For decades, individuals struggling with weight have been told to eat a healthy diet and exercise, and the pounds will come off. But the truth is that both companies and doctors are failing at helping people actually achieve weight loss. The numbers don’t lie. We’re not making a dent in our overweight population and, what’s worse, obesity has more than doubled between 1980 and 2015, with now nearly two billion overweight or obese living around the world.
Many bariatric specialists will try to convince obese individuals to undergo invasive weight loss surgeries. But the truth is that 99 percent of people who even qualify for surgery will decline, even though exercise and healthy diets aren’t working. And that’s not even taking into account the scores of individuals who are overweight or moderately obese, who aren’t a fit for surgery to begin with.
We currently have a polarized marketplace for obesity, where the options are extreme and there’s little middle ground. Why has obesity treatment evolved to this point, despite the clear upward, global growth in this issue? What’s holding both big healthcare companies and doctors back from solving obesity isn’t what you’d expect — it’s a set of antiquated, preconceived notions about patient-doctor relationships, consumer power, and fundamental ways of making money in medicine.
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
Call us anything but “patients”
One of the first problems that companies and doctors share is an attitude toward “patients.” We treat people as consumers in all other industries, but healthcare is still locked in paternalistic, asymmetric doctor-patient relationships. Companies like Uber, Airbnb, and Facebook build relationships with customers, treat them as smart individuals, create an excellent experience, and anticipate needs.
This needs to happen in healthcare too.
Consumer, person, individual, partner — let’s use anything but “patient.” Every company and doctor must treat patients (or, I should now say, consumers!) as autonomous agents, shifting from a monolithic “physician’s recommendation” approach to focusing on consumer preference. Increasingly, the FDA gets this: beyond ensuring safety — which is an absolute given for any medical device — consumer preference is becoming a big part of what they consider when it comes to approving a new product for the U.S. market.
Take a page from tech startups
In the world of tech startups, there’s a concept of failing often and early. Major drug companies, device makers, and physicians have failed slowly over decades when it comes to obesity treatment. Despite decades of studies, there hasn’t been one huge, resounding success — and there won’t be. Obesity is varied, unique and biologically complex. Individuals are, quite literally, every shape and size. Right now, the industry mindset is to find a single solution for everyone — and it certainly would be nice if there was some magic bullet that instantly fixed the issue.
Instead, we need to focus on understanding the different kinds of obesity out there, and bringing ideas to market that meet each individual’s unique story and situation. Not everyone needing to lose weight qualifies as obese — let’s spare a thought for the millions of Americans who count simply as “overweight,” yet who can’t stand to eat another handful of almonds or a balanced salad. What options do they have besides unsafe, unregulated “diet supplements” ?
Not everyone is a fit for invasive surgery, gastric balloons, or even just exercise and diet counseling on its own. The key to success in this market is not a magic bullet but rather, creating a range of products that are safe and efficacious but still cost-effective — and, ideally, can be used in parallel with other therapies.
Focus on affordability and purchasing power
The healthcare industry as a whole relies heavily on the legacy concept of reimbursement from insurance companies, the government and other providers. In contrast, obesity is truly a microcosm of free market dynamics, because consumers pay out of pocket for the most part.
Corporations’ old mindset of creating technologies or procedures that will receive reimbursement isn’t going to work anymore. The obesity market needs many solutions that are effective, above all safe, and affordable — then consumers will decide what works best for them, or not. They’ll pick the company with the best product, service, and experience that understands and meets their unique needs.
Let’s get to work
Let’s be critical about how we’re treating this growing, worldwide issue. Let’s challenge some of our fundamental and closely-held attitudes toward obese and overweight individuals.
Businesses and doctors alike need to do three key things this year to start turning the tide: We need to start treating “patients” as empowered consumers; we need to acknowledge our failure; and we need to provide more options to both doctors and consumers. Beyond the business opportunity for companies large and small, the obesity marketplace presents a far more important challenge. What’s at stake here is not any one company’s success or market share — it’s the health of our species and the health of future generations.
Photo: BigStock Photo
