Harvard’s Rebecca Henderson stressed in her Sustainable Business Strategy cohort that profitability is an indispensable component of successful, sustainable enterprises. Businesses can’t serve their customers and communities while bleeding capital and running losses year after year. These principles are often left unsaid in healthcare discussions because profits and healthcare don’t “feel” quite right together. Instead, much of the conversations among analysts, politicians, and policy wonks center on controlling costs.
Yet, in the broader economy, profitability is connected by market forces to compelling customer value. Costs and cost containment are part of the equation, but not the driving forces of success except with common commodities. In the healthcare industry, cost containment, risk avoidance, and conservative cultures help explain the industry’s struggles with innovation, digital transformation, and patient engagement.
We consider profitability an indispensable component of success for new innovative technologies. Our evaluations of Biobeat’s ABPM, 24BP, and remote patient monitoring included economic and financial sustainability components. For example, we researched the market and financial potential of the company’s ABPM and 24BP products in one sub-practice area, White Coat Hypertension/Masked Hypertension[i]. Our economic analysis estimated a market of 23.2 million customers and an opportunity to save more than $30 billion in wasteful spending[ii].
The same analysis concluded that these innovative technologies could help:
· Insurers save tens of billions in unnecessary charges,
· Providers increase patient capacity, operational efficiencies, and revenues,
· Patients benefit from improved outcomes and lower out-of-pocket costs.
The analysis considered costs, but only as a component within a broader economic picture. Contrary to common beliefs among healthcare and policy analysts that technological innovations contribute to higher healthcare spending, we concluded that these innovative solutions can deliver more compelling value to all key stakeholders at lower costs than their legacy counterparts while eliminating billions in unnecessary medical spending.
Better sensors, improved analytics, and artificial intelligence are impacting medicine as they previously affected other industries across the global economy. We are working with clinicians and technologists to identify and engineer models that deliver improved clinical outcomes through financially sustainable innovative solutions. In this context, our team has leveraged Biobeat’s systems to develop business models and strategies that deliver compelling stakeholder value at much lower costs than competing legacy technologies. This project served as a model for evaluating other innovative health and healthcare solutions.
References
[i] Kazuomi Kario, Lutgarde Thijs, Jan A. Staessen, Blood Pressure Measurement and Treatment Decisions, March 28, 2019, Circulation Research – AHA Journals, https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.118.313219 [ii] Ozzie Paez, White Coat Hypertension: Costs and Opportunities, September 29, 2022, OPRHealth, https://www.oprhealth.com/post/white-coat-hypertension-costs-and-opportunities