By: Joshua Finley

Our healthcare system is under immense strain as well as being terribly complex, requiring experienced perspectives to drive meaningful change. Dr. Jon Belsher offers his unique viewpoint, drawing on his decades of experience as a physician, entrepreneur, and C-suite executive. Recently, he shared some important insights on crafting impactful solutions and navigating systemic change.

Innovating Through Diverse Experiences in Healthcare

Dr. Belsher’s career epitomizes crossing boundaries to transform healthcare. Early in his life, he lost his father, a surgeon frustrated with the evolving healthcare system, to lung cancer. Later on, he transitioned from clinical practice to healthcare innovation.

As Dr. Belsher explains, “Where my father and his colleagues were frustrated, I saw a huge opportunity to improve the system, including the all-important patient experience which I believed lagged all other consumer experiences.” This drive led him to building several healthcare startups.

After successfully exiting these ventures, Dr. Belsher brought his expertise to health system leadership. He served in executive roles guiding strategy and growth for prominent companies.

Today, Dr. Belsher is leveraging his deep and multifaceted healthcare experience by advising the next generation of healthcare disruptors.

Defining Problems Before Building Solutions

Occasionally, founders approach Dr. Belsher with solutions looking for a problem. He urges the opposite approach, stating entrepreneurs must “narrowly define the problem and understand it inside out. And then once the problem is well-defined…develop the solution or key to fit the lock.”

Dr. Belsher stresses that healthcare innovations should improve patient lives, not just seek profits or publicity. He states, “Technology should not be the end in and of itself. The end should be the demonstration of an unequivocal win for patient care and/or outcomes.”

Without delivering clear clinical value, companies struggle once the hype subsides. As Dr. Belsher notes, “I see solutions on the market today – DTC or otherwise – that have somewhat flimsy use cases or less compelling uses for consumers or patients.”

Navigating Systemic Challenges with Perseverance

While unequivocally optimistic about healthcare’s future, Dr. Belsher recognizes that entrenched interests will not be insignificant headwinds to driving meaningful change. “There are undoubtedly entrenched interests or stakeholders that do not have a strong interest in changing the current paradigm.” Still, he urges perseverance, stating, “We should not allow this to be a deterrent to driving meaningful change that improves patients’ lives and simultaneously drives down costs.”

Dr. Belsher continues, “It’s going to take perseverance to make iterative, incremental changes to improve the system in the long run, and I’m completely confident we will get there.”

Launching a successful healthcare product or solution requires meticulous planning. Dr. Belsher outlines four key elements for market success:

• User Experience (UX): “How easy is it for the end user to employ or use?” Even products or solutions that improve outcomes face resistance to adoption if highly complex or nuanced to use.
• Training Investment: “How much training will it take? What’s the up-front investment or cost?” Adoption requires a clear explanation of the training requirements and cost.
• Reimbursement Pathways: “How will the product or solution be paid for?” Innovators must identify payment/reimbursement models and anticipated insurance coverage.
• Financial Return: “What is the product or solution going to do from a financial standpoint for the organization or company?” Solutions require clear paths to profitability to get past the C-suite and board.

Learning and Collaborating Across Borders

While America’s healthcare system faces its own set of challenges, Dr. Belsher sees an opportunity to learn from others abroad. “The United States can learn things from other countries,” he states. “Comparing notes as well as best practices is a healthy exercise. There are things to learn.”

Through tenacity, collaboration and pragmatic optimism, healthcare innovators like Dr. Belsher are driving incremental improvements, ultimately leading to better care and outcomes for all of us. Check out his LinkedIn profile to learn more about Dr. Jon Belsher’s journey and future plans. You can also visit his new venture, Visura.

Published by: Erin M.