Yesterday I wrote about the mindset of problem-solving that seemed omnipresent at Fortune’s Brainstorm Health. Some of that Fix-It-Ourselves worldview revolves around our ability, thanks to a flood of new technology, to make things we could never make before.
But importantly, much of the fixing needed in today’s healthcare culture involves changing systems and practices. That was clear from a lively lunchtime discussion on reinventing clinical trials. This vetting process, without question, helped turn the world’s pharmaceutical bazaar from one of snake oils and patent medicines to one in which every pill and potion in our medicine cabinet has been tested and evaluated to some degree. But it’s also lengthy, expensive, and inefficient. Too often, it takes so long that medical science itself has whizzed past it, making the question being asked—Is this particular drug better than the standard of care?—no longer relevant.
