Danish magazine to rock the European healthcare silos?

You should never underestimate the impact Danish magazine Monday Morning has on national politics. Denmark has set the standard for consumer friendly healthcare information in Europe the last couple of years with their public quality ranking of hospitals etc. A lot of these initiatives started soon after MM late 2006 and early 2007 published healthcare reports on consumer friendly healthcare and patient choice. So watch out when they now take on the healthcare sector again! In Marsh, they published a report on the future healthcare with a focus on the healthcare professional. It’s in Danish but you can find it here. The report use the Physiotherapists as an example and starting point for how specific groups in healthcare can ad value and help solve the issues for the future healthcare system. I think they are spot on even if report at a first glance is not very ground breaking.

One of the main points of the report is that in the future there is a need to ensure a better continuity for the patients. The various professions in the healthcare sector just has to start co-operate. One might think this was obvious but its not. Power plays in between various groups are sad to stay in the way. The report also points out that physical activity is the next generation pharmaceuticals and the need to recognize physical activity as an integral part of healthcare. Another point is that new competences are needed to be thought through for the professionals. As an example; training in patient management leading to the profession being “experts in empowerment”. Here its suggested that the physiotherapists should take a lead since it is more obvious for them than others that if patient do not believe in a treatment it does not work and all patients have different needs. The reports ends in taking on the healthcare silo management mentality – it claims that the healthcare sector needs to be looked up!

This may be obvious truths for healthcare policy specialists. However, messaging is not only about the fact and about figures it is also about finding the right channel and audience. This is the right channel: it is a report from a seriously heavy political magazine and think tank. They reach and change the mindset of a wider audience than is common for healthcare reports. Reaching this wider audience is essential for abolishing the silo mentality in care. Since this is not a concern only for the traditional healthcare providers – it is an issue of ensuring that parts that traditionally belongs to social care, the social insurance system etc join forces with the traditional healthcare part. It gives me hope and I’m curious to see the effects. They might certainly with some years delay, really rock European healthcare silos. I hope MM have more in the pipe-line.