Month: April 2010

Thomas Goetz makes a really good point at the end of this video (and throughout) and it is this: the innovation that will change how healthcare is delivered is coming from the outside. It’s coming from the internet types. It’s happening now.

That’s not to say that traditional providers aren’t innovating themselves. But I would argue that the majority of what we can term delivery innovation is happening as a result of the pressures from the outside. It’s a very reactionary state to be in; but it’s also what is comfortable. Providers have had the government and third-party payers making the rules that govern the game since the advent of the DRG.

It just doesn’t seem the right way to go about it, honestly. Can you imagine what would happen if a healthcare provider actually hired a hoard of internet architects and let them run free?

Goodness, I’m guessing.

video via Berci

Is there a way to accomplish what you want using existing standards and existing webs in a different context? Inventing a novel standard for an existing network is quixotic. But some of the greatest success stories in current times are about firms that master one network and then use its embedded standards to exploit an established network in need of improvement. This process is called “interfection.”

Kevin Kelly on, more or less, getting out of healthcare to solve problems.

Industries have spent a lot of money on information technology since the concept entered our modern life. So has healthcare.

The staggering thing to think about is the investment that remains to get everyone connected, link it all together inside the hospital, link it all together outside the hospital, present it in a way that makes decision-making easier, store it, sort it, ensure its privacy, etc. …

Image hat tip: Ed Cotton

We see our role as complementary to the established infrastructure.

MinuteClinic CEO Andrew Sussman on the company’s new chronic care monitoring services.

In a healthcare delivery world where providers strive to be the “provider of all services” for a patient, it’s interesting to watch a niche deliverer innovate.

We know chronic disease consumes the majority of this nation’s annual healthcare spend, yet to traditional providers those patients represent real revenue and so we see a lack of significant investment in opportunities to reduce those spent dollars.

Too interested in the now are we? Yes. Though it’s difficult to predict what, in fact, will produce third-party payer reimbursement ten years from now, it’s a decently safe bet that reducing the cost of providing care will play a (huuuuuge) part. Because after healthcare reform “only” slightly reduces (or, the real possibility, increases) healthcare costs, guess what’s going to get attention?

The point of care. Where healthcare costs magically appear. Those organizations with real care continuity programs/service lines/business models (among others) will be rewarded.

UPDATE: Here is an article contrary to my above assertions. I think the operative words in my diatribe are “significant investment.”