Registering Disapproval
The recent moves to create a register of naturopathic practitioners in Australia is causing some alarm in traditional medical circles.
Naturopaths claim that a register would make the industry ‘safer’.
Safer for whom we wonder?
Traditional Medicine thinks that the register will have the effect of making the public think that naturopathic treatments are effective.
It’s a case of exquisite paradox.
Naturopaths also hope that the register will have the effect of making the public think that naturopathic treatments are effective.
My (traditional) GP pointed out an article in the Australian Doctor magazine in which a naturopath argued that their remedies are so diluted that they don’t really have any effect.
So what’s the point?
The point is that there’s a gulf which seems un-crossable between traditional and naturopathic medicine.
But could Pharma act to bridge that gulf?
Bridging Capital
Sociologists differentiate between two types of Social Capital.
Bonding Capital that describes the closeness of the bonds within a social group, and
Bridging Capital that measures the links that form when social groups reach out to others and other groups.
On a personal level, bridging capital measures the number of people you know who you would lend money to and trusting that you’d get it back. Bonding capital indicates how much money you’d lend.
Do you think Pharma is strategically placed in the health industry to create the bridging capital that would link the two medical worlds together?
It has the science. It has the financial resources. It understands both worlds, without being centred in either.
All it would seem to lack is the leadership.
In estimating the likelihood of success in proposed mergers and acquisitions, and in proposed business partnerships, Tony Lendrum measures the willingness and the capability of the two entities.
He looks for the alignment between those factors and between the strategic and the commercial value of the union.
Does Pharma have the capability to do the job? – probably yes.
Does Pharma have the willingness to do it? – probably not quite, yet.
It there a strategic value to building this form of Capital? - Definitely yes.
Is there a commercial value that will be created – probably yes.
There would certainly be value in improving the pubic view of Pharma as a rapacious predator in the health care industry.
The real value will be to the long suffering patients, currently caught in the crossfire between entrenched positions on both sides.
A more inclusive, open, sharing, peering, transparent and global method of health care can only be a good thing for humanity.
Sound a bit like a prescription for Social Media.
Let’s work to create a future image of the industry that is less bleak than the one that heads this post.
(Tomorrow's Post: Pharma Hype Cycle)
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