Healthcare in the United States, New Zealand, or the Netherlands carries its own set of traditions, culture, payment mechanisms, and patient expectations. Gaze ahead through a different lens. Healthcare will no longer be shaped by the differences of our past but by the commonalties of our future. As we discuss in the coming pages, providers and purchasers will face similar challenges in the 2010 healthcare economy. Thanks to the Internet, telecommunications and a proactive consumer, the healthcare world is smaller.
Consumers shop for healthcare information on web pages from their homes.
Their appetite for healthcare service and health information is insatiable. They want more. Forecasting the future of the global healthcare industry is risky business. That's why we describe not one path forward, but many. Some paths can be foreseen and others cannot.