“How Flat is Your Healthcare?”
Interesting article in today’s NY Times covering comments from GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt, about the leading role he believes India will play in helping the US to cut the cost of delivering healthcare.
The article goes on to observe that:
Many analysts and health care executives say they share Mr. Immelt’s belief that innovations from emerging markets, particularly India, could lead to big changes in the United States health care system. Already, American health care companies are cutting costs by outsourcing services to India like reading X-rays or scheduling nursing visits.
Read the full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/03/business/global/03immelt.html?hpw
NYT: Tech Companies Push to Digitize Patients’ Records
The New York Times has another great article about the gold rush from tech companies to get in on the action for EMR’s. You can read it at http://bit.ly/2uguWU.
But the real nugget is in the middle of the article:
What is needed, experts agree, are new models of delivery and easier-to-use technology to reduce the expense and technical headaches. The proposed offerings are typically bets on the new Internet-based service model, known as cloud computing, in which much of the computing firepower and data reside in remote data centers, which doctors, nurses and staff would use via the Web browsers on their personal computers.
As the kids would say “duuu-uh.”
CNET: Dell Dude to Begin Selling EMRs
Dell announced a new service aimed at helping doctors and hospitals implement EMRs. Interesting implications for acceleration of EMR adoption at the small and midsize group/hospital levels…
Marketplace on NPR: the Doctor’s Office
Earlier this week on NPR’s Marketplace, there was a great piece by Tamara Keith on what happens behind the counter at the typical doctor’s office.
Ever wonder what those people on the other side of the doctor’s office counter actually do? Tamara Keith takes a closer look at the inner works of a typical medical practice in our first installment of “The Cure: Remaking Health Care in America (TM).”
Listen to the whole piece here, on the Marketplace website. This pretty much explains why CareVault exits! 
Google ♥ Microsoft?
The beauty of healthcare: it brings titanic enemies like Microsoft and Google together in a love-fest! Here’s an article from CNN.com (originally published on CNet) that describes how they both like the other’s approach http://bit.ly/2YBnA . Still not clear what the level of uptake for each of their approaches is, but it’s certainly the right step.
As we mentioned in a previous post, healthcare IT is where financial services IT was 20+ years ago. Few people would trust putting all their financial data online or accessing it electronically – commonplace now. Trust will need to be earned – and perhaps a hybrid model which allows patients to store certain data locally on their home PC’s and selectively share the relevant parts of it with those who “need to know” may in fact be the ideal/likely outcome.
Repost of WSJ: Cost Is the Impediment
So here’s a blog post from the Wall Street Journal from a few weeks ago: http://bit.ly/RAD1h.
Basically the title says it all – “Docs, Hospitals Skip Electronic Records for the Same Reason” and in the text you will find the answer: cost. Our industry needs to take this lesson to heart: in the day and age of Software-as-as-Service, subscription agreements and little/no services requirements, pushing large scale implementations of EMR systems is going to be a tough call.
Healthcare IT – What’s All the Fuss About?
Welcome to the first post from CareVault! We will share with you some provocative thoughts and perspectives on how the transformation of Healthcare necessarily runs through the efficient and effective use of Information Technology (IT) in all its forms – from the physician’s office through the hospital front desk to the insurance plans’ back office operations.
However, this transformation will have to happen from the bottom up, with patients and physicians in small practices finding ways to use technology that actually improves healthcare delivery (through better outcomes and tracking of patient information) and also improves the financial impact to physicians. Patients and physicians are at the heart of the healthcare system, not insurance carriers, nor employers for the most part.
We believe that the healthcare system in the US is where Financial Services or Telecommunications were 20 years ago – a critical part of the economy but with tremendous inefficiencies due to the lack of standardized forms of interaction between the various participants. While there are various emerging standards, such as HL7, for improved communication and information exchange, the penetration is still quite limited – because most of the data is still in non-digital forms! And, to make matters worse, IT vendors have tried to sell complex systems, with lengthy implementation cycles, poor usability, and terrible customer support – any one of which is bad, but all together it can spell disaster.
Recall your last visit to a doctor’s office – you probably saw manila folders behind the reception area, neatly filed; you also likely filled out a few intake forms on paper attached to a clipboard; and you possibly walked away with a paper prescription. You’re not alone – that’s the reality of most physicians’ offices.
Electronic Medical Records (EMR) systems would arguably automate and digitize the various pieces of the paper-based flow. But, most research indicates that fewer than 10% of physicians’ offices have adopted EMR systems. Why? Because they haven’t had the economic incentive to do so – yet.
In our next postings we’ll talk more about how and why the necessary technology-driven transformation of healthcare delivery will take place. We will also show how Tao Te Ching’s proverb that says “Every journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step” is so apt to describe what will need to happen.
