HS&M - June/July 2014

Change vs. Chaos

When publishers Cari Kraft and Lisa Rafter contacted me about editing HS&M, I was intrigued by this idea: I hadn’t thought about it, but there is no other healthcare publication that marries the two disciplines. And what an interesting time to cover that territory. “Interesting,” of course, in the sense of the apocryphal Chinese curse.

I was telling a colleague about the new magazine, and when I mentioned the changes
that are happening right now, he laughed. His reaction was to the term “changes,” which
doesn’t begin to describe what’s happening to us. More like “upheaval,” “tsunami,” or
“chaos.”
I began to see this when my father-in-law, a “family doc” (as we used to call them) decided to retire about
fifteen years ago. He had done fine with just one nurse and an office manager for many years, and the thought
of devoting more resources to the additional payor paperwork that was consuming them was just not worth it.
Since then, the complexities and challenges for everyone have multiplied tenfold.

This is why I admire everyone who has chosen to enter his profession since. They know it isn’t going to be easy, or as lucrative as it used to be, but they do it because they’re dedicated to making a difference.

Which is also true of the many people at pharma, bio and device companies, hospitals and clinics, payors and other players in our industry. Every client I’ve ever worked with in healthcare (and I’ve covered the geography) has said that patients were foremost in their minds. Having observed thousands of these people over the years, I truly believe most of them are passionately dedicated to that proposition.

In this inaugural issue, we tackle one of the big topics: what are the major shifts happening in our industry, and how are the best sales and marketing organizations addressing these changes? These range from the increasing dominance of IT in the field, to the related issue of social media, to regulatory requirements, to the impending patent cliff and more. Of course, we couldn’t get it all in our first issue, but at least we’ll start the conversation. Thanks for joining us in this venture, and please give us your feedback. There’s so much to cover, and how we prioritize issues will depend on your input. Let’s make it happen together. And let’s make a difference.