Hospitals are going to disappear.
Atleast in the way we know them today, they will disapear. They are great for sick-care.
But, no way are they central to healthcare.
If indeed the goal of the healthcare system is to keep people healthy, what is the need of a hospital?
If the goal is to treat sick people, hospitals with their complex systems, surgical tools and diagnostic machines make sense.
But the Hospital is a terrible system to keep people healthy.
They are one piece of the ecosystem responsible for handling things when its already late. Increasingly technology is advancing so rapidly that most diagnostics and diagnosis will be done at home. That relegates the hospitals to only doing the most complex surgeries and handling trauma related cases.
If hospitals are not going to help us be healthy, who will?
What are the new models emerging and the entrepreneurs behind them?
Who are these emerging players who will take over the responsibility of helping us be healthy. And what is their game plan?
The answer is fairly obvious but not simple.
In this series we are profiling 12 such companies and entrepreneurs who are building new types of healthcare organisations – The Healthcare Gamechangers. Based on analysis of the models developed by  The Healthcare Gamechangers, four key principles seem to be emerging. These Healthcare gamechangers are building their organisations around these four principles as key for success. And most importantly, all four principles are interlinked to each other.
The key principles that we identified are
Everyone Plays: Healthcare has traditionally been driven by experts – doctors and specialists in the field. The new game calls for everyone – nurses, technicians, support staff, patients themselves and their families to step up and play a substantial if not equal role.
The Healthcare Gamechanger empowers actors who are not traditionally experts, most cases leveraging technology, eg putting Nurses at the centre of care, empowering community members to care for each other, trained health worker to diagnose early.
Expands the Playground: The more care is concentrated in the hospitals, it will continue to be driven by old rules and notion of illness focused care. When care goes out of the hospitals, into the communities, it helps to expand the boundaries of what can be included as part of care. More importantly it makes the individual more and more accountable for their own wellbeing and not be dependent on others.
The Healthcare Gamechanger takes a significant part of the care outside of the hospital domain eg, at home, at workplace, at schools and even at religious places.
Invites new Players: The future of health depends on new players entering this industry and challenging deep rooted assumptions and bring new thinking. Any organization focused on wellbeing has to necessarily leverage this opportunity and create an open platform for new players to contribute or participate. Playing by the old rules with the same players will not change the game.
The Healthcare Gamechanger creates connectedness between different and many times, new players in the health ecosystem, eg working with organisations in agriculture, education, energy and even entertainment sectors.
Changes the rules of the game: Healthcare Gamechanger organizations understand that at the core of ownership of one’s wellbeing is the mindset shift in individuals. And enabling this mindset shift is the fundamental focus of their organisations.
Healthcare Gamechanger goes beyond illness care or preventive care of individual diseases, and focuses on overall wellbeing.
In this series, we attempt to highlight the innovations around the world and the people behind them who are already playing by this new playbook. This has important lessons for the medical community, future of the healthcare industry, the way we structure health Insurance and how we handle health in our own communities.
Stay Tuned!
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If you liked this post, you might be interested in my other posts: Hospitals, a historical perspective and relevance for the future, You are not the Unicorn, You are Awesome, Shoot me if I ever say these things to a startup team, The Doctor is NOT in, the Doctor will see you NOW, and Davos Learnings for my Daugther.
About Ashwin Naik
Ashwin Naik is an entrepreneur with interest in affordable healthcare, social enterprise and healthcare technology. You can also visit his blog to read more.
Ashwin has been recognized as a Economic Times Leaders under 40, Young Global Leader By World Economic Forum, Young Leader by Asia Society, Senior Ashoka Fellow & as a Ted Fellow.
He is currently a Resident Fellow at Ashoka Innovators for the Public.