Improving Health Care Value [BCG]

All across the globe, the cost for health care is increasing. In some countries (just like Switzerland) health care became the federal expense No. 1. Never the less, for a position as important and costly as the health system it's quite surprising how little effort has been put into the "simple" definition of the problem.

While almost everyone will approach the health care spendings from the cost side, the Boston Consulting Group - alongside with the US National Academy of Science - tackle the issue from another point of view. BCG asks the question how we can create more value with the same amount invested into health care.

The focus of the text aims at unveiling unused potential in large scale data registries - especially potential considering the inferential statistics that can be concluded from the data. In addition to the high quality data registries, the bias towards transparency - obviously an almost inescapable but positive force - drives value creation up. The transparency bias is especially effective among the poorest performer; since those performers are the most likely to loose customers and money likewise, this tendency is certainly positive.

      (Exhibit 4. Public Disclosure of Registry Data. BCGperspectives, 2011)

Summarizing, the article unveils some very important key aspects about the future of healthcare research. First, even though we work in a "social" and often public sector the need for "cold" models and data is undeniable. Especially as healthcare handels human beings in some of their most needy situations, we really need models that enable to provide not the cheapest but the best affordable solution.
Second, the tendency to unveil processes, registers and figures is more and more a proven driver for organizational success. It will not take all to long until this trend will be notable in the public sector as well. To ensure that the health sector - one of the most sensitive when it comes to privacy and data protection - is ready to face the task, it is necessary to invest in the development of the technological and personal resources.

The full article is online available at bcg.perspectives. The link is listed below.

bcg.perspectives - Improving Health Care Value