“You’re managing too well to be put on that programme”.
So said my doctor during my last diabetes checkup.
There’s quite a bit to unpack there. You’re managing your health condition well (great). And as such you are not eligible for the latest technology programme to manage your health condition (not great).
I’ve been trying to get NHS funding to go on a Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) system for some time. The area I suffer is with sleep. Sleep (as Matthew Walker et al. have made us all too aware) draws enormous health benefits.
A CGM system could help me manage my sleep better.
“You’re managing too well to be put on that programme”.
Manage my condition poorly and then maybe I would be eligible? This is not a commentary on the carers I interact with – who are brilliant – but it does demonstrate the perverse incentives in a stretched health service.
Relative to advancements in diabetes care, not being on CGM now is minor in the grand scheme of things (it will happen, eventually).
But it did get me thinking about the technological revolution that is coming in across all healthcare and those who feel left behind.
We are entering the era of AI conducting radiology screenings and synthetic biology engineering different tissues.
Achieving Universal Health Coverage will be difficult, and the WHO recently warning that there must not be winners and losers in the revolution to come.
Roll outs take time. Costs – at least early at adoption – can be prohibitive. Trust may be low.
Patients are not aware of the technology that is already available to them, let alone those on the horizon.
Or as in my case, it’s available but only to certain patients.
A report by the Lancet and FT on Global Health Futures 2030 points the way forward. Equitable use of patient data, investment in enablers of digital health transformation and embedding digital technology as an important determinant of health outcomes.
“You’re managing well, shall we look at some options?”