The convergence of health care trends

Innovative strategies for emerging opportunities

The convergence of powerful trends—new technologies, the demand for value, a growing health economy, and the government as an influencer—is transforming the traditional US health care market. While this convergence is creating substantial challenges for health care stakeholders, it is also creating opportunities for innovation in four major areas:

Everywhere Care: Shifting the spectrum of care from hospitals to lower-cost sites

Wellness & Preventive Care: Shifting disease management from reactive to preventive

Personalized Care: Shifting offerings from mass generalization to mass customization and precision

Aging, Chronic, & End-of-Life Care: Shifting the focus from institution-based aging to community-supported aging, and leveraging big data and personalization to manage chronic conditions

To survive and grow in a changing health care landscape, organizations should consider developing innovation strategies that can capitalize on these emerging opportunities. Where should they start? Doblin, a leader of global innovation and part of Deloitte Consulting LLP, provides a framework, “Ten Types of Innovation,” which details the building blocks of innovation plays that organizations should consider implementing.

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Everywhere Care

Shifting the spectrum of care from hospitals to lower-cost sites

Cost pressures, consumer preferences, changing staffing models, and technology create a business case for care anytime, anywhere. Value-based care strategies such as ACOs and bundling, coupled with consumer preferences and increased cost-sharing, are driving consumers to seek care at lower-cost settings.

Consider these innovation plays

• Simplify and integrate the "monitored self." Create a unified platform that aggregates consumer data from point-of-care devices and consumer actions, and easily and seamlessly integrates them into the care system.
• Home care switchboard and SWAT team. Match clinical and non-clinical services to address integrated consumer health needs and deliver transparent outcomes.

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Wellness & Preventive Care

Shifting disease management from reactive to preventive

Preventive care and disease management become watchwords in the midst of government incentives and powerful big data methods that can drive precise identification of personal risk factors. Self-directed services emerge as low-cost tools for changing health behaviors.

Consider these innovation plays

• Big data and digital therapeautics construction kit. Create a "developers" kit that combines powerful diagnostics and analytics with new advances in behavioral economics.
• Clearinghouse for early intervention programs. Create transparency into the effectiveness of programs that slow disease progression and establish standards for preventing future healt care system costs.

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Personalized Care

Shifting offerings from mass generalization to mass customization and precision

Scientific advances can provide optimal value when targeted to particular consumers. Widespread adoption of “personalized/precision care” will likely be made possible through offerings that integrate drugs and devices with low-cost diagnostics, disease management programs, and clinical decision support.

Consider these innovation plays

• Integrated and targeted care bundles. Develop combinations of treatment, diagnostics, and care protocols that are optimized for impact and ease of use based on individuals' specific needs.
• Personalized care outcomes marketplace. Increase transparency by having market players regularly set prices and demand for outcomes in tailored use cases for patient sub-populations.

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Aging, Chronic, & End-of-Life Care

Shifting the focus from institution-based aging to community-supported aging and leveraging big data and personalization to manage chronic conditions

A wealthy, aging population segment is likely willing to pay for new services, while others struggle to pay for unexpected bills. Caregiver involvement may increase as the “sandwich generation” looks for better solutions for their parents. This will likely result in a need for new services and care models.

Consider these innovation plays

• Community-enabled, self-directed care solutions for the elderly. Implement modular, self-directed solution sets that encompass seamless expansion of support through end of life.
• Elder care provider certification and alternative training. Expand needed capacity to care for the elderly outside institutions by enhancing non-medical caregivers' skills mastery.

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