This article is contributed by Jason Dirkham
Some people seem to have an ability to work twelve hours per day, six days a week, and come out the other side fresh-faced and in good spirits. How do they do it? It is just the luck of the draw or are they doing things that make this dizzying level of productivity possible?
It turns out that many of the hardest and longest-working entrepreneurs and business professionals have a secret: their lifestyle. It’s why so many people work for health insurance providers like Primerica. Just take a look at the benefits at Primerica reviews. Often it’s not because they’re just smarter or better than everyone else – it’s that they have a lifestyle foundation that enables them to reach their full potential.
But it’s not just high-flyers who can benefit from better health and lifestyles: it’s regular people too. In fact, many entrepreneurs are taking the lessons from their personal lives and trying to share them through smart business models with the general public. People at the top of business realize that lifestyle is vital for helping them achieve their goals, and they want to share that energy with everyone else.
The result is a wave of people looking to become health entrepreneurs. But what’s driving it? Why are so many people taking courses at universities in an attempt to give them the educational basis they need for being in the medical sector?
The Need To Solve Problems
Healthcare is in crisis. As a share of national output, it’s grown from an already hefty 10 percent to nearly 19 percent today. It’s a tremendous overhead that drags the economy and takes money from the pockets of ordinary people who have to fund the creaking system through insurance contributions and taxes. Suffice to say, healthcare shouldn’t be so expensive, and elsewhere in the world, it’s not.
There are all kinds of problems in the healthcare sector that need solving fast. Perhaps the main issue is that many treatments for common diseases just aren’t that effective. Stents only last a few years before losing their efficacy despite costing more than $60,000 per operation. Diabetes medications only mask symptoms; they don’t deal with the underlying dysfunction. And a patient who receives radiation treatment for a tumor is considered a cancer survivor if they live more than five years from initial diagnosis. Many go on to die soon after. The system needs to change.
Another problem is wait times, queues and general inefficiency. Unlike many businesses that can provide a fabulous quantity of services from the employment of just a few people, the same cannot be said of healthcare. Entrepreneurs know this, and they’re looking for ways to cut down on the number of medical staff while at the same increasing the number of treatments available to patients.
Other problems include inflexible scheduling – something patients want to be fixed fast, and lack of customer service. It’s just too hard to get hold of medical professionals when you need them.
The Need To Improve The Experience For All Stakeholders
Many people go to institutions like Baylor University, get their medical qualifications, and then enter the system only to find that paperwork takes up all their time. The administrative burden on medical professionals today is far higher than it ever was in the past, thanks to compliance and patient data requirements. It’s becoming overwhelming and leading to higher costs and a lower quality experience for patients. While the bureaucrats have had their way, the result is something worse for everyone.
Compliance requirements are, unfortunately, here to stay, even with the present administration. But now there is now a range of companies offering software solutions that help to cut the time that doctors and other practitioners need to spend filling out forms and collating records. Electronic health record software, for instance, allows doctors and their patients to edit documents through the cloud and automate data protection compliance, cutting down on admin time. There’s an opportunity, therefore, for this kind of product – digital tools that help doctors spend less time on bureaucratic detours that don’t add value and concentrate on patients.
There’s another reason healthcare entrepreneurs are focusing on multiple stakeholders: that’s just the way the medical system works. Most decisions are made by committee, and so any product must appeal to the majority of members. Most medical institutions want services that make their lives easier, cut down on waste, and improve doctor-patient interactions. If you have an idea for how you can do that, you need to know how to sell it to all of the different interest groups in the medical sector.
The Need To Get Costs Under Control
The reason medical costs are out of control has to do with the way the system is set up. Insurance companies pay out for care to medical facilities that carry out expensive or unnecessary procedures. A lot of what goes on is corrupt. But with that said, there are always ways for regular entrepreneurs to get costs down and stabilize the system which is becoming increasingly out of control.
One of the most promising areas right now is telemedicine. Doctors can provide advice to patients online, cutting their costs and increasing the number of people they can see in an hour. It’s not quite a substitute for face-to-face interactions, but can be an excellent time-saver for things like repeat prescriptions and remote diagnostic tests.
Other startups are looking at ways to make medical costs more transparent. If people knew how much procedures cost, there might be some pressure to get prices down and improve treatment.
Advice To People Who Want Impactful Careers In The Medical Sector
The medical sector is, unfortunately, difficult to change. But that doesn’t mean that there’s no role for entrepreneurs. The key is to identify the pain points of people in the industry and then give them a tool that helps solve them.
Being an entrepreneur in the realm of health care can be a lot of fun, thanks to the challenge of finding solutions that fit with industry requirements. If you can make a product that professionals in the sector can’t live without, then you’re well on your way to success.
This article is contributed by Jason Dirkham
