Posts
One of the benefit of not planning my Sunday afternoon is the pleasant surprises each moment brings. I was out for a stroll and had to stop at a coffee shop to charge my phone. I wondered what was happening in the city and a quick internet search came up with a most interesting event at the Centre for Social Innovation - Annex. It was a talk by Shaun Loney, author of “The beautiful bailout - how a social innovations scale-up will solve government’s priciest problems”. Mr. Loney is an Ashoka fellow. I bought two copies of his book to support his wonderful work.
He got me thinking about the potential cost savings of running “physician-led self-management education group” on Type 2 diabetes alone!
Annual health care cost per Canadian = $6604
Annual health care cost per Canadian with diabetes = $26416
Difference per year = $19812
In 2016, more than 1.6 million people in Ontario are living with diabetes, and another 2.3 million people have prediabetes.
Ontario population = 12,764,195
Prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes = 30%
Ajax Harwood Clinic population = 6000 potential ambassadors of wellness
Ajax Harwood Clinic population with diabetes or prediabetes = 1800
Average household size in Ontario = 2.9
Cost saving per year = 1800 x $19812 = $35,661,600
Downstream savings is 2.9 fold = $103,418,640
The physician-led self-management education groups is paid by existing payment model and does not require any other investments.
The potential savings by empowering patients to take action for wellness to prevent and manage type 2 diabetes alone is $103,418,640.
The collateral benefits of preventing and managing a chronic physical condition such as diabetes using an integrative approach will include decreased chronic mental conditions, increased quality of life and increased economic productivity from a physically and mentally healthier workforce.
This is the power of the individual!
Carlos,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this event and adding your relevant applications within the health care sector. Clearly this model has many applications to serve under-served communities and I look forward to further discussions of practical applications of social engagement for optimal health for individuals and their communities.