It’s an interesting time in healthcare. It feels like we’re at a crossroads. NHS reforms in the UK, people taking a closer interest in their health, strides forward in access to medicines in the developing world as well as new technologies. All have led to a critical moment in the healthcare landscape.

Having studied issues of pharmaceutical security in South Africa for my Masters, I’m always aware of how complex healthcare issues and reforms are. Science, economics, geography, politics and ethics all play their part in building what can be a very muddled picture. Making it even more complicated is the fact that health is such an emotive, personal issue. Over the coming months I’m going to take a look at some of these new developments, passing a critical eye over them and analysing the opportunities for sustainability comms and behaviour change.

Let’s take the side of healthcare I know best first – pharmaceuticals. Multinational pharmaceutical companies are currently the only significant developer of safe, effective and innovative medicines. But, the industry enjoys a love hate relationship with the public. The promise of wonder drugs, treating anything from depression to tuberculosis, is celebrated, whilst the costs of medicines or CEO salaries are a cause of great tension.

The industry hasn’t done itself any favours. A string of scandals have emerged, from Roche’s Herceptin and GlaxoSmithKline’s Seroxat, to Novartis’ challenge of Indian patent law.  All of which have been cloaked in a culture of secrecy that has only exacerbated the problems. But this is where the change is most apparent.

Pharma has realised that if they want the public to understand the environment in which it works and why things happen the way they do (e.g. increasingly large R&D costs as the low hanging fruit disappears), then they need to be more open and transparent in the way they operate and communicate. A good example is GlaxoSmithKline, who now voluntarily publishes all its research data –positive or negative.

In the last couple of years there have been encouraging signs that previous excesses are being moderated, particularly in the developing world – eliminating the drive for excessive profits and establishing a system based on therapeutic need. Profits and equity are no longer seen as mutually exclusive.

There is a move towards positioning themselves as a driver of positive social change through healthcare and this isn’t a CSR adjunct but a crucial part of value creation, expanding pharma’s offer to the public. With public sector cuts in the UK and abroad, there’s an opportunity for the pharmaceutical industry and private healthcare institutions to take a lead role in innovative community led initiatives.

Having a mother who’s a nurse and several friends who are doctors, I have my own reservations about the NHS reforms. The challenge facing the new GP consortia will be to commission services of the highest quality, with the best therapeutic outcomes but which are cost effective.

These reforms coupled with increasing demand from the public for wellness services, goal planners and health coaching, mean that there is room for some radical thinking about how health and wellbeing are delivered in the coming decades. I’ll be keeping an eye out for examples in the pharma industry and beyond, if anyone else has any good examples then post them below.