Feature:
Healthcare
MEDICAL CITIES
pay out of pocket. These facilities need
to look to new innovations to enhance
and streamline these trends so that the
services are efficient and accessible to all.
But the mere possibility of medical
tourism is starting to change healthcare
in unexpected ways. The biggest gains
have gone not to patients, insurers or
governments, but to hospitals, which
have calculated that they could win more
business by reversing the trend and
going abroad to find patients. America’s
Cleveland Clinic will open a branch in Abu
Dhabi next year. It already manages Sheikh
Khalifa Medical City, a 750-bed hospital
in Abu Dhabi. Singapore’s Parkway
Health has set up hospitals across Asia.
India’s Apollo Hospitals, a chain of private
hospitals, has a branch in Mauritius.
The health concerns of local citizens
can vary drastically across regions and
borders, there is a need for innovative
diagnostic solutions tailored to local
circumstances to deliver convenient, rapid,
accurate, user-friendly and cost effective
solutions.
The business opportunity
In a recent report we conducted with
Hitachi, we defined Social Innovation
as “the deployment of technology and
new business models to bring about real
positive change to the lives of individuals
and societies, creating shared value.”
Sectors that were once separated in the
past are converging into new products
and services to provide innovations that
will help provide breakthrough changes
for the benefit of society, improving
quality of life. Where more can this make
a difference than healthcare. When it
comes to healthcare innovation, Hitachi
deploys a huge range of technologies,
systems and data management solutions
to support a healthier and safer society.
Innovations can be seen from proton beam
cancer treatment solutions to automated
analysis systems and nursing care business
solutions. From diagnostic imaging in
Brazil and Egypt to using microscopy to
advance STEM education in the USA and IT
solutions to increase hospital efficiency in
Denmark.
With the huge healthcare challenges
society is facing due to population boom
and shift, it is no longer solely down to
governments and healthcare professionals
to innovate in order to tackle the problems.
Social innovation will see companies
providing their expertise and collaborating
with the public sector to tackle these
challenges. It is only through embracing
these new models of business and thinking
that the huge opportunities of healthcare
innovation can be realised. AD
King Faisal Medical City in Saudi Arabia
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