I’ve written a few times in the past about the need to redesign healthcare so that people are supported in staying healthy rather than fixed when they’re sick.
In Reverse Innovation In Healthcare Vijay Govindarajan highlights the work of Iora Health. The healthcare startup have attempted to disrupt healthcare by keeping patients out of hospital whenever possible. Rather than waiting until patients are unwell and requiring expensive treatment, their service revolves around so called health coaches, who work in the community to do all they can to keep people healthy and well.
“Our Health Coaches are relationship builders between the patients and their care teams,” Iora say. “They are screened and hired for their ability to connect deeply with people because our Health Coaches are more than caregivers.”
Suffice to say, they’ve been able to build a healthcare system from the ground up to have coaches as the centrepiece, but for most established providers, they can do nothing but start from where they already are.
Sustainable healthcare
Non chronic conditions that are either caused by or exacerbated by poor lifestyle choices are rendering modern healthcare largely unsustainable. In the UK alone, adult obesity levels are forecast to reach 40% by 2030, with diabetes predicted to rise by a third in the same timeframe. It’s likely to result in 70% of healthcare spending going on managing long-term conditions.
It is vital therefore that the common risk factors behind these diseases are tackled and societies work collectively towards reducing them via behavior change. This is where health coaching can come into its own.
It’s an approach that the research conducted to date suggests can be hugely beneficial. For instance, one paper from 2016 found health coaching to be beneficial in reducing blood sugar levels. This was followed by a second paper involving health coaching in Turkey and Denmark, which found that participants who received coaching for a year were able to reduce their blood glucose levels by an average of 6%. This doesn’t sound much, but the International Diabetes Foundation regard a 1% reduction as a significant improvement.
Similar results have appeared in other fields, suggesting it’s an approach that not only makes a difference to the management of conditions and lifestyle of individuals, but is also capable of doing so at a relatively low cost compared to expensive hospital based treatments.
This has not yet really translated into changes in healthcare provision however, and indeed the NHS still doesn’t have any form of professionally accredited health coach. Time will tell how efficiently healthcare providers will make the shift, but we can take some inspiration from the work of Iora Health that it is possible.
