Bangkok Dusit Medical Services Public Company Limited (BDMS) recently hosted a conference aimed at fostering the exchange of medical knowledge, highlighting the concept of patient-centric care in conjunction with Value-Based Healthcare, a growing global trend in the healthcare industry. The event featured a keynote address by Ms. Jennifer L. Bright, President and CEO of the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) in the United States, during the BDMS Academic Annual Meeting 2024, held from November 18 to 22, 2024, at the BDMS Connect Center on Wireless Road in Bangkok.
As a leading provider of comprehensive healthcare services, BDMS collaborates with ICHOM to implement the Value-Based Healthcare approach. This concept arises from the global challenges of limited medical resources, rising healthcare costs, and suboptimal health outcomes. These issues are prevalent worldwide, including in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
The speaker emphasized the necessity for the global healthcare system to shift from traditional process-based metrics, which fail to fully meet patients' healthcare needs, such as the integration of mental health with physical health care, to outcome-based measures that prioritize patient results. This shift aims to improve both clinical outcomes and patient-reported outcomes, including quality of life and functional ability.
ICHOM works with patients, patient communities, researchers, and healthcare providers to identify essential care domains for patients. This patient-centered approach has led to the development of outcome measurement tools that better align with the needs of the communities served. ICHOM has developed multidimensional health outcome measures for a range of conditions, from chronic diseases like diabetes to elderly care. These outcomes can be applied across various contexts, such as clinical decision-making, research, and development.
Over the past 15 years, ICHOM has developed 46 disease-specific outcome sets, covering 60% of the global disease burden. These data are available at no cost, including tools for data processing and patient group variables. Additionally, ICHOM has developed the interoperability of digital data through the mapping of its outcome sets to standardized medical terminology, facilitating integration with electronic health record systems and other technological platforms.
ICHOM's work has been implemented internationally, with over 500 hospitals and healthcare systems worldwide adopting ICHOM's standardized outcome sets. These implementations have led to improved clinical outcomes, healthcare system efficiency, and cost-effectiveness, as well as advancements in research and treatment innovations. A notable example is a hospital in Mexico that reduced patient costs by up to 80% over five years while also improving clinical outcomes, including a 50% reduction in diabetes-related stress.
BDMS and its affiliated hospitals have already adopted the Value-Based Healthcare model. Bangkok Pattaya Hospital implemented this concept in 2021, yielding positive results across a wide range of health outcomes, including prevention, diagnosis, complication management, rapid and complete recovery, and relapse prevention. This has made Bangkok Pattaya Hospital the first hospital in Thailand to be accredited by ICHOM for the treatment of Coronary Artery Disease and Stroke, demonstrating high-quality practices that meet global standards with an emphasis on outcomes that are critical to patients.
Building on this success, in 2024, Bangkok Pattaya Hospital achieved ICHOM Level 1 accreditation in two additional major disease categories: Heart Failure and Diabetes, which require close and continuous care. This accreditation reaffirms the hospital's commitment to developing comprehensive and sustainable treatment systems that enhance the quality of life for all patients.
The benefits of Value-Based Healthcare extend to all stakeholders: patients experience lower costs, better value, and improved health outcomes; hospitals gain higher patient satisfaction and improved care efficiency; insurers or payers achieve better cost control and reduced risk; and society benefits from lower healthcare expenditures and improved public health.