You get what you incentivize

Today’s business model of the healthcare industry is pretty straightforward - the problem/solution equation translates into disease/treatment. When it comes to chronic conditions, the model is centered towards life-long treatment, recurring prescriptions to maintain chronic conditions under control, in other words, slow the progression of the condition, rather than eradicate it. From a business model standpoint, it makes complete sense. When the incentives and the revenues are flowing only when there is recurrent purchase, no business would ever work hard to remove the recurrence.

Do you know of any #pharma company in the business of #diabetes, for example, actively allocating funds to “cure”it?

Loads of criticism has been poured onto the #healthcare industry and their profit-focused and profit-oriented approach, but the root cause is not the way the business model is constructed. The root cause of the flawed money making machine of the healthcare industry stems from incentivizing the wrong goal.

In the past, in traditional Chinese medicine, doctors would be paid only if the diseases they were claiming to treat were cured. Not maintained afloat. But cure. The incentive was therefore, not recurrence, but the most efficient and effective treatment possible.

If today, our public healthcare systems would reimburse and pay for #prevention, the business model of the healthcare industry will be forced to shift to the new way of keeping the cash flow coming.

Ok, ok, but how can prevention be profitable for the healthcare industry, you’d ask? Cerebris is inviting the industry to brainstorm on viable solutions. As a starting point - how about putting some R&D resources into using #digital and technological innovation to develop markers oriented on early detection? Preventive medicine? Or developing apps and tools for the regular Joes to be able to filter through poor health information and drive more individual responsibility? Once potential solutions are put flat on the table, including necessary shifts in business models, the conversation can move in the direction of action-taking.

You get what you incentivize. It’s just as simple as that.