Healthcare is under pressure, worldwide. Every year, the demand for care and the costs of care increase. And this while the sector has been struggling for years with an ever-increasing shortage of staff because healthcare professionals are choosing other jobs and the number of medical students is decreasing. Technologies such as digitalization, remote care and AI are seen as possible (partial) solutions to keep healthcare accessible and affordable. But the bottom line is that healthcare budgets are decreasing. More, and different, solutions are needed. Prevention, for example, ensuring that people stay healthy for longer.
During his HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan lecture in Abu Dhabi, Lucien Engelen spoke about the challenges in healthcare and how it is high time that both healthcare and politics and the business community start thinking differently about solving the upcoming healthcare infarction. If we continue to look for more staff and resources to be able to provide more care, we will not get there.
Healthcare transition under pressure
Prevention and healthy living is where we need to go. In the Netherlands we have the Prevention Agreement and the Integrated Care Agreement. Plans that should contribute to ensuring that healthcare remains affordable and accessible in the future. However, the budgets that the government had allocated for this are under pressure due to the arrival of the new cabinet.
Too much attention is paid to the costs of healthcare and healthcare transition and not to what health – people who stay healthy longer – yields for the economy. According to Engelen, investing in health, personal health, technology and ICT leads to economic growth. After all, people who stay healthy are more productive during their working life. Those who stay healthy obviously need less care and therefore healthcare costs decrease. Healthy living means living longer and more working years.
M x H = E
David Bloom of the Harvard School of Public Health states in his publication ‘The Effect of Health on Economic Growth’ that an increase in the life expectancy of a population by 1 year can lead to 4 percent economic growth. “Many countries have an economic policy that aims for 2 percent growth, so if we can achieve 4 percent with health, that is a very good one,” says Engelen.
According to Engelen, this is the key to a healthy society and an affordable and high-quality healthcare system, in which personalized care is and remains accessible to everyone. We must also realize that investing in health yields money. There are calculations, from Harvard, that state that every euro invested in health ultimately yields a maximum of nine times that value.
The formula that Engelen has devised to make this paradigm shift known to the world is: M x H = E, or Medicine + Health = Economy. And now is the time to put this formula into practice. You can watch Lucien Engelen's lecture below.
Lucien Engelen is also one of the keynote speakers at the ICT&health World Conference. There he will share his knowledge, insights and vision on health, technology and the (digital) transformation of healthcare with attendees. Claim your ticket now and register here.
