The Impact of Technology on The Healthcare Industry
Do you wonder how technology and new innovation are changing the healthcare industry? Or maybe you’re looking to join the healthcare sector and need to understand it better in advance? Our guest on the show today is Johann Malawana, a doctor and founder of a healthcare tech education company called Medics Academy. In this episode, Dr. Johann will help you understand the healthcare industry and how technology is fast changing it.
Healthcare looks different in each country in terms of how health and hospital systems work. It is not like other industries that look and perform with similar organizational units.
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There are predominately two lines of healthcare which are:
- Healthcare worker/ professional: This is where you go into a health professional of some kind like a doctor or nurse etc. You can go to medical school to become a medical doctor and after that, you can join the 56 specialties in the UK to be a different type of doctor.
- The health systems structure: This includes the management, logistics, or the structure of delivering health systems. The health sector tends to be very politicized regardless of the country you’re in.
You can be a clinician, but you don’t have to be a clinician to be in the health space.
Johann spent most of his career in the education of clinicians’ space both in the policy side, delivery, and the logistics side which has been a passion of his. There’s a growing demand for healthcare services and we either have to reduce it or increase the capacity in the coming years. His healthcare tech company Medics Academy’s core mission is to deliver health professionals through technology.
Johann explains the B to B to C business model they use to deliver to consumers now and in the future in the UK and across the world.
Johann shares some actionable tips you need before getting into medical school:
- Getting to medical school is hard– it is the hardest thing to do and once you get into it you can then work through the rest of the hurdles.
- Be prepared to be examined for the rest of your life– be clear that you’re happy living like this.
Technology and other factors have contributed to changing the healthcare sector so much in the last two decades in the following ways:
- The demand for getting into medical school is much harder.
- Practicing medicine has become so much harder due to pressure on the people.
- The tremendous change brought by COVID-19 like the ability to innovate fast.
Advice on how to succeed as a young person in whatever you do:
- The restrictions on you are in your head.
- Be the stupidest person in the room– do whatever you can to be beside the smartest people and always make sure you’re the least capable of those you’re around.
- Have passion, drive to move forward, and be around people like that.
The more you have, the more you have to lose, but when you’re younger you have nothing to lose because you have your whole life ahead of you.
Understand that to become a doctor, you need to be passionate about it and not go into it for the wrong reasons like wealth because you won’t be wealthy, just pretty well off.
Episode Timeline:
- [5:55] The meaning of healthcare globally and the different areas in the healthcare sector.
- [9:27] Dr. Johann explains the current and future demand for healthcare services and the core mission of his healthcare tech company, Medics Academy.
- [13:33] The B to B to C model that Medics Academy uses to deliver to consumers.
- [16:01] Dr. Johann describes his medical career delivering babies and why he decided to go into it even though he had a passion in history.
- [21:45] Tips for anyone who wants to go through the process of getting into medical school.
- [26:20] How technology and other factors have contributed to changing the healthcare sector so much in the last two decades.
- [31:05] Dr. Johann explains why he started Medics Academy with the support of his wife.
- [34:40] The importance of focusing on guiding principles and motivating factors when you’re younger so as not to have regrets when you’re older.
- [37:06] Advice on why you don’t need to be the best and the smartest person in the room.
- [41:07] Dr. Johann explains why he and his colleagues set up a healthcare leadership academy targeting smart people to help them change the healthcare industry.
- [48:02] The importance of going into a medical profession for the right reasons and with the right headspace.
- [51:33] Dr. Johann explains what impresses him when interviewing a medical candidate, why many titles don’t work for him, and why he tends to listen to candidates referenced to him.
- [56:53] Find a subject you’re passionate about, read and explore it, and be ever learning.
- [1:08:55] How to choose a career that you like and can handle plus the importance of financial literacy.
- [1:17:10] How to make the right decision if you’re thinking of quitting medical school.
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