Who Will Be The Netflix Of Healthcare? - InformationWeek

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Healthcare // Leadership
Commentary
9/24/2014
09:06 AM
David F Carr
David F Carr
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Who Will Be The Netflix Of Healthcare?

Healthcare disruption is real, the MediFuture event showed. How you react determines whether it's a threat or an opportunity.

(Source: HealthSpot)
(Source: HealthSpot)

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Ariella
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Ariella,
 User Rank: Author
9/30/2014 | 2:46:56 PM
Re: Islands of Automation
@David It may not be worth it to them, as HIPPA compliance is a major headache that likely requires a team of specially trained lawyers. 
PaulN723
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PaulN723,
 User Rank: Apprentice
9/25/2014 | 1:05:52 AM
A Customer facing app - one app to bring them all, and in the wellness bind them. ZibdyHealth
There is so much stuff out there about sensors and apps to plan your meals and so-on. Obviously EHRs hold hospital and clinic data about the patient - but there is a real lack in patient facing apps which hold the medical data about a patient - and the patient's family. This is the sort of data that would really benefit so many of these apps looking for this partner or that partner. ZibdyHealth is just such an app, holding a patient's medications list, conditions, vitals and so on. Patients would benefit hugely by having this app as their central repositry for their personal medical health info, and being able to integrate with the various sensor etc. apps put there.
Lorna Garey
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Lorna Garey,
 User Rank: Author
9/24/2014 | 5:16:27 PM
Re: Islands of Automation
I love this line: "When Slywotzky asked if there were any hassles in healthcare or health insurance that we all might want to do away with, the reaction from the audience was nervous laughter."

I'd be nervous too if Wal-Mart and Google were both gunning for my business model. 
David F. Carr
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David F. Carr,
 User Rank: Author
9/24/2014 | 2:55:32 PM
Re: Islands of Automation
Well, part of the point of the conference was that these gadgets and apps are worth more if aggregated together and that tech firms ought to be partnering with each other and with healthcare firms to assemble them into a greater whole. From a technologist's perspective, the danger is that this results in a horde of one-off interfaces and proprietary APIs. So standards will need to emerge, whether de facto or formal.

I mentioned The Activity Exchange as one firm tying together healthcare data from multiple sources, and bigger players are targeting this, too.

WebMD, which has an established brand as a portal for consumer health info, wants to make a play here by also being a repository for aggregated health inf. Of course, that means they will have to wade deeper into the territory of managing personal health info and complying with HIPAA etc, which they haven't had to deal with before now.
Gary_EL
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Gary_EL,
 User Rank: Ninja
9/24/2014 | 1:48:00 PM
Islands of Automation
I don't think it will be quite the same thing for health care as it was or will be for most other industries. No one is a bigger fan of EHR than I am. I recently made a visit to the ER, and I was happy to find out the next day that my primary had the information at his fingertips, and that not only was I scheduled for a quick trip to a specialist, but that office, too, had the relevant info at hand. That's progress. That's great.

These health monitors that you mention will be of limited efficacy. Most of the people I know who refuse to manage their diabetes or simply will not diet or exercise will not suddenly modify their behavior because of electronic warnings. I'm told by health care providers that the monitors that exist so far are still too inaccurate and unreliable to be of much use anyway, but of course, it's a lot easier to improve electronic devices than it is to improve human behavior.

What we have now is a repeat of the "islands of automation" syndrome of the 1980's. In the present case, hospital A has a great EHR system and so does hospital B. The problem is that they don't communicate at all with each other. Resolving that is the real issue.
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