The 'Flattening' of Global Healthcare

Anthony Rudine -- As part of my MBA in Health Organization Management, I am required to take a business class this semester – Organizational Behavior. Our professor has assigned us to read the book The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. The book's premise deals with the globalization of the world's economies, claiming that the world is changing in a way that it has never changed before. For example, it discusses outsourcing and its impact on many industries, most notably that of information technology.

Many of you know that US hospitals outsource some of their radiology services to the other side of the world, so that more immediate results can be received for the patient, as radiologists in the Western hemisphere can be awake for only so long. I wonder how the increasing globalization of the world -- its "flattening" -- will affect medicine and medical education.

For starters, the one thing that cannot be outsourced, or influenced by flattening, is the physician patient relationship. Service at the bedside in a time of need can come only from the physician at hand, at the hospital. However, does the traditional physician patient relationship even exist any longer? Some of you will argue that it does, and I tend to agree in some instances. However, I have heard other physicians discuss that the physician patient relationship of old is now only a myth, a fairy tale of sorts.

So, my point is this – if the physician does not have the relationship with patients as it once was, what is to stop the further globalization of the US, and for that matter, every country's healthcare industry?

In the age of cost cutting, hospitals are continuously looking for ways to improve efficiencies and save money. As are insurance companies. As is every other company in every other industry in the world – I see no problem with that. I just am unsure of the future of the industry as a whole.

At my medical school, there are many small towns that surround our somewhat larger city. Telemedicine and teleconferences are becoming common as physicians in underserved areas look to the major academic institution for assistance.

Following this logic, it makes just as much sense to globalize the telemedicine conferences – patients get sick at night, too. And the cost is substantially lower.

Where will globalization take us? If the world is truly becoming flatter, what will the future of medicine and the practicing physician be in 20 years? More interestingly, how will patients respond to the globalization of healthcare if it is in fact, inevitable?

Only time will tell. But one thing is certain – I hope that in another 20 years, I can still practice medicine in the way I envisioned it to be when I signed up.