Dr. Powell discusses working in the Chinese healthcare industry

BANGKOK – May 7, 2012: Dr. Adam Powell was recently interviewed by the site Emerging Market Careers on both his career in healthcare economics and his interest in the Chinese healthcare market. Dr. Powell was asked a series of questions in the article, including, “You’ve mentioned that you admire some of the contrasts between the Chinese healthcare system and that of the United States. How do these differences result in business opportunities in China for enterprising entrepreneurs and professionals looking for jobs in China’s healthcare system?” He replied:

Perhaps the greatest difference between the two nations is that the average Chinese family income is less than the cost of the average American family health insurance policy. As a result, China has developed a three-tiered system of care which uses practitioners with a wider range of training than is seen in the U.S. in order to achieve greater affordability. A great opportunity exists for entrepreneurs willing to redevelop existing technologies to better serve the needs of lower income customers. As C.K. Prahalad discussed in The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, low cost technologies created for the developing world have the potential to eventually better serve the needs of the higher income world. However, as incomes grow in China, there will also be an increasing demand for complex care. The number of specialty hospitals in China doubled over the past decade, and I predict that the trend towards the use of more skilled providers will continue. Thus, there may be opportunities surrounding care delivery. Finally, due to family planning policies, seniors will have fewer descendants to provide care for them than have historically been available. As grown children increasingly live remotely from their parents, there is an expanding need for senior services.

While Payer+Provider Syndicate is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, it is a global company with a team of experts that has experience working and living around the world. Half of Payer+Provider Syndicate’s experts are from a developing country. Payer+Provider Syndicate is committed to bringing about improvements in healthcare in both the developed and developing world.