Base case
~$90B
per year
Knowledge Cost Index
The Knowledge Cost Index
What unmanaged medical knowledge costs healthcare every year - and the method behind the number.
Conservative floor
>$55B
per year, publicly defensible
Full range
$55-140B
low to high scenario
We estimate, conservatively, that unmanaged medical knowledge costs healthcare more than $55 billion a year across the United States, the EU, Japan, China, and India - only the time skilled people lose finding, verifying, and reconciling knowledge, not the larger cost of decisions made on knowledge that turns out to be wrong.
~$45B
Physicians
50%
~$21B
Nurses
23%
~$14B
Pharma
15%
~$10B
Other
12%
~$90B is a conservative base, and >$55B is a floor we are confident stating publicly. The parts of the model most open to challenge are precisely the ones we set conservatively.
Full methodology
What is inside the full report
- The formula and every input, with its source
- Full workforce, cost, and time-lost tables across all five markets
- Sector and market breakdowns, plus the conservative-to-high scenario range
- What is officially sourced vs. estimated, and why
- Every citation, linked
A short form, then the PDF downloads immediately.