Nexus - 1501 - New Times Magazine-pages

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EXPERT PATIENTS AND THE NeW HEALTHCARE PARADIGM EXPERT PATIENTS AND THE NEW HEALTHCARE PARADIGM Informed consumers and expert patients are challenging the existing industry and government power blocs by taking control of their own health and demanding access to proven natural foods and products. rapid escalation of the ongoing global power struggle in the US$3 trillion worldwide health sector' is challenging the status quo between global pharmcos, pharmacy industries and guilds and the all-powerful fiefdoms of clinicians, government agencies, politicians and the health insurance industry. This perfect storm is due to a unique combination of interconnecting drivers that collectively offer the winner in this high-stakes game to take all. This would be achieved by acquiring control of the supply and price of all medications and complementary products as well as control of the knowledge of what actually works for each and every patient according to their own genetic profile. This contest of strength is showing all the characteristics of a dirty war, as all sides start to realise the ramifications of winning and ramp up their efforts to grab the high ground as well as the knowledge asset acquired via the new electronic health records (EHR) system by harvesting information from the data provided by the support services associated with it. The primary driver for this power shift is the inability of Western governments to meet the direct costs of escalating health bills due to a modern-day explosion of non-contagious epidemics, with the associated rising costs of products and services plus the indirect costs to the economy due to loss of income from decreased productivity (days off work) and future income lost by premature death. For example, obesity (and its related conditions, diabetes, heart disease and stroke) contributes US$93 billion to America's yearly medical bill? while in Britain the financial impact of obesity is estimated to reach £45.5 billion per year by 2050? When the indirect costs of welfare and income tax reduction are factored into the equation, along with the projected costs of meeting the needs of a rapidly increasing ageing population (the over 65s are set to comprise 20 per cent of the population in the USA by 2030), it becomes apparent that all Western governments, whether welfare or private healthcare oriented, will need to implement dramatic cost-saving strategies if they are to survive the projected rate of increase in chronic disease and stay abreast of the next wave in "predictive and preventive medicine"—the new designer drugs tailored for genetically distinct groups that will tackle disease before you get it, ripening the market for long-term drug dependency. NAVIGATING THE THIRD HEALTHCARE REVOLUTION According to Sir Muir Gray, Director of Clinical Knowledge at the UK's National Health Service (NHS), we're moving into a third healthcare revolution which will be knowledge based, where the "knowledge [of what works] is the enemy of disease".* The first revolution was the discovery that dirty water produces disease; the second revolution was the discovery that chemicals could influence the course of disease; and this third revolution will be driven by the newfound ability to know which of today's medications and procedures actually work for each and every individual and, more importantly, which emerging medical breakthroughs could work. Governments and insurers will take the lead of Sir Muir Gray, who says that "the application of the knowledge we already possess will have a bigger impact on health and disease than any drug or technology likely to be introduced in the next decade" In a bid to control this knowledge, governments, insurance companies, clinicians and pharmaceutical companies are building their own electronic health databases to plug into everyone's medical records (and eventually every genome) in order to harvest the knowledge of which clinical procedures deliver the best outcomes, of the risks and benefits of drugs within given populations, of environmental factors and geographic variations in disease and, by Kathryn Alexander, DThD © 2007 PO Box 259 Maleny Qld 4552, Australia Email: kathryn@getalife.net.au Website: http://www.dietaryhealing.com by Kathryn Alexander, DThD © 2007 PO Box 259 Maleny Qld 4552, Australia Email: kathryn@getalife.net.au Website: http://www.dietaryhealing.com NEXUS = 21 DECEMBER 2007 — JANUARY 2008 www.nexusmagazine.com