HEALTHCARE & WELLNESS

TEAM MEMBERS :
SHYAM DAS TONY THOMAS VISHNU RAJ VISHNU RAJ.V

OVERVIEW
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers. Access to health care varies across countries, groups and individuals, largely influenced by social and economic conditions as well as the health policies in place. Health care systems are organizations established to meet the health needs of target populations.

 In some countries and jurisdictions, health care planning is distributed among market participants, whereas in others planning is made more centrally among governments or other coordinating bodies. According to the WHO, a well-functioning health care system requires - robust financing mechanism. - well-trained and adequately-paid workforce. - reliable information on which to base decisions and policies. - well maintained facilities and logistics to deliver quality medicines and technologies.

 Health care can form a significant part of a country's economy. Health care is conventionally regarded as an important determinant in promoting the general health and wellbeing of people around the world. An example of this is the worldwide eradication of smallpox in 1980declared by the WHO as the first disease in human history to be completely eliminated by deliberate health care interventions.

EXACT FIGURES
The 2011/2012 Towers Watson India Health and Productivity Survey found that health and productivity (H&P) strategies are catching on but employers still have a distance to run and found that : - The majority of companies in India say that H&P improvement is essential to their organisations health strategy and 73% expect to increase or significantly increase H&P program support over the next two years. - The top three most prevalent conditions leading to shortand long-term disability are maternity (cited by 87% of employers), accidents (62%) and gastrointestinal (30%).

- Management involvement in a companys H&P strategy is low only 16% of employers use their senior leaders and managers as personal role models, and almost a third (29%) of employers do not involve senior management in H&P in any way.
- High-effectiveness companies (ranked by the effectiveness of their H&P strategies over 21 aspects) are leading the way. Stress or resilience management programs are offered by 63% of high-effectiveness companies compared to 25% of low-effectiveness companies; and wellness campaigns are implemented by 60% of higheffectiveness compared to 20% of low-effectiveness companies.

COMMON MARKETING PRACTICES

In many respects, marketing a health care organization or practice is not substantially different from marketing a small business in other industries. 1. Most owners of health care businesses typically have little business training, education or experience prior to owning their first private healthcare company 2. Health care practitioners have a greater concern for their reputation with colleagues (who are also often competitors).

 Health care organizations have to conform to (or at least consider) marketing and advertising guidelines imposed by their state licensing boards In many health care professions and specialties, health care businesses must conform to Medicare and other health care insurance guidelines that limit their ability to offer special pricing discounts and related special offers to their customers. Unlike in other industries, most health care business owners are conditioned and/or inclined to view the fundamental business enterprise of marketing as inappropriate, distasteful, undesirable and even unethical.

The irony here is two-fold : - it has been easier for healthcare practices to be successful in marketing than in almost any other small business environment because so few competitors really engage seriously in the competitive arena; and, - some of the more ambitious entrepreneurs who have enjoyed great personal success in their practice are not considered by their colleagues to be the best or most skilled clinical providers simply the best marketers.

 The practical reality of clinical care is that most patients cannot judge the quality of clinical care unless it's really bad and/or painful. Patients generally assume most providers to be of roughly equal quality or you wouldn't have a license to practice. It's up to the provider to make a compelling positive case for differentiation and to prove their claims with the quality of the care provided.

COMMON TRENDS
Technology will lead the way The empowered consumer continues to rise Retail plays an increased role Awareness and prevention will have a renewed focus Digital, social and mobile a priority Open data access continues Line between healthcare insurers and providers continues to blur Increased government involvement and focus Cost transparency

REFERENCES
www.healthcaresuccess.com www.healthcare.gov http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care www.healthcare.bayer.com