Hot off the press: HMI article leads off global health issue of top journal
Today the February 2008 issue of leading academic journal Academic Medicine is online and in mailboxes. The theme of this issue is global health, and the lead article is authored by Robert K. Crone, MD, the founding president and chief executive officer of HMI.
Entitled “Flat Medicine? Exploring Trends in the Globalization of Health Care,” the article presents the context in which we at HMI collaborate with our partners around the world. Drawing on examples from our work in Dubai, Turkey, and India, the article describes a global health care landscape that is undergoing a major transformation, with ramifications for patients, providers, and governments not only outside the United States, but in our own local communities.
From the article abstract:
Trailing nearly every other industry, health care is finally globalizing. Highly trained and experienced expatriate health care professionals are returning to their home countries from training in the West or are staying home to work in newly developed corporate health care delivery systems that can compete quite favorably with less-than-perfect providers in Europe and North America. In turn, these health care systems are attracting patients from around the world who are interested in exploring high-quality, lower-cost health care alternatives. Much of this activity is occurring in the emerging economies of the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, and beyond. Three Harvard Medical International collaborations-in Dubai, Turkey, and India-highlight these trends and demonstrate the potential for new models of global health care, as well as potential ramifications for patients and providers in the established economies of the West, including the United States. Although globalization is not a cure-all solution to achieving universal access to health care, it is not only a significant first step for patients in these emerging economies, but may also present alternative solutions for those patients in wealthier nations who nonetheless lack adequate health care coverage. The increase in health care quality and competitiveness around the globe is important, but these improvements will need to be matched by the development of comprehensive payer solutions, to benefit as many people as possible.
