hospital impact

by Tony Chen

Here's a couple of deliciously controversial items that I saw in the news recently:

- I just read an insightful report from Deloitte on the Medical Home concept. Though the conceptual model is an old one, Deloitte presents a nice case (complete with financial ROI) for the U.S. healthcare system to move in this direction. Basically, PCPs as we know them would change into true care leaders/managers/navigators, coordinating all of our care (everything from IP hospital stays to dental care to coaching/behaviorial modification). And instead of seeing 5-7k patients/year, they'd be responsible for 1-2k. Sounds crazy, I know, but the model does address the impending chronic disease explosion no one has solved yet.

- Nanotech has received a lot of buzz lately for its amazing potential for good and for evil. Read a great article here that looks beyond the hype/controversy and gets at what the potential really is. Not surprisingly, medical applications will be huge - wire-to-nerve interfaces, coatings to reinforce osteoporic bones, and "labs on a pill."

Bottom line: as strange as this sounds, I'm betting nanotech will hit our healthcare system before the medical home concept sees the light of day.