Targeting poverty (in Hodges' model) c/o The Economist

"Indian politicians are promising more cash for the poor. They should be less selective. "

[ by the quarter - make progress ...? ]


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"Targeting welfare is costly and difficult in a country like India.

If it looks for signs such as straw roofs, it will almost certainly miss many poor people, especially in the cities.

How is the state supposed to identify the poorest 50m households in a country where income and spending are so hard to track?

The political economy of targeted schemes is also tricky. In countries with minimal welfare states, schemes with few beneficiaries also have few supporters, and therefore risk being quietly wound down or diminished by inflation. And any formula used to target the bottom 20% is likely to be so opaque that people will never know whether they should have been included or not, so cannot fight for their entitlements."

"Two years ago a government report suggested a bold new approach. Instead of a universal basic income - an idea doing the rounds in rich countries - create a nearly universal scheme from which you exclude the richest quarter of the population."

Source: Leaders. Welfare in India: The beauty of breadth. The Economist, April 6, 2019, p.14.
Print edition.
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/04/06/a-better-anti-poverty-plan-for-india

Dear McKinsey and Company, Re. "The era of exponential improvement in healthcare?"

Re. Your article:

The era of exponential improvement in healthcare?

(By Shubham Singhal and Stephanie Carlto)

Technology-driven innovation holds the potential to improve our understanding of patients, enable the delivery of more convenient, individualized care—and create $345 billion to $420 billion in value by 2025.

Healthcare advances have delivered great benefits to society, bringing material improvements in average life spans and quality of life.¹ Yet these improvements have come at a cost—an ever-expanding portion of the US GDP is being consumed by healthcare expenses.² Could technology, enabling delivery of healthcare advances while improving affordability, be part of the solution? We have reviewed the evidence, done the math, and identified technology-enabled use cases that could create between $350 billion and $410 billion in annual value by 2025 (out of the $5.34 trillion in healthcare spending projected for that year³ ).

Read more ...

<>

But how would we recognise the era of exponential improvement in healthcare?

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The exponential benefits realised 'elsewhere' in global, local and glocal health and healthcare systems finally sees the achievement of parity of esteem with mental health not only fully funded, but designated as the key that must be turned 4 happiness. Despite the diametrical opposition of this domain to the political domain, there is a breakthrough in policy makers and the body politic prioritising "The Long Now"

"Predictions of an exponential increase in people living with dementia in the coming 30 years require evidence-based strategies for advancing dementia care and maximizing independent living. However, the evidence required to inform priorities for enabling improvements in dementia care is rarely presented in a way that stimulates and sustains political interests."  Martin, O’Connor, & Jackson (2018).

Community-based healthcare becomes  the norm and the educational, preventive and sustainable ethos for health and healthcare systems is adopted globally. Look at the readiness and response-to potential epidemic crises, plus  interventions in population health.  Exponential benefits are accrued. Evidence - look at the number of  (new) hospital beds. The community IS the market.

Exponential growth in global healthcare funding, health information for all, access to universal health care.  Social Determinants of Health not just a vision: but enacted and ongoing #SDoH-X. Evidence - climate change slowing, air quality improving - the 21st Century truly begins ...

Martin, A., O’Connor, S., & Jackson, C. (2018). A scoping review of gaps and priorities in dementia care in Europe. Dementia. https://doi.org/10.1177/1471301218816250

My source:
email - McKinsey Insights

Infographic: What does the UK spend on health and social care?

c/o John Appleby and BMJ


The political impact of this spending have huge ramifications for many individuals 
in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, equity and equality.

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	John Appleby: Infographic - What does the UK spend on health and social care?

Source:

This data vis piece in @bmj_latest apparently in the 99th percentile of all 13m+ research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric for online attention. #Whichisnice. @will_s_t https://t.co/meT0HBG1hO https://t.co/mbA2ZvwMdn

— John Appleby (@jappleby123) April 12, 2019

Nursing the Research Councils

It seems incredible the way the years have flown by since 2006, the year this blog started. So many changes personal, technical, learning ... along the way.

That year I attended a research grants event in Bath, UK. An Ideas Factory organised by one of the research councils. Writing about the fraught, hard, emotionally demanding and yet very rewarding experience it struck me back then how duplication between organisations could creep in.

All those acronyms! There was in a way a lot of support for Hodges' model, with the disciplinary divides in evidence. Whether it's a 'market' view, policy or other perspective it seems innovation, serendipity, creativity and interdisciplinary progress (that might also become transdisciplinary?) might be assisted by some 'slack resource' in the system. Some opportunities, avenues for cross-fertilization of ideas to occur. Sometimes this is done deliberately, such as the Ideas Factory.

Now with austerity ongoing, UK research has been reviewed:

Sir Paul Nurse’s independent review of the UK research councils

I hope that some capacity for mixing things up will remain.