The Coming Healthcare War

Matthew Holt discusses a theme we've been touching on a lot in a post called "Why diagnostic radiologists won't make $400K a year forever":

One of the smartest observers of the medical scene, UCSF's Bob Wachter had an interesting article in the NEJM on The Implications of Medical Outsourcing. Here's the key point:

By severing the connection between the "assay" and its interpretation, digitization allows the assay to be performed by a lower-wage technician at the patient's bedside and the more cognitively complex interpretation to be performed by a physician who no longer needs to be in the building — or the country.

Of course they'll be lots of resistance to this -- and if anything Wachter understates the extent of the war that's about to happen (think specialty hospitals) (emphasis added). But eventually collaboration software (as being plugged by Microsoft and Nortel) will remove the need for much direct physical connection between patient and physician, and skilled technicians and lower-paid clinicians will mediate between them.

Eventually, the barriers to entry that have kept incomes so high in the healthcare profession will have to come down, and as Holt says, yes, it will probably be a war, as various interest groups fight tooth and nail (well, lobby) to keep various artificial protections in place. 

If only US factory workers could have claimed "consumer safety" as a reason to prevent outsourcing...

Comments

[Jane]

Thank you for this information; healthcare in America is very confusing.

[Senior Assisted Living]

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