We asked 10 healthcare leaders to pinpoint the biggest transformation in their industry that's been taken for granted
- We nominated 10 people who are transforming healthcare to Business Insider's list of 100 people transforming business.
- The list included business leaders heading up insurers, pharmaceutical giants, and top investors.
- We asked them, what's been the biggest transformation to healthcare that's been taken for granted. Here's what they told us.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
For all the changes healthcare still needs to make, there's been a lot of advances made in medicine over the past few decades.
As part of Business Insider's list of 100 people transforming business, we spoke to 10 people who are transforming healthcare. Some are pioneering new ways to treat diseases and care for patients. Others are simply trying to make sure we can afford it all.
In our conversations with those leaders, we asked them to pinpoint the biggest transformation that's happened to the industry that has been that's been taken for granted.
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Changing the way we practice healthcare
Some highlighted controversial additions to medicine.
"For better or for worse, it's the use of computers in healthcare," Rushika Fernandopulle, the CEO of primary care company Iora Health said. Computers in doctor's offices have been villainized, with electronic health records taking up more and more of doctor's time, diverting their attention away from patients.
But in the grand scheme of things, it has moved healthcare away from a system of paper charts and records to one stored on still-error-prone devices.
Relatedly, now that we have more computers in healthcare, companies have figured out ways to use the information collected to ideally keep us healthier, a transition that's been taken for granted as well, Aetna President Karen Lynch said.
"The one thing I would say is the digital access we have," Lynch said. For instance, she noted, public health efforts to get more people to come in for their flu shots can be more targeted based on information about who's already received their annual vaccine.
And slowly but surely, procedures you once had to get taken care of within the four walls of the hospital are moving to other, less expensive locations to operate.
"What's changed the most is simply where you're receiving your care," Oak HC/FT managing partner and cofounder Annie Lamont said.
Vaccines have done a thankless job preventing disease
One of the biggest aspects of medicine that's been entirely taken for granted has been vaccines. Vaccines have been around for centuries, preventing diseases like smallpox.
Read more: The FDA's top leader says anti-vaxxers could bring about a national health crisis
But because vaccines have done such a good job of preventing diseases, people haven't fully appreciated all they do, Merck CEO Ken Frazier said.
"Many diseases have become invisible in parts of the world due to vaccination, so I think many people aren't fully aware of the devastation these diseases can cause," Frazier said. "It's been disconcerting, to see distrust being spread regarding science and our scientific institutions. This had had an impact on vaccination rates and is bringing these forgotten diseases back into the fore."
For instance, measles has been gaining a foothold in the US and Europe. In 2000, public health officials declared that measles had been eliminated in the US. In 2019, there have been nearly 700 cases of a disease that used to have just a couple dozen cases each year. Frazier is hopeful that will bring some appreciation for the role vaccines play in preventing disease.
"With the measles outbreaks in the U.S. and Europe, it seems that the scales are beginning to tip, and we are seeing more collective action fighting this misinformation," Frazier.
- Read more:
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- Meet the woman overseeing a key piece of CVS Health's plan to change how Americans get healthcare
- A doctor raised more than $250 million to create a new kind of clinic that charges a monthly fee, and it could be the future of medicine