Can COVID-19 bend the curve of healthcare inflation cost as we are forced to innovate?

The answer is yes, but with a big “if”.

As markets from the US to UK and Hong Kong continue to grapple with curbing the spread or resurgence of COVID-19, we are reminded that this will be a long-drawn battle. There are many lessons to be learnt, but one thing that has been clear is that innovation and technology will play a central role in our new way of life. Companies across the spectrum – from F&Bs and retailers – must be nimble to adapt to this new reality or risk decline or worse, failure.

For the healthcare sector, COVID-19 has similarly accelerated a “healthcare consumer” trend. Patients now expect a seamless continuum of care from home to brick-and-mortar facilities, and value for their money. This is fair. After all, it is rare for any industry to expect customers to pay for a service without clarity on price or outcomes.

To meet these evolving needs, we need to embrace innovation. While costly at the start, innovation will pay itself off handsomely over a longer run. One example is in genomic sequencing. In just a decade, the unit cost has come down from a prohibitive US$10 million to about US$1,000 today.

This is the power of innovation at scale – of what can be achieved with collective will towards a worthy goal. And because the healthcare sector was able to bend the cost curve significantly, many patients today benefit from tailored and therefore more effective treatment, fostering greater trust between the practitioner and the patient.

With our international scale and wide network of healthcare facilities, IHH Healthcare is taking leadership in this domain of innovation. But we are also awake to the fact that no one person or organisation can achieve step change alone.

This is why we partner and invest into disruptive companies in the fields of predictive AI and medtech, even as we roll out telemedicine in our key markets and use AI to provide more accurate financial modelling for patients in Singapore.

The more we disrupt ourselves as an industry, the more patients stand to gain. As they do, they trust us more and their trust is what will underpin our long-term sustainability as a business.

Granted, technology alone is no substitute for professional expertise and quality care. But it is a tool we can use to create new possibilities, unveil a new reality and transform care for our patients. The question is whether the collective public and private healthcare sector have the will to believe in the same.