The bill from the doctor does not help – Newspaper Kommersant No. 4 (7449) dated 01/12/2023

The World Economic Forum (WEF) presented a report on the outlook for health by 2025. Its authors recall the unprecedented investment in medicine that began three years ago and continues to this day. At the same time, if at the beginning of the pandemic, the authorities, including Russian ones, spent their budgets mainly on solving current problems — the construction of infection centers, medical purchases, and additional payments to doctors (including due to the postponement of the “planned” modernization of hospitals), today analysts note the need to increase the efficiency of investments in medicine and advise linking payment for medical services to their effectiveness.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, global healthcare has experienced significant growth: spending on it is expected to reach $12 trillion in 2022 (in 2018, one and a half times less, $8.5 trillion). At the same time, with the recession of covid, the nature of investment in the industry is changing – for example, in 2022, when vaccines were already developed and additional hospitals were completed, investments in digital technologies began to grow. In this regard, one of the areas that WEF recommends paying attention to is artificial intelligence, the introduction of which can significantly increase the efficiency of medicine: in addition to a diagnostic tool and a workflow operator, AI today and in the near future is one of the main assistants to a doctor in making decisions. . Investors may also be interested in the development of virtual and augmented reality technologies and the creation of metaverses as platforms for training medical staff, the development of telemedicine, as well as modeling the patient’s well-being and reactions to medical intervention. According to WEF forecasts, in 2023 “health care at home” will actively develop: at the same time, unlike in 2020, we are now talking not so much about drug delivery, but about advanced methods of remote patient diagnostics.

A significant part of the funds invested by the authorities in medicine at the beginning of the pandemic was spent on incentive payments to doctors and mobilization of healthcare systems – for example, in the Russian Federation, the planned modernization of hospitals was shifted to finance these programs (see Kommersant dated April 16, 2020). At the same time, it turned out to be difficult to refuse special support for medical workers, as experts expected, with the exit from the pandemic. Thus, this week the government adopted a resolution on the payment of monthly allowances to 1.1 million healthcare workers in the amount of 4.5 thousand to 18.5 thousand rubles. (for more details, see “Kommersant” dated January 9). Similar processes were typical for the whole world, and WEF analysts, concerned about accelerating the rise in prices for medical services, suggest that the authorities focus on finding new solutions to turn large-scale injections into a more even and efficient development of the industry. Another report from the WEF focuses on the benefits of a performance-based pricing approach that pays not for the volume of medical services provided to the patient, but for their results, which should reduce the number of unnecessary medical interventions and stimulate research focused on more efficient work of doctors and medical equipment.

In addition, the WEF notes that in 2023 the problems that were caused by the pandemic will persist, but are exacerbated by political conflicts, including the Russian military operation in Ukraine (supply chain breaks, macroeconomic instability, shortage of workers and deterioration in the mental health of citizens). The main recommendations of the WEF, addressed to the authorities, are to stimulate investments in innovative developments and optimization of logistics faster and more efficiently, as well as to improve state regulation, which will allow investments to be directed to solving rather than conserving problems.

Christina Borovikova