Plugging in at the Point of Care
Have you texted your doctor lately? 9 million Americans have done so, while another 17 million have emailed their healthcare providers and 6 million have sent instant messages, according to a new survey by Manhattan Research, unveiled at the HealthWeb Leadership Forum in New York City on October 6. Titled, “The Patient-Provider Intersection: Improving Outcomes Through Digital Innovation,” the forum showcased intriguing trends that are transforming the patient-physician relationship.
“It’s a historic moment and opportunity to reinvent American healthcare for the better,” keynote speaker Todd Park, Chief Technology Officer of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told an audience of more than 200 healthcare leaders. “I see the biggest entrepreneurial opportunity since the Internet to create the greatest health-maximizing machine the world has ever seen. By unleashing the power of information technology and innovation, we’ll invent our way out of the healthcare crisis and make magic happen.”
One of the major trends in the increasingly wired medical world is using innovative technologies to provide more personalized care, said GE healthymagination Vice President Mike Barber, during a panel discussion at the forum which was hosted by Healthline Networks. “Massive amounts of technology are being deployed at physicians to improve the conversation and provide decision support. It’s important to realize that the average therapy for the average person isn’t enough: Doctors also need to look at a cohort of people like your patient” to develop the optimal treatment plan for that individual’s needs.
For example, Clarient, a GE Healthcare company and a leader in cancer diagnostic laboratory services, is developing new, proprietary diagnostic biomarkers for profiling breast, prostate, colon and certain blood-based cancers, to provide physicians with more information to make decisions as to how to best treat patients with these diseases. One biomarker Clarient is currently investigating, TLE3, could help identify patients who will not respond to the cancer drug Taxane, thus potentially sparing them side effects that are not likely to benefit them. The company is also working on other technologies to help clinicians personalize treatment through analyzing an individual patient’s cancer tumor on a molecular level, as part of GE’s $1 billion commitment to fight cancer, said Barber.
Charles Kennedy, MD, Head of Accountable Care Solutions, Aetna, discussed the importance of “liberating data and putting it in the patient’s hands” to empower people to make more informed healthcare decisions. And whether doctors like it or not, added Alexandra von Plato, Global President and Chief Creative Officer of Digitas Health/Razorfish Health, the overwhelming majority of patients go online to research their medical conditions or ways to stay healthy. In fact, according to the survey, 73 percent of patients turned to the Internet for health information in 2011, compared to just 42 percent in 2004. By 2012, predicted Healthline Chairman and CEO West Shell, 1.4 billion people will be accessing health information on mobile devices.
“We need a new vision of the doctor-patient relationship,” said von Plato. “Patients are just waking up to the ah-a moment that they are in charge — it’s a moment of transformation — and it’s up to us to embrace that.” Gone are the days when physicians could dole out medical data in what they consider to be just the right doses to their patients. “Many patients are stepping up with gusto, doing their homework and bringing their healthcare providers information they’ve printed out from the Internet. The idea isn’t to challenge doctors, but to provide context for a conversation.”
And with a typical medical visit lasting 13 minutes, according to Dr. Kennedy, patients can leave with more questions than the doctor has time to answer. “That’s the challenge we face and it’s a very complex problem.” Other panelists suggested wider use of “information prescriptions,” in which healthcare providers give patients the web addresses of trustworthy online resources to learn more about their disorders. One tool that’s particularly valuable, said Park, is the government’s health portal, MedlinePlus, which provides authoritative information on more than 900 diseases and conditions in patient-friendly language, as well as a medical dictionary and extensive information on prescription and over-the-counter drugs.
CONNECT THE DOTS
To learn more about Healthline, check out our blog post, “Healthline BodyMaps: The First Human body 3-D Visual Search Tool,” or visit the company’s website. For more news on GE’s innovations, read, “GE Launches $1 Billion Global Campaign to Speed Fight Against Cancer” and “GE’s $100 Million Contest to Find and Fund Breast Cancer Breakthroughs.”
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