Have you heard? A VC firm bought a health system. There have been, and will continue to be, many opinions about this development -- and rightly so. Healthcare innovation is a popular topic, and there are countless angles to this story. To me, the biggest opportunity here is to build a new healthcare foundation -- one that first addresses the most pressing shortcomings of our current system. The core of medicine will always be frontline care delivery -- any fixes must start and end there. General Catalyst's acquisition of Summa Health represents an opportunity to do something truly innovative: resurrect the doctor-patient relationship. #medicine #healthcare #health #healthtech #healthcaretechnology #healthcareinnovation #digitalhealth #venturecapital
Probably not going to happen. Instead, from a ROI perspective, they will experiment and implement highly advanced and simple technologies that speed up diagnosis and care, and increase operational efficiencies, to meet patient expectations and maximize profits. They are not reformers on an altruistic mission; rather, they are investors seeking to leverage for advantage.
I wonder if they are going to pay primary care doctors as much a specialists? Everyone wants folks to stay out of the hospital and the but don’t really want to invest in the things that will achieve those savings. Such irony. And I don’t get it.
What makes you think that a VC will want to resurrect the doctor-patient relationship, and not replace it or further damage it? The doctor-patient relationship is expensive. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/08/opinion/sunday/hospitals-doctors-nurses-burnout.html
I think it’s a huge undertaking. Fixing/modernizing a health system is not an easy task, unless they become their own local health plan - but even then - that’s tough. The PC structure needed will make enacting direct practice changes difficult. There’s change management, and… health system IT to contend with. To do this right is very hard. Might be better starting ground up?
Doctor-patient relationship needs fixing, but VC firms? Not convinced they understand bedside manner. Show me the impact, not just the IPO
A wolf can never become a sheep no matter how many times they tell you that they are sheep. A seat at the table will be reserved for those want to look like a sheep while carrying out the actions of the wolf. If you don't howl then you will be eaten or replaced. Until physicians truly lead we will be dependent on others to change.. always wonder why we don't change ourselves. Instead we rely on the hope that VC, PE or boards will suddenly see that money doesn't fix medicine, it just makes it far worse.
PE in HC is not necessarily a bad thing but don't mistake PE in HC means restoring doctor-patient relationships. PE in HC is about profitability, first and foremost, as it should be. Profitability means sustainability. The relationship between patients and providers drive profitability so I am sure it will be a core focus. But don't skip over the business aspect. PE and HC are both big business. Telling yourself or anyone else something different is naive at best and manipulative at worst.
GC states that they plan on converting Summa Health into a for-profit system. The purpose of a for-profit system has nothing to do with resurrecting the doctor-patient relationship. Not that not-for-profit systems are altruistic. But whenever we hear of health systems doing good work in terms of balancing cost and quality of care, for-profit systems don’t really make the cut. So let’s not drink the Kool-aid that GC is giving out free by the gallons.
Benjamin Schwartz, MD, MBA I’m curious to “why” you think they will “resurrect the doctor-patient relationship”? VCs are just as beholden as PE to the fiduciary “duty of loyalty” that requires them to put profit above patient outcomes, provider welfare, and the doctor-patient relationship. In my mind, that means they will only if it makes them money… which hasn’t proven to be the case in the rest of for-profit healthcare.
UBERDOC Founder/CEO; General and Vascular Surgeon
7moWhy do we (physicians) keep asking for help? Perhaps we know healthcare as currently prescribed is a failed business model. We just hope we can continue convincing others to invest so we can keep doing our job.