Innovations Transforming Medicine – And Opportunities For Behavioral Health

I just read Gardiner Morse's great piece in Harvard Business Review, Ten Innovations That Will Transform Medicine. One of the ten – behavioral economics – reinforced my thinking that care management services for consumers with chronic physical health conditions is a great new market opportunity for behavioral health organizations. "If we all acted rationally, we'd eat right, floss, and take our pills as directed. But of course we can be pretty disobedient about doctors' orders, which not only is bad for our health but costs hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Behavioral economics tools — gentle prods that nudge us to behave in desired ways — may be more effective than any amount of browbeating by doctors... reminders, social pressure, default options, rewards, and other behavioral tricks can be used to improve compliance in stroke and diabetes patients... " I think that aggressive innovation organizations that are currently managing care (longitudinally) for consumers with a mental illness or addiction can be the ones to own the future chronic disease space (and, I think Alzheimer's disease, other dementias, diabetes, and strokes are great areas to start...)

P.S. The ten innovations that will transform medicine (according to Mr. Morse) are:

1. Checklists
2. Behavioral economics
3. Patient portals
4. Payment innovations
5. Evidence-based decisionmaking
6. Accountable care organizations
7. Virtual visits
8. Regenerative medicine
9. Surgical robots
10. Genetic medicine