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interview
● Sustainable healthcare
Working together to achieve a
sustainable healthcare system
L
Priscilla Lynch
talks to Pascale
Richetta, Vice
President,
Western Europe
and Canada
Operations,
AbbVie, about
sustainable
healthcare
systems
ife expectancy in Europe
has risen by an average
of 10 years since 1960,
and it is estimated that
by 2050, it will average of 82
years. While this is to be celebrated, it poses challenges in
ensuring older people live full,
active and healthy lives. Chronic
illness is a key issue in this respect, which is placing severe
strain on healthcare systems,
including Ireland.
Recently, AbbVie held a special meeting in Dublin, ‘Clock
Watching — Healthy Ageing in
a Modern Ireland’, on the topic
of sustainable healthcare for
an ageing population in a time
of economic crisis.
The invite-only meeting was
attended by leading figures in
Irish healthcare, including
representatives from public
and private service delivery,
clinicians, patient advocates,
academia and policymakers,
all keen to address this challenging healthcare issue.
The Irish meeting speaker
panel included Department of
Health Secretary General Dr
Ambrose McLoughlin, Charles
Handy, the social philosopher
and writer, and Ms Pascale
Richetta, Vice President,
Western Europe and Canada
Operations, AbbVie, who discussed how healthcare stakeholders in Ireland could drive
sustainable healthcare by
working together.
“We really need to reconsider how we operate in healthcare. We really cannot stay
static. The way I view things
is that we should all work together on really driving the
transformation of the healthcare system. I think we should
count our progress in technology, which can help a lot, but
really, as I have seen in other
countries, a national collaborative spirit is what can drive
change,” Richetta told IMT.
European issue
The challenge of creating a
sustainable healthcare system is not just an Irish one,
Ms Richetta pointed out; some
100 million Europeans have a
chronic illness.
“By working together and
working small we can probably achieve big steps. It is clear
the sustainability of healthcare
systems is a challenge to most
nations, particularly in Europe,
and the shift in demography is
a fact, as is the rise in chronic
diseases,” she commented.
Richetta confirmed AbbVie
is holding similar meetings in
other countries in an effort to
help address the huge, unsustainable cost of chronic diseases to healthcare budgets.
For example, the key outcome
from the meeting in Brussels
was that innovation has to
be at the heart of the major
14 | Irish Medical Times
Pascale Richetta, Vice President, Western Europe and Canada Operations, AbbVie
changes that must take place
to achieve sustainable healthcare systems, she said.
Technology
Richetta emphasised the importance of achieving the best
health outcomes possible and
using technology to both drive
this and save costs at the same
time. “The name of the game is
to really shift as much care as
we can from diagnosis, treatment and monitoring out of the
hospital and into the patient’s
home,” she stated.
Tommy By rne, Client
Principal, Hewlett-Packard
Ireland Limited, highlighted
the role and contribution of
technology to enabling sustainable healthcare systems
at the meeting, which Richetta
said was very useful.
Remote monitoring or telemonitoring are examples of
how care can be provided to
patients with chronic illnesses
in their own home in an effective way and mobile devices
offer major opportunities and
advantages for the healthcare
sector, as do social networks —
such as in the case of patients
with a particular condition
coming together and sharing
information.
Achieving healthcare improvements whilst being open
and transparent in the provision of outcomes data, which
can drive improvement, is also
vital, Richetta maintained, reiterating that the IT industry
could really help on the datasharing front.
Patient empowerment was
also a critical element of the
changes that will be needed,
she noted, explaining that
as well as the home environment providing the lowest-cost
healthcare, it can also provide
Project has cut rate of ‘no shows’ from 34% to 5%
the most patient involvement.
“If we empower patients in
the self-monitoring of their
health, I think we can achieve
a lot and… I think an empowered patient will be much more
committed to any interventions and it will increase the
success rate of interventions
because they will be more
compliant, better understand
the intervention and see the
benefit of intervening early, so
I think more empowerment is
a win-win situation,” Richetta
commented.
The pharmaceutical sector
can also help by making its
products easier to self-administer and tolerate, such as the
use of pen injector systems,
she added.
Early intervention
While a number of speakers
at the meeting highlighted the
importance of primary prevention, Richetta said all forms of
prevention, including secondary and tertiary prevention,
played a key role, along with
early diagnosis and intervention. “The earlier you act on
chronic disease, the less costly
it will be later on. A wait-andsee approach can be damaging
and you can miss the chance to
have an early solution for the
patient.”
tient beforehand, made sure
they were more likely to attended their appointment and
were also more likely to have
all the necessary information
to hand.
“The results speak for themselves. Previously, there was
a 34 per cent rate of no-shows
which dropped down to 5 per
cent and resulted in increased
efficiency within the system. I
think by starting small we can
really do big things, and while
this was just one specialty in
one hospital, it is certainly universal and can be translated into
many disciplines,” she said.
Another successful Irish
healthcare partnership project
that AbbVie has been involved
in is the Fit for Work initiative,
which is addressing the impact
that musculoskeletal disorders
have on the economy and our
workforce. Up to seven million
lost days at work are recorded
each year resulting from
musculoskeletal disorders,
costing the economy an
estimated €750 million a year.
However, approaching the
problem using a multidisciplinary approach, including patients, GPs, rheumatologists,
health insurance companies,
occupational therapists and
trade unions has resulted in
the launch of a major position
paper outlining a number of
actions to tackle the issue, she
explained.
The third partnership project
Richetta discussed was a premature baby initiative that
facilitates the immunisation
of these babies in the home
setting by a nurse. This is convenient for parents and avoids
unnecessary travel and pressure on hospitals. The project,
launched in 2008, has been
very successful and has treated
more than 3,000 babies, leading
to the avoidance of 14,000 hospital appointments.
Conclusion
Dr Ambrose McLoughlin,
Secretary General, DoH
Referencing the Healthy
Ireland report, she said a multidisciplinary approach was key
to successful health outcomes
and highlighted AbbVie’s work
on three projects in Ireland
partnering with healthcare
stakeholders to find solutions
to major healthcare issues.
Irish projects
Richetta discussed a successful
project in the Rheumatology
Department at St James’s
Hospital, Dublin, that focused
on the better use of people and
resources to reduce waiting
lists and maximise the number
of patients who attended their
appointments. The project revamped the appointment system, and by contacting the pa-
Richetta said she hoped the
Dublin Clock Watching meeting had encouraged the Irish
healthcare stakeholders it
brought together to engage,
discuss and work together on
creating solutions to ensure
Ireland’s healthcare system
moves towards a sustainable
system that provides the best
care for all who need it.
Dr McLoughlin told the
meeting that the Government
wanted to engage in a “true
partnership with industry” and
see innovation hubs covering
medical devices, pharmaceuticals, ICT and other industries on
the campuses of all the hospital
groups.
While Ireland’s healthcare
services are currently going through very challenging
times, Richetta said there was
a real sense of connectiveness
in Irish healthcare that not all
countries have, as well as a willingness to work together to improve patient care.
Concluding, she said it was
now clear that healthcare stakeholders do not achieve much by
working in isolation, and that
it is by working together that
meaningful and successful
change can be achieved.
02.08.13