HEALTHCARE
Health care can be broadly defined as providing medical products, equipment and services to protect, extend, or increase the quality of patients’ lives. Increasingly, the industry encompasses a network of interrelated providers with different areas of expertise, all coordinated to varying degrees to keep us healthy.
The Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) breaks the space into two broad subgroups:
- 1. Health Care Equipment and Services
- 2. Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences
But that hardly tells the whole story. Everything from the physician to the manufacturer of the stethoscope to the x-ray technician play a part. The pharmacist writing prescriptions and the firm databasing medical records all contribute to a rather complex health care system.
THE COMPLEX HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
