Just How Much Will Healthcare Change?
April 16, 2009 by Kristen Hayner
In Nashville, we think of healthcare as a business so often that the science behind it is often a secondary consideration.
A few weeks ago, a couple of us were reminded of the driving force of science behind healthcare reform after hearing healthcare futurist Jeff Bauer. Bauer spoke about how the healthcare industry will change more between now and 2016 than it did between 1960 and today. Much of this, he said, is due the projected advancements that the human genome project will bring to medical care.
With a better understanding of how the genes work, disease treatment can be more specific and tailored to a patient. There’s no telling how insurance companies and reimbursements will react to this trend.
Yesterday, the New York Times jumped on the topic with an article that outlined the limitations to this kind of medicine-science research. Says the article:
"This method, called a genomewide association study, has proved technically successful despite many skeptics’ initial doubts. But it has been disappointing in that the kind of genetic variation it detects has turned out to explain surprisingly little of the genetic links to most diseases."
In an era of healthcare reform, where regulation and reimbursement issues are a hot topic, what is the real impact of this research – or a possible lag in the impact of this research? And how should healthcare executives and policy experts prepare for it?
It may not be top-of-mind today as we debate the merits and design of universal healthcare, but it’s certainly an underlying issue that will impact whatever reform occurs.
