In 1991 about 40% of the world’s population, or 2 billion people, lived in poverty. In 2022 the world’s population surpassed 8 billion, yet 1.75 billion people, or 25%, lived in poverty. With economic growth comes longer life spans and increasing demand for healthcare services. This higher demand puts a tremendous financial strain on emerging countries as they try to meet the needs of their citizens.
Even in the wealthiest country in the world, the U.S., citizens demanding more and better healthcare services are pressuring private and government budgets. The major issues confronting the healthcare business today are several.
The spending today is higher than it was for similar outcomes previously.
There are more complex patient problems, diagnoses, and treatments.
Best practices based upon evidence-based care are not universally followed, although there is no reason why they should not be.
Healthcare variance in outcomes is too large.
Outcomes should be uniformly appraised, both by treatment and cost; in other words, the care received in Boston should not be at significant variance from that obtained in Buffalo or even rural Wyoming.
The pandemic shined a light on these problems and called us to action. While we embraced changes such as expanding telemedicine services, we must keep the momentum and drive change. Only by modifying what we do and how we do it will we be able to adequately address the healthcare needs of various countries.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts, so please submit your comments in this post. Thanks for your time today.
