Healthcare around the world is experiencing unique and dynamic changes. Global megatrends such as climate change, technological advancements, demographic changes and social change all have a major impact on patients, practitioners and corporate healthcare stakeholders. According to one estimate, the world population is likely to reach 9 billion in another decade, while Bangladesh's population could reach 109 million. As a result, providing affordable health services to such a large population creates both challenges and opportunities.
While there have been significant advances in reducing the incidence of malaria, tuberculosis (TB) and diarrheal diseases, diseases related to modern lifestyles, such as obesity, are increasing exponentially. The risk of diseases caused by environmental threats and natural disasters could also increase over the next few years. At the same time, the discovery of new drugs allows for the treatment of many diseases, making them more affordable in certain instances.
Follow Daily Star's Google News channel for all the latest news. All these factors force patients and consumers to experience future-related transformations while still retaining them in the centre. The entire care delivery ecosystem is attributable to the capabilities of ecosystem participants, a key to preventing, personalising, predictive and healthcare delivery.
The need to cure many lifestyle-related illnesses decreases over time, as it focuses on risk factors for diseases and on self-directed, healthier lifestyle-like lifestyle-related lifestyles. A significant number of companies could lead this domain by growing and providing such services. On the one hand, there are basic consultation providers about lifestyle, diet and exercise. Meanwhile, diagnostic service providers exist that can help measure key health parameters, detecting early indicators of life-threatening diseases or clinical accidents.
Although such preventive care has a significant impact on enhancing the overall health of the population, it should be noted that the beneficiaries of such care are not sick individuals, but individuals who maintain a regular and good quality of life. Therefore, the patient experience – how such care is delivered will play a key role in the provider's business success. Additionally, personalization becomes a key component of delivering a unique patient experience.
Personalizing care also means bringing life science to your photos. Personalized health checkups and clinical research will better diagnose tailored prescriptions for the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. By deploying new generations of biotechnology and genetic research findings, each patient's needs will be unique and unique treatment decisions will be required. Some healthcare providers in developed countries have already begun to provide such care to patients in areas such as heart health, diabetes care and metabolic activities.
In addition to biotechnology, advances in other technologies, particularly in digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI), will have a major impact on future healthcare. In fact, a prominent attribute would be predictive and aggressive care for the patient. The vast amount of health data collected from a wide range of demographic populations allows for the creation of tools that preconceivedly allow predictions of many health accidents. Such predictive analyses can be used to prevent the same by aggressive treatment of patients.
All of these suggestions can be implemented in a wide range of locations, including patients' homes. Technology has allowed points of care delivery to be ubiquitous in the use of telehealth services, community-based services, and remote intervention via robots. The advent of technology has made access to healthcare easier.
However, comprehensive access to healthcare requires a robust ecosystem of private public partnerships to improve its reach and affordability. For private entrepreneurs, business possibilities for countries with a large population like Bangladesh are enormous. At the same time, it is the collective responsibility of private public partnerships to ensure that such care delivery is inclusive, so that it can be accessed at all levels of the economic pyramid.
Arijit Chakraborti is a PWC partner.
The views expressed in this article are those of the authors themselves.
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