Mariya Filipova, Chief Innovation Officer at CareQuest Innovation Partners.
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Innovation has reduced the complexity of nearly every decision we make, from buying a car to financial decisions. Yet the health care industry remains one sector in which consumers—patients—lack simplicity and choice. We expect simple, comprehensible choices; why is health care so drastically different?
The stakes couldn’t be higher. As patients, we make life-or-death decisions in a complex environment with frustratingly little clarity. From “how much will this procedure cost” to “how will this medication impact my treatment,” answers are anything but accessible and straightforward. A key step in simplifying health is to connect care across disciplines, settings and aspects of well-being. Only by bridging these divides can we begin to lift the fog of complexity and put patients at the center.
The quest for transformation is underway and changes are happening. Last year with the pandemic, we learned the importance of connecting social drivers, mental health and pharmacy to overall clinical outcomes, but one critical area remains sidelined: oral health.
My experience as a patient informs my vision for oral health integration.
I’m not a clinician. I’m a frustrated patient whose career spans health care insurance, venture capital, consulting and investment banking. I follow the complex web of technology, jargon and incentive structures proliferating health care today through a patient-centric lens and ask, “What does this decision mean for me, the patient?”
I learned the importance of this question as a patient, with an unwelcome front-row seat to the inefficiencies and gaps within health care. In 2017, I was diagnosed with angiomyolipoma, a kidney tumor. While doctors would normally spot this tumor when it reached 3 centimeters in size, mine, which I fondly named “Bertha,” was 10 times that size. At 30 centimeters, Bertha occupied half of my abdomen, and it was surprising I was asymptomatic when doctors discovered the tumor during a routine visit.
The months that followed illuminated the complexities and confusion of the perpetual back-and-forth across various medical fields. Why couldn’t the process be integrated or easier to navigate? Fortunately, I beat the odds of my diagnosis, and that disorienting chapter gave my professional life a new focus, one driven by the need to more directly impact decisions that shape the care we receive. That path led me to serve as an executive at one of the largest health benefits companies in the U.S., helping to simplify care delivery for millions of Americans, and introduced me to one of the most overlooked parts of the body: the mouth.
My experience with Bertha encouraged me to approach the siloed complexity of medical and dental care with the same level of curiosity and urgency as a patient whose life is on the line. And for many Americans fighting chronic and acute medical conditions without access to reliable dental care, that is the case.
Research tells a jarring story about the impact of untreated dental issues on our overall health. For instance, a growing body of scientific evidence indicates gingivitis may contribute to Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers are discovering gingivitis and periodontal disease can trigger brain inflammation that leads to Alzheimer’s. Yet, medical and dental professions remain separate.
Important steps are underway to bring together oral and overall health. The Harvard School of Dental Medicine’s Initiative to Integrate Oral Health and Medicine is one. Researchers are revealing the wider health implications of dental disease, including one that explores the link between cognitive impairment and mastication strength among the elderly.
But there is more work to be done that reaches every corner of society. Data speaks many languages, and a “freakonomics” style approach to health care can open new pathways to care.
Marginalized communities are not getting the care they need and deserve.
For all patients, but particularly for those from marginalized and low-income communities, it is urgent we find ways to make oral health integral to overall well-being by fostering minimally invasive, low-cost, equitable and integrated new approaches to care.
Evidence shows glaring racial disparities in oral health, with nearly 1 in 6 (16%) Black adults reporting the loss of six teeth or more from tooth decay or gum disease. This percentage is much higher than that reported among white (12%), Hispanic (9%) and Asian (3%) adults.
A 2022 “State of Oral Health Equity in America” survey found more than half (55%) of adults in the U.S. reported some type of oral health problem. This finding is troubling; it also represents an opportunity to break oral health out of its silo.
We need to rethink how oral health is delivered.
Unfortunately, my experience as a patient is not unique. Every day countless patients receive a daunting diagnosis or face an impossible choice between providing for their family or paying for dental care. I was fortunate to have the support network and resources to navigate the labyrinth of health care in search of answers. Now, I am on a mission to apply those learnings and mobilize the resources at my disposal to help simplify care by making oral health more accessible, integrated with medical care and equitable for all.
Over the next few articles here, I will lend my voice to the many innovators, researchers and executives working on solutions that simplify health and make oral health part of overall health. I invite you to join the conversation as we discuss how as health care leaders we are in a unique position to ask the hard questions and push beyond current standards of care for our employees, communities and the bottom line. We’ll consider how entrepreneurship and cross-disciplinary partnerships can accelerate our transformation to simple, patient-friendly care, and the role of investors, educators and consumers in that process.
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