Case Study: A Bone To Pick

Analysis: Implants, Fitment And Life

Recent advances in the field of medicine especially in minimal invasive interventions in cardiac and neurosciences and in orthopedic practice — trauma, spine or joint reconstruction, have brought in increasing usage of implants and prosthesis. These implants, etc., are medical devices that help in treating several conditions that hitherto were left for palliative treatment, providing options for minimal invasive interventions, reduced the hospitalisation and restoration of functionality in shorter time such that individual is rehabilitated faster. However, the ultimate success of usage of implants is just not insertion or fixation to the body organ where it is needed but restoration of anatomical integrity and restoration of functionality to normal or at least near normal.

Analysis: Failproofing Healthcare

Value chain of healthcare delivery is intertwined among multiple stakeholders at every stage. Everyone has a role and responsibility too. The patient cannot be absolved of the responsibility under the pretext of wilful ignorance even if it is due to the subject matter being too technical or too clinical to comprehend. Moreover, there is a flurry of systemic gaps like missing or misaligned rules; compromised quality of care; sub-standard devices/drugs; or conflicted/improper choices to drive profiteering or other agendas. Far from being failproof, currently we are not even foolproof!

Case Study: Tools Of The Trade

Abhed Govil sat in the taxi rearranging his mother’s old reports from the three different hospitals where she had been operated upon for her arm fractures. He was meeting Vyom Mankodi, the technical director at Kyosin, the company whose implants had worked on his mother.

Analysis: Who Is To Blame?

Healthcare is business with a cause: it’s a telling statement. It reflects a blend of both the business of care delivery and the cause of human suffering/healing. Across this case study, as Abhed Govil probes deeper, he unravels the mismatches and dilemmas around the balance between the business and the cause. It is unfair to assume that the cause of human suffering is the driver for sustainable hospital business.

Analysis: Fix The Missing Link

In the healthcare industry, regulations and standards play a significant role in assuring consumers of the safety and efficacy of the medicines, equipment and healthcare services. The case highlights serious weaknesses in the regulations governing healthcare industries in general and the medical device industry in particular. Take, for instance, the failure to diagnose Paritosh’s fracture correctly: It resulted from the poor quality X-ray machine that did not report a fracture. Lack of effective regulation has led to the presence of such counterfeit products in the market.

Case Study: The Business Of Life

Abhed Govil took the prescription from the nurse’s hands and said, “Sure, this will get done right now, thank you!” Dr Prashant Massey, the orthopedic surgeon, had scribbled a whole lot of medicines and dragged the last alphabet down diagonally to the left hand of the sheet and written, “MRI”.