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The health care industry or health profession treats patients who are injured, sick, disabled, or infirm. The delivery of modern health care depends on an expanding interdisciplinary team of trained professionals.^[1][2] Interdisciplinary work is that which integrates concepts across different disciplines. ... This article is about people called professionals. ...

For purposes of finance and management, the healthcare industry is typically divided into several groups and sectors. The Global Industry Classification Standard and the Industry Classification Benchmark divide the industry into two main groups: (1) health care equipment & services and (2) pharmaceuticals, biotechnology & related life sciences. Health care equipment and services comprise companies that provide medical equipment, medical supplies, and health care, such as hospitals, home health care providers, and nursing homes. The second industry group comprises sectors companies that produce biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and miscellaneous scientific services.^[3] The Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) was developed by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI), a premier independent provider of global indices and benchmark-related products and services, and Standard & Poors (S&P), an independent international financial data and investment services company and a leading provider of global equity indices. ... It has been suggested that International Benchmark Classification be merged into this article or section. ...

Providers and professionals

A health care provider or health professional is an organization or person who delivers proper health care in a systematic way professionally to any individual in need of health care services. This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...

Delivery of services

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The health care industry includes the delivery of health services by health care providers. Usually such services are paid for by the patient or by the patient's insurance company; although they may be government-financed (such as the National Health Service in the United Kingdom) or delivered by charities or volunteers, particularly in poorer countries. The structure of health care charges can also vary dramatically among countries. For instance, unlike the United States, Chinese hospital charges tend toward 50% for drugs, another major percentage for equipment, and a small percentage for health care professional fees.^[4] A patient having his blood pressure taken by a doctor. ... The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company is one of the largest New York based life insurance companies Insurance, in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent loss. ... NHS redirects here. ... // Legal definitions A charity is a trust, company or unincorporated association established for charitable purposes only. ... For other uses, see Volunteer (disambiguation). ...

There are many ways of providing health care in the modern world. The most common way is face-to-face delivery, where care provider and patient see each other 'in the flesh'. This is what occurs in general medicine in most countries. However, health care is not always face-to-face; with modern telecommunications technology, in absentia health care is becoming more common. This could be when practitioner and patient communicate over the phone, video conferencing, the internet, email, text messages, or any other form of non-face-to-face communication. Telecommunication involves the transmission of signals over a distance for the purpose of communication. ... The most common mode of healthcare delivery is through personal, face-to-face contact between a healthcare provider and a beneficiary (patient). ... For other uses, see Telephone (disambiguation). ... Categories: Wikipedia cleanup | Groupware | Telecommunications stubs ... E-mail, or email, is short for electronic mail and is a method of composing, sending, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems. ... A received SMS being announced on a Nokia phone. ...

Medical tourism

Medical tourism (also called medical travel, health tourism or global health care) is a term initially coined by travel agencies and the mass media to describe the rapidly-growing practice of traveling across international borders to obtain health care. Medical tourism (also called medical travel or health tourism) is a term initially coined by travel agencies and the mass media to describe the rapidly-growing practice of traveling to another country to obtain health care. ... Medical tourism (also called medical travel or health tourism) is a term initially coined by travel agencies and the mass media to describe the rapidly-growing practice of traveling to another country to obtain health care. ... A travel agency is a business that sells travel related products and services, particularly package tours, to end-user customers on behalf of third party travel suppliers, such as airlines, hotels, tour companies, and cruise lines. ... Popular press redirects here; note that the University of Wisconsin Press publishes under the imprint The Popular Press. Mass media is a term used to denote a section of the media specifically envisioned and designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. ... For other uses, see Health care (disambiguation). ...

Such services typically include elective procedures as well as complex specialized surgeries such as joint replacement (knee/hip), cardiac surgery, dental surgery, and cosmetic surgeries. However, virtually every type of health care, including psychiatry, alternative treatments, convalescent care and even burial services are available. As a practical matter, providers and customers commonly use informal channels of communication-connection-contract, and in such cases this tends to mean less regulatory or legal oversight to assure quality and less formal recourse to reimbursement or redress, if needed. “Surgeon” redirects here. ... ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Cardiac surgery is surgery on the heart, typically to treat complications of ischemic heart disease (e. ... A dental officer and his assistant remove the wisdom tooth of a crew member of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS (CVN-69) Dental surgery is any of a number of medical procedures which involve artificially modifying the dentition. ... Plastic surgery is a general term for operative manual and instrumental treatment which is performed for functional or aesthetic reasons. ...

Over 50 countries have identified medical tourism as a national industry.^[5] However, accreditation and other measures of quality vary widely across the globe, and there are risks and ethical issues that make this method of accessing medical care controversial. Also, some destinations may become hazardous or even dangerous for medical tourists to contemplate. Look up accreditation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

History

Growth

The health care industry is one of the world's largest and fastest-growing industries.^[6] Consuming over 10 percent of gross domestic product of most developed nations, health care can form an enormous part of a country's economy. In 2003, health care costs paid to hospitals, physicians, nursing homes, diagnostic laboratories, pharmacies, medical device manufacturers and other components of the health care system, consumed 15.3 percent^[7] of the GDP of the United States, the largest of any country in the world. For United States, the health share of gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to hold steady in 2006 before resuming its historical upward trend, reaching 19.6 percent of GDP by 2016. ^[8] In 2001, for the OECD countries the average was 8.4 percent ^[9] with the United States (13.9%), Switzerland (10.9%), and Germany (10.7%) being the top three. GDP redirects here. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For the town in the Republic of Ireland, see Hospital, County Limerick. ... For other uses, see Doctor. ... Rest home for seniors in Český Těšín, Czech Republic SNF redirects here. ... Diagnosis (from the Greek words dia = by and gnosis = knowledge) is the process of identifying a disease by its signs, symptoms and results of various diagnostic procedures. ... For other uses, see Pharmacy (disambiguation). ... // COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 93/42/EEC of 14 June 1993 concerning medical devices defines a ‘medical device’ as: any instrument, apparatus, appliance, material or other article, whether used alone or in combination, including the software necessary for its proper application intended by the manufacturer to be used for human beings for... GDP is an acronym which can stand for more than one thing: (in economics) an abbreviation for Gross Domestic Product. ... The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organization of those developed countries that accept the principles of representative democracy and a free market economy. ...

US health care expenditures totaled US$2.2 trillion in 2006.^[10] According to Health Affairs, USD$7,498 will be spent on every woman, man and child in the United States in 2007, 20 percent of all spending. Costs are projected to increase to $12,782 by 2016.^[11] USD redirects here. ...

Transformation

China has implemented a long-term transformation of its health care industry, beginning in the 1980's. Over the first twenty-five years of this transformation, government contributions to health care expenditures have dropped from 36% to 15%, with the burden of managing this decrease falling largely on patients. Also over this period, a small proportion of state-owned hospitals have been privatized. As an incentive to privatization, foreign investment in hospitals — up to 70% ownership — has been encouraged.^[4]

See also

• Health care
• Health sciences
• Medical tourism
• Health economics
• Medicine
• Philosophy of Healthcare

For other uses, see Health care (disambiguation). ... Medical tourism (also called medical travel or health tourism) is a term initially coined by travel agencies and the mass media to describe the rapidly-growing practice of traveling to another country to obtain health care. ... For the chemical substances known as medicines, see medication. ... The philosophy of healthcare is the study of the ethics, processes, and people which constitute the maintenance of health for human beings. ...

References

Notes