The complexity of the current healthcare delivery system incorporates an overall assessment and treatment modality that applies to the general population. It is common practice to look at trends and averages in the general population in improving the performance and quality of care. Along this line of thinking, there are disease and patient populations that are outliers of these averages. Furthermore, these can be attributed to higher costs in patient management. However, is there a way to reverse this perspective, so that healthcare that falls under the umbrella of disabilities, emergencies, and disparities may actually present opportunities in increasing the quality and cost efficiencies of the delivery system model? While there may be initial differences and inherent challenges in treating patients that are more time and cost intensive, this can also foster innovation and creativity in balancing traditional methods of care with disease and population specific methods.
Healthcare Innovation – Specific Perspectives
Chronic, rare, and disparate disease treatment have innate considerations to ensure effective diagnoses of treatment beyond readily apparent methods. This entails acumen of the provider, access to diagnostic equipment, and a dynamic treatment perspective that will account for variations associated with disease and patient populations that are a minor percentage of the population. Within these unique disease conditions, there are potential opportunities to render diagnostic and treatment modalities that would otherwise be overlooked. Examples include iterative diagnostic testing for rare conditions, the examination of biological markers, and resourcing of peer consultation. A continuous assessment of short term and long term quality and cost effectiveness will present comparison to current treatment methodologies without these unique specifications described.
