Healthcare Innovation – Resistance Is Futile

Friday, May 08, 2009 | Posted by: Brian Maguire
Categories: Healthcare | Tags: innovation, entrepreneur, energy, healthcare, science, pharmaceuticals, nanotechnology

Defence of our nation’s health persists as a matter of priority. It’s an irrational position to take, for ultimately the nation cannot preserve our health, we all expire, a bit like identity cards. Our expectation, is that one day we won’t shuffle off this mortal coil, but just go for a refit, an upgrade, popping into Me-Me World at lunch to get memory chips expanded and a couple of heart valves replaced.

Pharmaceutical stocks soared during the mini-plague that has become Alpha-Numeric-Culturally-Sensitive-Name-Proof-Flu; healthcare, it seems, likes nothing if not a big ole global scare. Much like newspapers, bad news is very, very good news.

Come pandemics and high waters, pharmaceutical corporate cynicism tends to stay in the board room; with a little leakage to the finance and marketing departments. Healthcare researchers, however, the guys doing the lab work, building on scientific heritage, trawling for blockbusters to release down the pipeline; they are often infused with a strong public service mentality. Pure-bred researchers don’t care that resistance to mortality is futile, they want to make every day of our lives a little brighter, a little more comfortable, less painful. They are true believers in the capacity of science to better our world; and this belief is strong motivation to pursue ambitious innovations.

To better our world, science is getting petite. Nanotechnology is the sharp and increasingly surgical end of the innovation spectrum, while day-to-day cardio equipment is now created as units smaller than the average laptop. Small being beautiful is a theme with long legs, and as the miniaturisation of science is partly about cost reduction, the manufacture of compact, highly mobile devices ticks boxes for financial and service flexibility.

To achieve this flexibility of service and to cap volcanic costs, healthcare systems require some of the globe’s most sensitive business minds. The challenge is marrying large bureaucracies to a growing mountain of costly services. Entrenched public sector unions compound the complexity with their manic propensity for shroud waving if cuts, or efficiency savings, are mentioned. It seems impossible to rebuild our healthcare systems from the inside; but its rebuilding must be achieved and a viral, entrepreneurial approach seems to be the road less travelled.

Growth in the UK’s elderly population, combined with a diminishing band of workers and taxpayers, is leaving us incapable of maintaining a welfare state. The United States has 45 million citizens, under the age of 65, without healthcare cover. Band Aid won’t do.

The solution is a rational rebuilding of healthcare, starting with demographically aligned community care - led by business, not Government. Focusing on a re-imagined health service requires us to miniaturise our healthcare hardware, software and service; packaged with new instructions for use. Will we really care if Tesco provides our healthcare, efficiently, free at the point of access?

The energy sector has long faced a hard approach and a soft approach. The hard approach has been to persist with the pursuit of fossil fuels, neglecting alternative strategies. The soft approach has been to develop new, sustainable alternative energy resources. Healthcare acknowledges that it is stuck in the hard groove, but would like to be shifting into a soft gear.

Innovators of excellence can steer a new path for healthcare starting one town at a time. Entrepreneurs with a powerful sense of public service and a ‘can-do’ attitude have an opportunity to create a new healthcare framework, emboldened by new IT structures, miniaturised facilities and mobile equipment.

Must Watch:

Dr Ernest Madu’s insight into world class healthcare on a shoestring budget

Healthcare Innovation and Funding:

Siemens New Healthcare Innovation Centre - Vienna

Wellcome Trust – Healthcare Engineering Fund

X Prize for Healthcare Innovation