Healthcare consultancy in the spine sector
The rapid evolution of spine care over the last decade with the emergence of minimally invasive spine techniques and technology, has been in large part been due to an improved understanding of the biomechanics of the spine and the advances in the fiber-optic technology of the instruments and scopes that now allow the performance of complex spinal reconstructions in the outpatient setting. The renaissance of spine.
The utilization of minimally invasive spine surgery in the outpatient setting has also coincided with the introduction of the Affordable Healthcare Act, whose main intention was to provide high quality cost effective clinical care. The development of new medical techniques are most optimally served when they are intertwined with the services that healthcare consultancy provides. Simply put the appearances on the clinical scene of innovative medical advances are worthless if they are not actively promoted, and this is where an intelligent healthcare consultancy becomes vital.
Medicine and business promotion are, for better or worse, intimately intertwined in in the US where money, medicine and politics share the same if not similar beds, and understanding this complex ecosystem in the lucrative field of spine places those with this knowledge at a distinct commercial advantage. A spine practice can thrive or die depending on the quality of the healthcare consultancy services it receives, and within this arena of expertise exists the lessons of professionally promoting the practice but most importantly reputation enhancement and management.
For too long in the US it was only Wall Street executives and sports stars that were the recipients of these Madison Avenue services, with the false assumption that physicians never erred and rarely found themselves on the front of the tabloids. Well it can be categorically stated that as the implementation of the Affordable Health Care Act progresses part of the government strategy is to weaken the medical profession by using the media to sensationalize and expose stories of medical mishaps, making the profession appear weak and incompetent. This tactic plays very well into the diminution of the power that the noble art of medicine once held, and thus makes the individual physicians easier targets for the government to manipulate. Not a difficult concept to comprehend.
This is exactly why the use of healthcare consultancies has now become of even greater importance to the medical profession, as they must do everything in their power to not only maintain their reputation, but actively take steps to enhance it in the face of ongoing attacks from the insurance companies and predictably the government. Coming from the UK where the National Health Service degenerated into a political football I became only too familiar with the tactics used by the politicians and media to sensationalize adverse medical outcomes that are considered by the medical experts to be a normal part of the medical spectrum.
Perception is reality so said Churchill, and in the digitally enhanced world of the 21st century the importance of neutering any criticism as soon as it rears its provocative head on page one of Google cannot be overstated. The inclusion of experienced healthcare consultancy agencies in this aspect of healthcare could never have been imagined ten years ago but today it is an undeniable fact. The Internet has become the arbiter of humanity and healthcare is no exception.
Doctors are not trained to understand financial balance sheets, nor are they educated in the arts of communications, propaganda or media manipulation, and I for one would not suggest that this become a part of the medical school curriculum. However what I would strongly recommend is that physicians give serious consideration to the engagement of companies with demonstrated expertise in the field of healthcare reputation management, for it is on the back of their reputations that most clinical operations will thrive or die.
The details of reputation enhancement cover a wide spectrum of communication mediums and content varieties, but they all have the same goal of elevating the reputation of the practice. The inclusion of copy, audio and video are all essential threads of the reputation picture, with video holding the prime position. The revolution of the broadband technologies allowed the development of more sophisticated video products that have now become routine, and YouTube is the unquestionable thoroughfare through which these bits of communication gold are transmitted. The adage that a picture paints a thousand words is reflected exponentially in the comparison between video and print. Healthcare consultancy and the arena of minimally invasive spine surgery have become unexpected bedfellows, as the ability to demonstrate the procedures using video could never have been achieved with print or copy. In addition the application of healthcare consultancy now allows the practice to grow in a way that ten years ago would have seemed inconceivable.
Medicine or at least some of the more progressive inhabitants of the profession have made the connections between their work, healthcare consultancy and the rapidly advancing communications technologies that are now readily available. The minimally invasive spine sector is predicted for a 12% annual growth over the next ten years due primarily to the improved treatment options and the increased aging populations. These factors in addition to the move towards the minimization of surgical approaches make this sector of medicine one of the most commercially attractive to the mob from Wall Street. Regardless of your philosophical position about money in medicine what is inescapable is the fact that the more green backs this field has flowing from the caverns of downtown Manhattan the more research and development will occur in spine, and that surely is good for patients.
