Healthcare systems and governments worldwide are trying to curb rising costs while improving patient care and outcomes. This has led to a growing interest in healthcare integration – i.e., co-ordinating services among providers through formal or informal means. Supporters of integration say that, properly managed, it can yield a healthier population and save money. It can also help minimise hospitalisations, reduce the need for costly rehospitalisations and prevent service duplication.

This is a research report written by the Economist Intelligence Unit, sponsored by Roche.  Brazil's economy is booming on the back of deepening credit markets, a growing middle class and rising investment in physical infrastructure, but serious shortcomings in its healthcare sector represent one of the key constraints on attaining developed-country standards of prosperity.  Making the healtcare sector more effective--and innovative--will require sweeping changes to the business practices of healthcare providers and life science companies.

• The CIO’s role is expected to become increasingly strategic as IT adoption accelerates… Many healthcare CIOs already occupy “dramatically more strategic” positions within their organisations than a decade ago: “We create solutions that speak to key business issues such as competitiveness and patient safety—many more areas that we previously did not get actively involved in,” says one interviewee. Currently, however, the survey shows only a minority are involved in boardroom discussions on any major strategic initiative.

• Extending healthcare to rural areas is a key challenge. Indonesia’s island geography makes extending coverage of healthcare services to rural regions even more challenging than it is in other countries. As a result, the divide is extreme: while in 2006 urban areas had one doctor for every 2,763 inhabitants, in rural regions the ratio was one for every 16,792 people. Consequently, health outcomes are much worse: tuberculosis, to take one example, strikes 59 in every 100,000 people in Java and Bali but as many as 189 in Papua.

No executive can have witnessed the humbling of global banks and insurers in the recent financial crisis without wondering whether their organisation should be doing a better job of identifying, measuring and managing risk. One clear lesson from the turmoil is that neither a high level of regulation nor long experience in dealing with risk is adequate protection.

Doctor innovation: Shaking up the health system is an Economist Intelligence Unit report, commissioned by Philips, the second in a series of four to be published in 2009. The Economist Intelligence Unit bears sole responsibility for the content of this report. The findings and views expressed within do not necessarily reflect the views of Philips. 

Fixing healthcare is an Economist Intelligence Unit report commissioned by Philips, the first in a series of four to be published in 2009. The Economist Intelligence Unit bears sole responsibility for the content of this report. The findings and views expressed within do not necessarily reflect the views of Philips.

The Economist Intelligence Unit was commissioned by the Lien Foundation, a Singaporean philanthropic organisation, to devise a "Quality of Death" Index to rank countries according to their provision of end-of-life care.

From silver to gold: The impact of Japan’s ageing population is an Economist Intelligence Unit report, commissioned by GE. The Economist  Intelligence Unit bears sole responsibility for the content of this report. The findings and views expressed within do not necessarily reflect the views of GE.

Healthcare systems are complex, enormous and unwieldy, whether they are state-managed monoliths such as the UK’s, or dominated by the private insurance sector, as in the US. They are traditionally slow to adapt to change, but now those immovable objects are being forced to confront not just one, but several irresistible forces: demographic (ageing populations), epidemiological (increasing incidence of chronic diseases), technological (more expensive drugs and technologies) and economic (global recession, high public debt, smaller pensions).