Health profession
Encyclopedia
The health care industry, or medical industry, is the sector of the economic system
that provides goods and services to treat patients with curative
, preventive
, rehabilitative
, palliative
, or, at times, unnecessary
care. The modern health care sector is divided into many sub-sectors, and depends on interdisciplinary teams of trained professionals and paraprofessional
s to meet health needs of individuals and populations.
The health care industry is one of the world's largest and fastest-growing industries. Consuming over 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) of most developed nations, health care can form an enormous part of a country's economy.
(ISIC) categorizes the health care industry as generally consisting of:
This third class involves activities of, or under the supervision of, nurses, midwives, physiotherapists, scientific or diagnostic laboratories, pathology clinics, residential health facilites, or other allied health professions, e.g. in the field of optometry, hydrotherapy, medical massage, yoga therapy, music therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, chiropody, homeopathy, chiropractics, acupuncture, etc.
The Global Industry Classification Standard
and the Industry Classification Benchmark
further distinguish the industry as two main groups: (1) health care equipment & services; and (2) pharmaceuticals, biotechnology
and related life sciences
. Health care equipment and services comprise companies and entities that provide medical equipment, medical supplies, and health care services, such as hospitals, home health care providers, and nursing home
s. The second industry group comprises sectors companies that produce biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and miscellaneous scientific services.
Other approaches to defining the scope of the health care industry tend to adopt a broader definition, also including other key actions related to health, such as education and training of health professionals, regulation and management of health services delivery, provision of traditional
and complementary medicines, and administration of health insurance
.
is an institution (such as a hospital or clinic) or person (such as a physician, nurse, allied health professional or community health worker
) that provides preventive, curative, promotional
, rehabilitative or palliative care services in a systematic way to individuals, families or communities.
The World Health Organization
estimates there are 9.2 million physicians, 19.4 million nurses and midwives, 1.9 million dentists and other dentistry personnel, 2.6 million pharmacists and other pharmaceutical personnel, and over 1.3 million community health workers worldwide, making the health care industry one of the largest segments of the workforce.
The medical industry is also supported by many professions that do not directly provide health care itself, but are part of the management and support of the health care system
. The incomes of managers and administrators
, underwriters and medical malpractice
attorneys, marketers, investors and shareholders of for-profit services, all are attributable to health care costs.
In 2003, health care costs paid to hospitals, physicians, nursing home
s, diagnostic
laboratories, pharmacies
, medical device
manufacturers and other components of the health care system, consumed 15.3 percent of the GDP of the United States, the largest of any country in the world. For United States, the health share of gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to hold steady in 2006 before resuming its historical upward trend, reaching 19.6 percent of GDP by 2016. In 2001, for the OECD countries the average was 8.4 percent with the United States (13.9%), Switzerland
(10.9%), and Germany (10.7%) being the top three. US health care expenditures totaled US$2.2 trillion in 2006. According to Health Affairs, US$7,498 be spent on every woman, man and child in the United States in 2007, 20 percent of all spending. Costs are projected to increase to $12,782 by 2016.
The delivery of health care services —- from primary care
to secondary and tertiary levels of care — is the most visible part of any health care system, both to users and the general public. There are many ways of providing health care in the modern world. The place of delivery may be in the home, the community, the workplace, or in health facilities. The most common way is face-to-face delivery, where care provider and patient see each other 'in the flesh'. This is what occurs in general medicine in most countries. However, with modern telecommunications technology, in absentia health care
is becoming more common. This could be when practitioner and patient communicate over the phone
, video conferencing, the internet, email, text messages, or any other form of non-face-to-face communication.
Improving access, coverage and quality of health services depends on the ways services are organized and managed, and on the incentives influencing providers and users. In market-based health care system
s, for example such as that in the United States, such services are usually paid for by the patient or through the patient's health insurance
company. Other mechanisms include government-financed systems (such as the National Health Service
in the United Kingdom). In many poorer countries, development aid
, as well as funding through charities or volunteers, help support the delivery and financing of health care services among large segments of the population.
The structure of health care charges can also vary dramatically among countries. For instance, Chinese hospital charges tend toward 50% for drugs, another major percentage for equipment, and a small percentage for health care professional fees. China has implemented a long-term transformation of its health care industry, beginning in the 1980s. Over the first twenty-five years of this transformation, government contributions to health care expenditures have dropped from 36% to 15%, with the burden of managing this decrease falling largely on patients. Also over this period, a small proportion of state-owned hospitals have been privatized. As an incentive to privatization, foreign investment in hospitals — up to 70% ownership — has been encouraged.
(also called medical travel, health tourism or global health care) is a term initially coined by travel agencies
and the mass media to describe the rapidly-growing practice of traveling across international borders to obtain health care.
Such services typically include elective procedures as well as complex specialized surgeries
such as joint replacement
(knee
/hip
), cardiac surgery
, dental surgery
, and cosmetic surgeries. However, virtually every type of health care, including psychiatry, alternative treatments, convalescent care and even burial services are available. As a practical matter, providers and customers commonly use informal channels of communication-connection-contract, and in such cases this tends to mean less regulatory or legal oversight to assure quality and less formal recourse to reimbursement or redress, if needed.
Over 50 countries have identified medical tourism as a national industry. However, accreditation
and other measures of quality vary widely across the globe, and there are risks and ethical issues that make this method of accessing medical care controversial. Also, some destinations may become hazardous or even dangerous for medical tourists to contemplate.
Economic system
An economic system is the combination of the various agencies, entities that provide the economic structure that defines the social community. These agencies are joined by lines of trade and exchange along which goods, money etc. are continuously flowing. An example of such a system for a closed...
that provides goods and services to treat patients with curative
Curative care
Curative care or curative medicine is the kind of health care traditionally oriented towards seeking a cure for an existent disease or medical condition...
, preventive
Preventive medicine
Preventive medicine or preventive care refers to measures taken to prevent diseases, rather than curing them or treating their symptoms...
, rehabilitative
Physical therapy
Physical therapy , often abbreviated PT, is a health care profession. Physical therapy is concerned with identifying and maximizing quality of life and movement potential within the spheres of promotion, prevention, diagnosis, treatment/intervention,and rehabilitation...
, palliative
Palliative care
Palliative care is a specialized area of healthcare that focuses on relieving and preventing the suffering of patients...
, or, at times, unnecessary
Overutilization
Overutilization refers to medical services that are provided with a higher volume or cost than is appropriate. In the United States, where health care costs are the highest as a percentage of GDP, overutilization is the predominant factor in its expense...
care. The modern health care sector is divided into many sub-sectors, and depends on interdisciplinary teams of trained professionals and paraprofessional
Paraprofessional
Paraprofessional is a job title given to persons in various occupational fields, such as education, healthcare, engineering and law, who are trained to assist professionals but are not themselves licensed at a professional level...
s to meet health needs of individuals and populations.
The health care industry is one of the world's largest and fastest-growing industries. Consuming over 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) of most developed nations, health care can form an enormous part of a country's economy.
Background
For purposes of finance and management, the healthcare industry is typically divided into several areas. As a basic framework for defining the sector, the United Nations' International Standard Industrial ClassificationInternational Standard Industrial Classification
The International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities is a United Nations system for classifying economic data. The United Nations Statistics Division describes it in the following terms:...
(ISIC) categorizes the health care industry as generally consisting of:
- hospital activities;
- medical and dentalDentistryDentistry is the branch of medicine that is involved in the study, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases, disorders and conditions of the oral cavity, maxillofacial area and the adjacent and associated structures and their impact on the human body. Dentistry is widely considered...
practice activities; - "other human healthHealthHealth is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...
activities"
This third class involves activities of, or under the supervision of, nurses, midwives, physiotherapists, scientific or diagnostic laboratories, pathology clinics, residential health facilites, or other allied health professions, e.g. in the field of optometry, hydrotherapy, medical massage, yoga therapy, music therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, chiropody, homeopathy, chiropractics, acupuncture, etc.
The Global Industry Classification Standard
Global Industry Classification Standard
The Global Industry Classification Standard is an industry taxonomy developed by MSCI and Standard & Poor's for use by the global financial community. The GICS structure consists of 10 sectors, 24 industry groups, 68 industries and 154 sub-industries into which S&P has categorized all major...
and the Industry Classification Benchmark
Industry Classification Benchmark
The Industry Classification Benchmark is an industry classification taxonomy developed by Dow Jones and FTSE. It is used to segregate markets into sectors within the macroeconomy...
further distinguish the industry as two main groups: (1) health care equipment & services; and (2) pharmaceuticals, biotechnology
Biotechnology
Biotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. Biotechnology also utilizes these products for manufacturing purpose...
and related life sciences
Life sciences
The life sciences comprise the fields of science that involve the scientific study of living organisms, like plants, animals, and human beings. While biology remains the centerpiece of the life sciences, technological advances in molecular biology and biotechnology have led to a burgeoning of...
. Health care equipment and services comprise companies and entities that provide medical equipment, medical supplies, and health care services, such as hospitals, home health care providers, and nursing home
Nursing home
A nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing unit , care home, rest home, or old people's home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living...
s. The second industry group comprises sectors companies that produce biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and miscellaneous scientific services.
Other approaches to defining the scope of the health care industry tend to adopt a broader definition, also including other key actions related to health, such as education and training of health professionals, regulation and management of health services delivery, provision of traditional
Traditional medicine
Traditional medicine comprises unscientific knowledge systems that developed over generations within various societies before the era of modern medicine...
and complementary medicines, and administration of health insurance
Health insurance
Health insurance is insurance against the risk of incurring medical expenses among individuals. By estimating the overall risk of health care expenses among a targeted group, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to ensure that money is...
.
Providers and professionals
A health care providerHealth care provider
A health care provider is an individual or an institution that provides preventive, curative, promotional or rehabilitative health care services in a systematic way to individuals, families or communities....
is an institution (such as a hospital or clinic) or person (such as a physician, nurse, allied health professional or community health worker
Community health worker
Community health workers are members of a community who are chosen by community members or organizations to provide basic health and medical care to their community...
) that provides preventive, curative, promotional
Health promotion
Health promotion has been defined by the World Health Organization's 2005 Bangkok Charter for Health Promotion in a Globalized World as "the process of enabling people to increase control over their health and its determinants, and thereby improve their health"...
, rehabilitative or palliative care services in a systematic way to individuals, families or communities.
The World Health Organization
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
estimates there are 9.2 million physicians, 19.4 million nurses and midwives, 1.9 million dentists and other dentistry personnel, 2.6 million pharmacists and other pharmaceutical personnel, and over 1.3 million community health workers worldwide, making the health care industry one of the largest segments of the workforce.
The medical industry is also supported by many professions that do not directly provide health care itself, but are part of the management and support of the health care system
Health care system
A health care system is the organization of people, institutions, and resources to deliver health care services to meet the health needs of target populations....
. The incomes of managers and administrators
Health administration
Health administration or healthcare administration is the field relating to leadership, management, and administration of hospitals, hospital networks, health care systems, and public health systems...
, underwriters and medical malpractice
Medical malpractice
Medical malpractice is professional negligence by act or omission by a health care provider in which the treatment provided falls below the accepted standard of practice in the medical community and causes injury or death to the patient, with most cases involving medical error. Standards and...
attorneys, marketers, investors and shareholders of for-profit services, all are attributable to health care costs.
In 2003, health care costs paid to hospitals, physicians, nursing home
Nursing home
A nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing unit , care home, rest home, or old people's home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living...
s, diagnostic
Medical diagnosis
Medical diagnosis refers both to the process of attempting to determine or identify a possible disease or disorder , and to the opinion reached by this process...
laboratories, pharmacies
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
, medical device
Medical device
A medical device is a product which is used for medical purposes in patients, in diagnosis, therapy or surgery . Whereas medicinal products achieve their principal action by pharmacological, metabolic or immunological means. Medical devices act by other means like physical, mechanical, thermal,...
manufacturers and other components of the health care system, consumed 15.3 percent of the GDP of the United States, the largest of any country in the world. For United States, the health share of gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to hold steady in 2006 before resuming its historical upward trend, reaching 19.6 percent of GDP by 2016. In 2001, for the OECD countries the average was 8.4 percent with the United States (13.9%), Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
(10.9%), and Germany (10.7%) being the top three. US health care expenditures totaled US$2.2 trillion in 2006. According to Health Affairs, US$7,498 be spent on every woman, man and child in the United States in 2007, 20 percent of all spending. Costs are projected to increase to $12,782 by 2016.
Delivery of services
-
- See also: Health care delivery
The delivery of health care services —- from primary care
Primary care
Primary care is the term for the health services by providers who act as the principal point of consultation for patients within a health care system...
to secondary and tertiary levels of care — is the most visible part of any health care system, both to users and the general public. There are many ways of providing health care in the modern world. The place of delivery may be in the home, the community, the workplace, or in health facilities. The most common way is face-to-face delivery, where care provider and patient see each other 'in the flesh'. This is what occurs in general medicine in most countries. However, with modern telecommunications technology, in absentia health care
In absentia health care
The most common mode of healthcare delivery is through personal, face-to-face contact between a healthcare provider and a beneficiary . There is, however, an increasing trend towards the provision of healthcare in the absence of a personal contact: this is known as in absentia health care.-Health...
is becoming more common. This could be when practitioner and patient communicate over the phone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
, video conferencing, the internet, email, text messages, or any other form of non-face-to-face communication.
Improving access, coverage and quality of health services depends on the ways services are organized and managed, and on the incentives influencing providers and users. In market-based health care system
Health care system
A health care system is the organization of people, institutions, and resources to deliver health care services to meet the health needs of target populations....
s, for example such as that in the United States, such services are usually paid for by the patient or through the patient's health insurance
Health insurance
Health insurance is insurance against the risk of incurring medical expenses among individuals. By estimating the overall risk of health care expenses among a targeted group, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to ensure that money is...
company. Other mechanisms include government-financed systems (such as the National Health Service
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
in the United Kingdom). In many poorer countries, development aid
Development aid
Development aid or development cooperation is aid given by governments and other agencies to support the economic, environmental, social and political development of developing countries.It is distinguished...
, as well as funding through charities or volunteers, help support the delivery and financing of health care services among large segments of the population.
The structure of health care charges can also vary dramatically among countries. For instance, Chinese hospital charges tend toward 50% for drugs, another major percentage for equipment, and a small percentage for health care professional fees. China has implemented a long-term transformation of its health care industry, beginning in the 1980s. Over the first twenty-five years of this transformation, government contributions to health care expenditures have dropped from 36% to 15%, with the burden of managing this decrease falling largely on patients. Also over this period, a small proportion of state-owned hospitals have been privatized. As an incentive to privatization, foreign investment in hospitals — up to 70% ownership — has been encouraged.
Medical tourism
Medical tourismMedical tourism
Medical tourism is a term initially coined by travel agencies and the mass media to describe the rapidly-growing practice of travelling across international borders to obtain health care...
(also called medical travel, health tourism or global health care) is a term initially coined by travel agencies
Travel agency
A travel agency is a retail business that sells travel related products and services to customers on behalf of suppliers such as airlines, car rentals, cruise lines, hotels, railways, sightseeing tours and package holidays that combine several products...
and the mass media to describe the rapidly-growing practice of traveling across international borders to obtain health care.
Such services typically include elective procedures as well as complex specialized surgeries
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
such as joint replacement
Joint replacement
Replacement arthroplasty [from Greek arthron, joint, limb, articulate, + -plassein, to form, mould, forge, feign, make an image of], or joint replacement surgery, is a procedure of orthopedic surgery in which the arthritic or dysfunctional joint surface is replaced with an orthopaedic prosthesis...
(knee
Knee replacement
Knee replacement, or knee arthroplasty, is a surgical procedure to replace the weight-bearing surfaces of the knee joint to relieve the pain and disability of osteoarthritis. It may be performed for other knee diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis...
/hip
Hip replacement
Hip replacement is a surgical procedure in which the hip joint is replaced by a prosthetic implant. Hip replacement surgery can be performed as a total replacement or a hemi replacement. Such joint replacement orthopaedic surgery generally is conducted to relieve arthritis pain or fix severe...
), cardiac surgery
Cardiac surgery
Cardiovascular surgery is surgery on the heart or great vessels performed by cardiac surgeons. Frequently, it is done to treat complications of ischemic heart disease , correct congenital heart disease, or treat valvular heart disease from various causes including endocarditis, rheumatic heart...
, dental surgery
Dental surgery
Dental surgery is any of a number of medical procedures that involve artificially modifying dentition, in other words surgery of the teeth and jaw bones.-Types:Some of the more common are:...
, and cosmetic surgeries. However, virtually every type of health care, including psychiatry, alternative treatments, convalescent care and even burial services are available. As a practical matter, providers and customers commonly use informal channels of communication-connection-contract, and in such cases this tends to mean less regulatory or legal oversight to assure quality and less formal recourse to reimbursement or redress, if needed.
Over 50 countries have identified medical tourism as a national industry. However, accreditation
Accreditation
Accreditation is a process in which certification of competency, authority, or credibility is presented.Organizations that issue credentials or certify third parties against official standards are themselves formally accredited by accreditation bodies ; hence they are sometimes known as "accredited...
and other measures of quality vary widely across the globe, and there are risks and ethical issues that make this method of accessing medical care controversial. Also, some destinations may become hazardous or even dangerous for medical tourists to contemplate.
See also
- Acronyms in healthcareAcronyms in healthcareThe following is a partial list of acronyms commonly used in health care. The terms listed are used within the health care systems of various countries.- A :*A&E Accident and Emergency Department...
- Health administrationHealth administrationHealth administration or healthcare administration is the field relating to leadership, management, and administration of hospitals, hospital networks, health care systems, and public health systems...
- Health care
- Health policy
- Health sciences
- Health economicsHealth economicsHealth economics is a branch of economics concerned with issues related to efficiency, effectiveness, value and behavior in the production and consumption of health and health care...
- Medicine
- Pharmaceutical industry
- Philosophy of healthcarePhilosophy of healthcareThe philosophy of healthcare is the study of the ethics, processes, and people which constitute the maintenance of health for human beings. For the most part, however, the philosophy of healthcare is best approached as an indelible component...
Further reading
- Mahar, Maggie, Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much, Harper/Collins, 2006. ISBN 9780060765330
- Starr, PaulPaul StarrPaul Starr is a Pulitzer Prize-winning professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University. He is also the co-editor and co-founder of The American Prospect, a notable liberal magazine which was created in 1990...
, The Social Transformation of American MedicineThe Social Transformation Of American MedicineThe Social Transformation of American Medicine is a book written by Paul Starr and published by Basic Books in 1982. It won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction as well as the Bancroft Prize.Capers Jones wrote,...
, Basic Books, 1982. ISBN 0465079342