It is becoming clear from the pace of health reform initiatives in Congress, that the public, as usual is far, far ahead of any elected officials, career politicians or bureaucrats in actually leading the way to Real Health Reform. In the realm of the web and internet, social media are becoming the new corner store. Patients can “gather” to exchange information, insights and experiences. Doctors can access tools for practice management, medical records, e mail interaction with patients, online prescribing and online consultation and diagnosis. Treatment regimens can be begun online with followup in office. Diagnostics tests and images can be shared among consultants for group analysis. Physicians can also direct patients to trusted content on the web regarding their diagnosis, tests, condition, and procedures.
Therefore, it would appear that Real Health Reform is going to occur without ANY input from Congress, the President, labor unions, “social change” advocates and community organizations. It is going to occur without new federal programs, without massive federal spending, new federal controls or any federal involvement at all! The creative energies of the free market in America are going to lead the way to Real Health Reform. The only thing the government needs to do is to assist in regulation of health insurance so that access to care in available.
The vast majority of our legal citizens do not need any reform from Washington, it is already underway in the manner in which patients are interacting. This interaction by definition is forcing the health care system, doctors and hospitals, to follow suit and visceral change is occurring. There are now a plethora of sites related to health information, health care, online consultation, practice websites, patient to patient help groups, online medical records, e prescribing, physician directed patient information, doctor to doctor interaction and consultation with online case sharing (within HIPPA guidelines of course).
Real Health Reform is coming and is here. It is we the people, patients, doctors and providers who are leading the way. We can only hope that Congress does not get in the way of this change. It is basis for the future of medical care in America and the globe . . . it is the basis of Real Health Reform . . . jomaxx
Smarter Healthcare: How Social Media is Revolutionizing Your Doctor Visits – http://mashable.com/2009/10/05/social-media-healthcare/
Mashable: The Social Media Guide – http://mashable.com/
rVita trusted information and natural healing – http://www.rvita.com/
Hakia Health – http://health.hakia.com/
Vitals, where doctors are examined – http://www.vitals.com/
Find a Doc – http://www.findadoc.com/
American Well – http://www.americanwell.com/
My Choice MD – http://www.mychoicemd.com/
Double Check MD – http://doublecheckmd.com/DTHome.do
Patients Like Me – http://www.patientslikeme.com/
Med Help – http://www.medhelp.org/
Care Pages – http://www.carepages.com/
Practice Fusion – http://www.practicefusion.com/
AthenaHealth – http://www.athenahealth.com/
NorthPoint Domain – http://www.northpointdomain.com/
IC Sciences – http://www.icsciences.com/
www.condron.us www.bloglines.com www.blogburst.com www.blogcatalog.com www.clusty.com www.reddit.com www.digg.com www.wikio.com www.propeller.com www.mashable.com
I am an ardent supporter of health reform that involves patients talking to patients in networks and becoming educated regarding their own condition and what the state of the art is with respect to treatment. This is all very powerful. However, given the inefficiencies of the US medical system spending 17% of GDP as compared to 10% spent in other countries with equivalent or better health care, cost reduction is also important.
Unfortunately, the insurers and treatment facilities have been unable to reduce the costs on their own since being requested to do so in the 1970s. For whatever reason, free market economics has not done its job in this respect, so there is a need for the government to at least try to control costs for national competitiveness. We can argue that governments are inefficient at program implementation, but given the existing inefficiencies, I wonder how bad they would really be in comparison.
You start with the assumption that most of the 17% of GDP spent on healthcare in the US is due to inefficiency. Do you really believe that 7% of our GDP is spent on wasteful medical practices (the amount that we would have to cut to get to your 10% figure)? There are many factors that go into that number and to be sure, there is some waste, fraud and duplication. We are all for correcting that. But the biggest driver of costs is really patients themselves via their actions or inactions. Anything that engages patients in their medical care is a good thing. Also, most citizens have access to online services. Even those without can go to a public library. Thanks for the comment and keep reading!
Sure, emailing patients is a great concept. Will this be another free service that physicians donate? See http://bit.ly/hEEds
mkirsch . . . Good point and agree that physicians should already be incorporating e commerce strategies into their practice business plans. There is no “free lunch”, at least not for long. Docs need to be ahead of this curve, not behind it.
[…] in. So it came as a breath of fresh air to see a posting that popped into my inbox from Obi Jo on Real Health Reform. It argues that the only way we will see any real reform is if it’s done by patients, […]
Great post and agree fully. Collaborative medicine is the wave of the future. There will always be those who feel that we should abandon this progress for “barefoot doctors” to care for the many unfortunate in the world. While we need to work to address fundamental ills in health delivery, it is likely that a vibrant “leading edge” of thought, insight, research and technology will do as much in the long term to address those who seem to be distant from this “futuristic” approach. As the saying goes, “life is what happens while your making other plans” . . . it is also true that “real change happens while you are planning change, and usually right under your nose”. Thanks for the post and keep reading!