LiveBlog: The Future of Healthcare Delivery
Written November 5th, 2007 by Thomas Ames12:26:03 Bill Crounse, MD, Worldwide Health Director of Microsoft Corporation is presenting on The Future of Healthcare Delivery: 5 Trends That Will Shake the World. I look forward to this presentation with a double-edged sword: in one sense, it should be a very interesting presentation from an obviously reputable source. On the other hand, as a traditionalist, I tend to criticize many new media-based trends. We’ll see how this goes.
12:31:19 Interesting tibit from Bill: He says that while we have many diagnostics that are top-notch compared to the world, our IT is “laughable.” He puts up an incredibly confusing screenshot of a clinical program. Imagine if DOS threw up, and that’s what it looks like. It’s not pretty, and as someone who regularly walks past the clinical desktop training room, I know this looks somewhat similar to what most organizations use.
12:41:07 For anyone who presents in the future, a suggestions: less corny audio, the better. The first trend is the “end of health insurance (as we know it).” This is interesting, as American politics, year-after-year, brings up universal healthcare and the debate whether or not to adopt it. Bill is going through what Microsoft’s health benefits are. Admittedly, I’m jealous. Full insurance for workers and their families, no co-pays for generic drugs. And, as Bill is focusing on, a health savings account.
12:45:19 Another corny audio bit, another trend: the commoditization of medical services. This one touches us Web professionals a bit more, as it includes online consultations and e-health services. As “retail medicine” and self-service becomes more popular, it’s no surprise that patients will continue to come to our Web sites for consultations. Maybe it’s just because I’m a Web guy, but I’m very much more likely to contact your company if you’ll correspond with me via email rather than phone. In fact, whether it’s good or bad business, that’s how I chose my pest remover.
12:50:31 Trend #3: Commoditizing providers. Interesting that he brings up healthcare professional shortages while some organizations are literally sending doctors out to homes to see patients. The time spend by a physician driving to someone’s house could be spent staying in the office and seeing 4x the patients. But I’m not a hospital administrator; just a marketing professional listing to an occasional-but-annoying classic Psycho knife-wielding audio bit.
12:52:02 He’s going through machine-aided diagnosis. I’m left wondering on a personal level if we truly do want healthcare to go the way of e-shopping and e-banking. Healthcare has traditionally been a very personal endeavor, and taking the face-to-face patient-physician scenario really takes the emotional aspect out of healthcare. Will it ever be the case that we feel closer to our barbers than our doctors? Or, even more importantly, is that already the case?
1:52:05 Sorry for the cut-out, folks. I was on Aaron’s computer, and the server cut out. So this is more of a post-presentation summary.
Trend 4 was “information everywhere.” This isn’t surprising, as we’ve heard about more patient portals than there is dollars in your wallet. Bill’s video about upcoming technology was very impressive, but I do wonder how practical it is. We’ve all seen futuristic movies like Bladerunner, Back to the Future, and Minority Report; honestly, hardly any of it has come true. Much of the technology in Bill’s presentation centered on personalized care. For instance, a clinician was literally watching a patient’s biosigns as she was running, then contacted her to come in to participate in a clinical trial. But my concern is with such an incredibly shortage of healthcare professionals not just in the United States but the world, how can we truly expect a doctor to literally sit there and watch his patient? And then diagnose him or her over the Web? I’m well aware of the 15 minute time limit primary physicians put on patient appointments; I don’t put much value in these types of futuristic, entirely speculative assertions. I just don’t see how we can expect doctors to give more and more of their time to personalized care, even if that’s what our patients want.
Then there’s trend 5, “globalization of healthcare services.” This is a point of irony, really. Over a few presentations I’ve heard facts about half a million people going outside of the United States for cheaper healthcare. And Bill cited the fact that many countries recruit our doctors for inordinate amounts of money and living standards, and our patients can then go there to get cheaper healthcare (even while the doctors make more). But if I’m going outside of the nation for my healthcare, it will inevitably be even less personalized care than I would have gotten by staying here. So while we concentrate our efforts on giving them patient portals, access to records, and access to e-mail the doctor directly, ultimately some people will continue to go outside of the nation to get impersonal care. The question, then, becomes: are we heading on a path of being a primary care nation?
I apologize for the amount of widespread commentary on this post. Much of the presentation took a look at healthcare in general, and of course we all have many opinions on that. So there’s much more here than mere relevance to marketing; it’s commentary on the healthcare industry in general. Any comments and feedback would be greatly appreciated.
November 5th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Thomas, I think I have a similar feeling about this type of presentation. I like to think about the future of technology, and dream of ways my robot dog will ride with me in my rocket car, but in the end I just want to hear about practical, small steps I can take to improve my site.
It’s good to mix it up a little I suppose - some pragmatic presentations, some futurist/theory. I’ll be sticking to the former for the rest of the conference, though.
November 7th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
I hope robot cats will be available, too.
Thanks for the blog, Thomas. I saw this session and had similar thoughts:
–Amazingly cool technology is great, but will this mode of care delivery be better for patients? I’m not sure the smarter tech=better care equation is a given.
–Simply put, many of the future models Dr. Crounse cites can be described as “proxy care”: the locus of knowledge and expertise (the doctor, typically) resides at some distance from the patient, whose care experience is moderated by technology, and/or a health professional who is trained to take over some of the MD’s functions. Seems to me that the public is already tired of proxy care; most want more direct, experienced human interaction.
–Not sure about Microsoft being the arbiter/portal to a universal care model.
I do agree, though, that health care seems woefully clunky in its myriad technological applications that don’t interface well.