IN the wake of a global recession and amid rising national health costs, healthcare will grow increasingly
customised and patient-friendly in an attempt to empower patients to take greater responsibility for their own health, a report said.
According to the report by the Pricewaterhouse-Coopers’ (PwC) Health Research Institute, 97 per cent of those surveyed agreed that patients should have some responsibility for managing their chronic conditions – such as obesity, asthma, diabetes and heart disease – while 57 per cent reckon these patients should accept a great deal of responsibility.
“When PwC surveyed global health leaders about the most effective strategies to engage individuals in their own health, the top two answers were health education and greater awareness,” the report said.
While 86 per cent of respondents believe the prevailing attitude in their country is that the government will continue to assume responsibility for basic healthcare, the general consensus was that individuals were in the best position to influence their own health.
“There is growing recognition that only if the patient is included in the equation, it is possible for health systems to adequately manage care, consumption and spending,” said Tan Shong Ye, healthcare leader of PwC Singapore.
“The overarching challenge for incumbent health systems will be to shift their internal focus to one that puts the patients at the centre of care and engage them to be active stakeholders in their health and the health
system.”
Around three quarters of respondents agreed that lack of knowledge and access to health information keeps individuals from managing their health. However, thanks to the proliferation of the Internet, social media such as Twitter as well as mobile communication, consumers will have “unprecedented access and knowledge”.
Online databases, social networking and individual communities are creating new ways to share information that individuals can understand, the report noted.
The survey polled close to 600 global government and health industry leaders.