As The Grateful Dead start the end of a long strange trip this weekend with their final five concerts, it’s a good time to take a look back at how the band changed the music business and how we can use those same principles to improve the healthcare system. My in-laws are big DeadHeads. My father-in-law was over this week and telling me how he saw them play in Philadelphia, PA every year in the 1970s. He also told me how they were always ahead of their time with so many things. I myself only saw them play three times, after Jerry Garcia had died and they were touring as The Other Ones. This amazing band made outstanding music for 50 years and changed how the industry worked from the inside out.
1. Be Different
The band wanted to be different, so they experimented with a different sound. Rearranging chord changes and seeing what they good do by extending riffs. They merged blues, rock, funk, country and jazz to create a new sound. They took a different approach to music and it paid off. Healthcare startups and companies that take a different approach are thriving. The status quo is no longer good enough. If you want to bring change, you must try a different approach.
2. Innovate
When the Grateful Dead started letting anyone at their concerts bring recording equipment to record their concerts, it was unheard of at the time. Back then bands relied on the sales of albums and they didn’t want people out there selling bootlegs of their music. The dead took a different view of things. They saw it as a way to reach more people with their music, and it worked. More people came to their shows and purchased their albums. So how can this work in healthcare? I believe the answer is in healthcare education. More money and resources must be used to help educate patients and caregivers. Every single day these people leave hospitals and doctor’s offices confused because they don’t understand what is happening to them, why tests are being run and more about the procedures they are about to go through.
3. Create Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs make sense when you are making purchases on almost anything. Yet in healthcare we see very few loyalty programs. The Grateful Dead made an early decision to focus on their group of hardcore loyal fans. They set up a hotline number that alerted fans about concert schedules before the general public. They had special ticket prices and saved great sections of seats for these loyal fans. Insurance companies, hospitals, drug and equipment companies can all create their own loyalty programs, to help make patient care better for the people that rely on it most.
4. Adapt with Technology
When the Internet came along The Grateful Dead could have just ignored it. However, they embraced it, learning the technology early and making sure that their music was available digitally. This enabled them to reach new generations of fans. Everyone knows that technology is changing healthcare. Electronic medical records have come a long way, but it feels insane sometimes that we have not come further. Patients that want access to their own medical data on demand should have it where and whenever they want it. We also need to keep pushing and recruiting the best tech minds outside of healthcare to join us to help make life better for patients.
5. Be In It For The Love
Above all else the band was passionate about making music. Most people in this industry are in it for good reasons because they care about people and want to improve things. However, some are just in it to take advantage of patients. The healthcare industry needs to take a look around and do some self policing. If we see companies taking advantage and ripping off patients and families going through heartbreaking times, we need to expose them. Passion is a strong tool when used correctly.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
