Boston Consulting Group sees that global and Indian healthcare systems are facing the reality of rapidly growing treatment costs. Since healthcare costs in most countries are growing faster than GDP, the focus on treatment outcomes would enable improving overall patient quality.

“Globally, we see an increased focus on healthcare value as a way to ‘bend the cost curve’. There is an increased effort to ensure transparency in providing quality patient care outcomes,” Jennifer Clawson, associate director, BCG and Priyanka Aggarwal, partner, Healthcare Practice, BCG India told Pharmabiz.

The emphasis is on digital healthcare which is improving efficiency for patients, clinicians and other stakeholders. In India too, it is imperative to increase healthcare value, given the constrained resources and limited overall spend compared to the rest of the world, they added.

In the current healthcare scenario there are three emerging trends. First is the power of technology which is transforming healthcare outcomes. Although, India is far behind in tracking outcomes for different disease conditions, there exists a huge potential in leveraging technology. Secondly, there is a trust deficit in healthcare institutions particularly the patient-doctor or patient-hospital relationship. The only way to address this mistrust is transparency in operations. Thirdly, there is need for healthcare delivery infrastructure. Further it would also be vital to focus on a new healthcare model to maximise the outcomes per unit of cost spent, stated the BCG officials.

The value-based health care concept, is proven in multiple countries, with multiple medical conditions and patient groups. The focus on outcomes can improve patient conditions and simultaneously lower the overall care costs, said Aggarwal.

In a sector where there are competing incentives for healthcare providers to maximise procedures, life science companies try to maximise revenues from drugs and payers to manage costs efficiently, the emphasis on treatment outcomes is critical. This is where the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM), a not-for-profit entity develops standard sets of outcomes by medical condition. To date, ICHOM has developed 12 outcomes standard sets, addressing roughly a third of the global disease burden. These sets are defined by working groups comprised of leading international clinicians, researchers, care-givers and patient representatives, stated Clawson.

The consulting major is of the view that clinicians should adopt increased transparency around outcomes. This is because transparency of patient outcomes is a pre-requisite in an era of competition in the healthcare space. It suggests that the simplest way to compete on outcomes is to ensure transparency of treatment data.

“There is need to encourage development of best clinical practices and reduce variation in treatments. Such effort require both change in mindset among clinicians who must begin to use the dissemination of outcomes data as an essential public health obligation,” said the BCG officials.

In the new and more integrated and networked healthcare landscape, an innovative set of capabilities will be particularly important to compete. Access to outcomes and cost data at patient group level is critical not only to drive performance but respond to payers demands. Therefore every healthcare provider should invest in health economics expertise, epidemiological and statistics knowledge to analyse the outcomes data, said Clawson and Aggarwal.