a universal health delivery system for all United States Citizens. As a health care provider in the emergency room I see the economic and human costs of people not having access to care on a daily basis. We have an opportunity to look at other systems and develop the most effective and efficient. Unfortunately we are all aware of the barriers to this.
4. Increased individual responsibility. We have become a nation of hypochondriacs. We believe that every complaint or symptom is a disease pathology and believe that the solution comes in the form of a pill. This is, in large measure, the result of out direct to consumer marketing. We must shift back to a system where individuals recognize their role in their health and accept the responsibility for adopting a healthy lifestyle.
These are just a few of my observations as a health care provider. Change is not only necessary, but vital, if our strained healthcare system is to survive.
julie hagigeorges
Christina Nesheva 50+
Frans Kellner 50+
That's what I see a lot of and never understood. My observation is even the opposite. Pills can make people sick.
For instance, if there's a little problem like headache a pill can give release if one believe this but the chance the headache will come back increases while as the body or the person itself solves the problem the risk of getting a headache decreases.
julie hagigeorges
smoking and obesity.
Public policies making it mandatory to BUY health Insurance from a private for-profit business to me is unethical and gives these insurance companies a license to price gauge, deny claims, and provide inadequate coverage as they wish. We should just provide them with masks and guns to rob the American people.
A single party goverment PAYOR ( that does not mean the government provides the health care ) is the only way to arrive at a solution, as HUNDREDS of other countries have.
And just another thought...if all our healthcare dollars are ending up in the hands of insurance companies with the salaries of healthcare workers continueing to be so low...THERE WILL NOT BE ANYONE TO TAKE CARE OF YOU..NO DOCTORS, NO NURSES, NO NURSES ASSISTANTS, NO REHAB THERAPISTS...because when us baby boomers retire...there isn't going to be anyone in their right mind who will work in this broken medical system!!!
Gregory Klopper
julie hagigeorges
Gregory Klopper
julie hagigeorges
Omprakash Ranjan