In the first report of the Future Health Index in 2018, we analyzed 45 different metrics and grouped them together in key pillars:
1. Value Measure
2. Current State (of Data and Care Delivery)
The Value Measure is a new indicator of the value delivered by healthcare systems of developed and developing markets. It combines factors associated with value-based care and access to care, arguably the ultimate goals of modern healthcare. It consists of three parts:
1. Access (i.e. how universal, and affordable, is access to healthcare in the designated market?)
2. Satisfaction (i.e. to what extent do the general population and practitioners in the designated market see the healthcare system as trustworthy, and effective?)
3. Efficiency (i.e. does the system in the given market produce outcomes at an optimum cost?)
The second pillar, Current State measures current levels of adoption of key digital enablers:
1. Data (collection and analytics) (including wearables, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Intelligent Care)
2. Care Delivery (Telehealth and Diagnostic & Treatment Solutions)
Each pillar consists of several sub-metrics. Within each pillar, the metrics are normalized to ensure comparability across countries and are scored to fit onto a 0 to 100 scale. Specifically, metrics related to market size are normalized per capita, per hospital bed or per physician in each country. The market size metrics were scored relative to the highest scoring country (with a population over 1,000,000) among the available dataset. For other metrics, including those for the Value Measure and technology infrastructure metrics, scoring is either relative to the highest scoring country (with a population over 1,000,000) among the available dataset, or, based on any optimal baseline number set by global authorities e.g. standards/goals set by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). By excluding countries with less than 1,000,000 population, we exclude outliers which may create unrealistic potential to reach 100.
A metric which does not follow this pattern of normalization is:
The risk of impoverishment due to surgical care – this metric is reported as a percentage, so it is simply inversed and no further normalization is needed.
In a next step, the scores for each metric are then averaged to calculate each sub-index score and those sub-indices averaged to create each pillar.
The 45 individual metrics analyzed use a combination of third-party data and original research collected via a survey conducted in 2017 and 2018 in partnership with a global market research firm (see survey details below).
For the second report of the Future Health Index in 2018, a variety of third-party sources as well as original research from the 2016 and 2017 Future Health Index data was used (see survey details below). Additionally, data from chapter one of FHI 2018 was also referenced. A full list of third-party sources, is included below.
Furthermore, 12 key opinion leaders (KOLs) across the Netherlands, US, UK, Australia, Germany, China, Sweden and Estonia were interviewed to provide recommendations and produce tangible guidelines as to how elements of healthcare can be improved and drive change.
KOLs were chosen on the basis of their industry expertise in relevant areas, including connected care technology and the general healthcare landscape, and were conducted from July 20, 2018 to August 9, 2018 via telephone or video-chat service (e.g. Skype, etc.).
A list of KOLs interviewed is included below: