It's not really a surprise that the #UShealthcare system isn't delivery much bang for its buck. And as a #Canadian who also has strong ties to #Japan , it's also not surprising that the #Japanesehealthcare system comes out with one of the best expenditure/life expectancy outcomes. Why?
Japan truly takes a preventative approach to people's health. Before retiring, my father-in-law had an annual 360 health check which included blood work, in-person assessment and a battery of scans. Every single year.
One year they found pre-cancerous polyps that were immediately treated. Another year, it was a minor operation for his eye.
Having done extensive interviews for #patients in #Ontario I can assure you that this is rarely the case here: patients are frequently dismissed, have to fight for testing or only get a CT scan or MRI when they wind up in an #emergencydepartment in an acute situation . Not only does this lead to poorer outcomes, it also costs more in the long run.
Ontario Health and the Ontario Government are working hard on ensuring #integratedcare once a person enters "the system" and that is noble and ambitious work.
But we'll never realize Japan-level outcomes until we actually put some money, time and effort into a #prevention and #earlyintervention strategy.
Of course, that's less "sexy" as it's harder to show the people that DIDN'T need to access a clinical pathway because they were able to prevent or eliminate a health condition entirely due to early intervention.
But a healthier population, living longer and better without breaking the bank seems pretty sexy to us! :)
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