Chris Zaal Outlines How Entrepreneurs Can Empower the Changing Medical Profession | Chris Zaal
Chris Zaal Outlines How Entrepreneurs Can Empower the Changing Medical Profession
The medical industry has undergone a rapid evolution over the past century. A hundred years ago, antibiotics weren’t even available, and humanity was still figuring out the basics of how the body functioned. Now, medical practitioners have an advanced array of technologies at their fingertips, which has helped improve care and outcomes. Serial entrepreneur Chris Zaal argues that entrepreneurs can help empower the medical industry and is going to explain why.
“Challenges abound,” Chris Zaal argues, “and medical practitioners have a lot to handle while caring for their patients. Just as inventors drove healthcare innovation in the past, entrepreneurs can deliver innovation today and tomorrow.”
So how can entrepreneurs help? Chris Zaal recommends looking at current pain points and challenges, then devising innovative solutions to address them.
“A lot of doctors struggle to deal with huge loads of paperwork,” Chris Zaal notes. “This reduces the amount of time they can spend with patients, drives up costs, and wears doctors out. Entrepreneurs are looking at ways to streamline healthcare administration, and I believe that in the long run they’ll succeed.”
In the medical industry, talent is hard to come by. While many people have attended medical school, nursing programs, and other medical training programs, there’s still a shortage of skilled workers.
“By providing flexible, effective training programs through colleges and private organizations, entrepreneurs can help address labor shortages,” Chris Zaal says.
Another major area that entrepreneurs can assist with is patient communication.
“Often, patients don’t take medications as prescribed,” Chris Zaal points out. “By building messaging services and apps, entrepreneurs can help patients follow directions and stick to schedules. This will increase effectiveness of care while reducing strain on medical practitioners.”
One area Chris Zaal is personally working in is preventative testing and care. He believes preventative care could be of tremendous benefit for the American healthcare system.
“According to the CDC, about three quarters of our healthcare spending goes to preventable chronic diseases,” Chris Zaal says. “By increasing diagnostics, and making testing more affordable, reliable, and quicker, we can catch more diseases early, protecting patients now and lowering lifetime healthcare costs.”
Chris Zaal Says Entrepreneurs Can Help Lower Costs
Healthcare in the United States is expensive and costs keep rising. Stories abound of people paying hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even millions, for treatment. At the national level, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services report that the US expends about 17.7 percent of its GDP on providing healthcare. Unfortunately, costs may continue to climb, but Chris Zaal believes entrepreneurs can provide assistance.
“There’s no silver bullet for reducing healthcare costs,” Chris Zaal says. “However, entrepreneurs can lower education costs for medical professionals by coming up with innovative, efficient training programs. Software and other solutions can be created to reduce paperwork and administration costs. Many other opportunities exist.”
What will healthcare look like in the future? It’s hard to say, but entrepreneurs will probably contribute to many advances.
Originally published at http://chriszaal.net.