What is 'bespoke care'?

Banjo and Hula noted the genesis of the term "bespoke care" came from recognizing patterns in healthcare innovations across various sectors, including the pharmaceutical industry and digital health.

According to Hula, bespoke care is a model where care is customized to an individual's unique characteristics and considers both medical needs and personal preference.

"Think determining what drug will work best for an individual patient based on their unique genetics," Hula said. "But it also goes beyond that. It also thinks about how patients are defining value, not just what's right for them in terms of what's going to enable the best outcomes, but what are their preferences? How are they defining value of care, not just some clinical association. Maybe that means for them not receiving a surgery that's considered the best way to treat a patient, but maybe that would impact the patient's ability to live the way they want to live."

Banjo added that bespoke care involves a deep level of personalization and is designed to be more effective and durable, similar to how a bespoke suit is tailored for an individual person.

The challenges facing bespoke care, and where it's going

According to Banjo, while the concept of bespoke care is promising, the healthcare industry is not fully prepared to implement it at scale.

"We're not prepared now, but we can absolutely develop the infrastructure in clinical education, health literacy, all across from payment to clinical decision-making to make this a reality," Banjo said.

Hula also noted that bespoke care can be costly. But while it may be expensive in the short term, it comes with the promise of avoided care in the long term.

"[A] good example of that is a $2 million drug today that reduces the cost of care by much more than that over a lifetime," Hula said.

In addition, bespoke care is going to be complex, Hula said. "It's going to require clinicians who are highly skilled in a clinical sense, but also in a personal sense, really knowing what's right for their patients and being able to adjust treatment decisions based off of all the factors that we just listed," Hula said.

In the future, Banjo expressed hope that bespoke care will eventually become standard in the healthcare industry and that practices will become integrated into everyday care.

Hula meanwhile emphasized that no part of the healthcare industry would be exempt from adopting a bespoke care model, which will require significant changes across all sectors.