Bringing a lasting
change to healthcare
Not Just in Sickness…but Also in Health: Moving beyond Sickcare to Health Optimization for All
For as much as healthcare dominates our thinking, would you guess that most of us spend less than one-percent of our time in a clinical setting? With such a small window of influence, our current sickcare system defaults to treating only what ails a patient, rather than managing their overall health.
We know definitively that clinical care only accounts for 30% of our health status. That means the choices patients make during the other 99% of the time they aren’t in a doctor’s office or speaking with a physician accounts for 70% of their overall health status. Given these complicated but unavoidable realities, I wonder if if our current system is solving the right problems, much less administering the proper solutions.
In Not Just in Sickness…but Also in Health, readers are guided through my diagnosis of today’s healthcare system, one that in only treating ailments puts an undue strain on costly clinical care. Instead of treating sickness, this book argues that both patients and physicians alike must begin seeking to improve health outcomes for every individual. A shift from reactive treatment to proactive behavioral changes.
What is the ultimate aim of a health system if not to help every individual be as healthy as they are capable of being? I argue that by systematically focusing on daily living activities like diet, exercise, access to nutritious foods, access to affordable insurance, and other social determinants of health, patients are empowered to become their own best health advocates. With a renewed sense of ownership and the support of clinical experts, it’s possible to revolutionize our healthcare system and free patients from the sickcare cycle!
This is an excellent resource for both healthcare workers (physicians, nurses, managers, hospital administrators, etc) and for the public – a manual for facilitating needed change. Highly recommended.
As someone who has grown up in the U.S. but lived a while in a country with affordable national healthcare, I can admit there both are benefits and limitations. Other countries tend to leave out mental health care or preventive care, but have systems that are a lot more affordable and don’t systematically drive people into bankruptcy.
The overview that Margolis gives is well-researched, and feels very plausible. It’s an interesting read, and I think good for everyone to reflect on where we sit in our system.
The Healthcare Cure: How Sharing Information Can Make the System Work Better
In this lucidly presented and forward-looking book, the author proposes a needed and workable solution to the challenge of providing affordable health care for all Americans. Margolis takes a fresh look at the healthcare system from the perspective of various industry participants, to reveal how the system can be adjusted to produce better results by combining information technology with the right incentives. Drawing on real-world examples from other industries such as retail and automotive that consumers can understand, Margolis describes how a better system can be designed and is in fact within our grasp.
As both a healthcare executive and a healthcare consumer living with a severe chronic illness, Margolis offers a unique perspective that combines both management and consumer viewpoints. He understands health care and is able to evaluate it from the outside and inside as an overall system. His vision for health care is called Integrated Healthcare Management (IHM) and it employs a systems science approach to optimize the coordination of benefits and care to ultimately provide more value for every healthcare dollar spent.
IHM is practical because it builds upon our healthcare model today and describes specific steps to create the system of tomorrow-affordably and sustainably. Both professionals working in health care and members of the public interested in a healthcare solution will find the insights in this book informative and useful
