Cannes Lions 2017: 'We are heading towards a Netflix world in medicine,' Jean-Marie Dru, TBWA Worldwide

"Healthcare systems around the world are fragile and some could collapse," Jean-Marie Dru, chairman, TBWA Worldwide told a packed room at the Health Lions.

 

Speaking about ‘Disruptive Innovation in Healthcare’, he said that healthcare is the single largest industry in the world, three times larger than banking, yet it is lagging significantly in terms of innovation.

 

For moving from Sick-Care to Healthcare, Dru advocated that there is an urgent need for deep transformation. He emphasised that the world could move towards self-diagnosis, self-monitoring and self-medication as there was a need for 40 million more doctors across the world by 2025 and there was going to be a huge challenge in meeting that gap.

 

He said that massive advancements in nanotechnology would mean that it treated deadly diseases like cancer in the same manner as chemotherapy, minus the side-effects. At another level, 3-D printing had ensured printing of body parts.

 

Commenting on the influence of technology which will alter the way patients will interact with doctors, Dru put forth several examples.

 

Sherpaa - a start-up that puts doctors on the cloud and gives each patient year-round access to a panel of six doctors for a fee

 

Capsule - a pharmacy that comes to your doorstep

 

OpenIce - create a community implementation of an Integrated Clinical Environment

 

mPedigree – fights counterfeit drugs in West Africa

 

Saying that reverse innovation was not a distant possibility but something that was already happening, Dru gave several examples from the developing world that would innovate for the western developed world to emulate. “The future of healthcare could come from everywhere,” he said.

 

 

Some cases mentioned include:

 

Himalayan Cataract Project, in Nepal, has brought down the cost of cataract operations to as little as USD 20 compared to USD 3,500 in the US.

 

Cardiopad from Cameroon would diagnose heart problems in a span of 20 minutes using a portable device to reach areas that were previously inaccessible.

 

Practo, an aggregator of doctors, has helped cater to 25 million patients in India.