The next wave of healthcare innovation: The evolution of ecosystems
Ecosystems create powerful forces that can reshape and disrupt industries. In healthcare, they have the potential to deliver a personalized and integrated experience to consumers, enhance provider productivity, engage formal and informal caregivers, and improve outcomes and affordability. We define an ecosystem as a set of capabilities and services that integrate value chain participants (customers, suppliers, and platform and service providers) through a common commercial model and virtual data backbone (enabled by seamless data capture, management, and exchange) to create improved and efficient consumer and stakeholder experiences, and to solve significant pain points or inefficiencies.
Healthcare has shifted away from its post-World War II focus on contagious disease and workplace accidents, which necessitated episodic interventions. Today, the primary goal is preventing and effectively managing chronic conditions. However, as we have shown, productivity in healthcare is lagging other services industries as these goals shift. New technologies promise care that is available nearby or at home, supports continuous self and autonomous care, and reduces friction costs between supporting stakeholders. These shifts create an imperative for stakeholders to move toward an ecosystem-based model of care enabled by five key industry forces driving technological innovation:
