Friday, May 29, 2015

Healthcare Technology need to include Patients

A survey conducted at HIMSS15 found that patient satisfaction

and patient engagement rank among the top priorities for CIOs. In fact, they rank above improving care coordination, streamlining operational efficiencies, and achieving Meaningful Use.
The tides are clearly changing. We’ve all been talking about what the shift to a value-based care model means for healthcare organizations. What we haven’t been talking about is how this shift is transforming our patients into “prosumers.”
There’s a saying, “To a worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish,”

meaning we are predominantly aware of that which we are surrounded by on a daily basis. Health IT, in all its intricacies and expansiveness, has become hyper focused on making sense of its nebulous infrastructures, working hard to prepare healthcare organizations for next new wave of regulations. Our world, while not horseradish, is composed of goals and milestones that are 100 percent contingent upon these systems.
But, as yet one more unintended consequence of this pursuit, we have become myopic. The business of healthcare is no longer simply confined to a hospital or an IDN site map.
Patients are reaching for their phones, not to call their doctors, but to research their symptoms. They’re educated buyers, looking up reviews before seeing a new specialist, just as they would before buying the latest gadget on Amazon. And, as we enter the era of the Internet of Everything (IoE), they want their wearable devices to meaningfully connect as simply as when they use their phones to play songs from the playlist on their laptop.
It becomes a challenge of sustaining the momentum of the moment. As the wearable trend continues to grow, it is not merely enough to count steps or measure the amount of UV rays absorbed. That won’t keep patients engaged. We need statistics and personal health trends that can be used to foster a richer, ongoing dialogue between patients and their physicians.
Consider the positive health implications for patient who receives a treatment plan from her doctor, which is entered into the EMR during the visit and connected to a three-question daily check-in for three months via a mobile device. The patient could provide a thumbs-up, thumbs-down, or neutral rating (think Pandora playlist) on how the treatment is working, with perhaps an option to enter free text should she choose to expound upon her responses. These daily reports could be aggregated into trends and reviewed by a clinician to make adjustments to the treatment plan as needed, extending patient care beyond confines of the four walls and the 12 minutes of an office visit.
Connectivity and personalization is the zeitgeist. CIOs know this. We are all unique snowflakes, and as more and more people submit their genes for analysis and mapping, we’re proving the increased drive for individuality. While the industry is pushing for population health (a laudable vision indeed), patients are looking not to be considered in aggregate, but to be treated with the same personalized attention they experience when they go to a favorite restaurant where the wait staff recalls their usual order or when they go to a website that remembers all their previous preferences. It’s about not starting from square one every time.
Patients aren’t going to tolerate the disconnect in healthcare forever. And as digital natives,some generations won’t tolerate it at all. The day is coming where a patient will ask her doctor, “Did you notice that that my headaches seemed to lessen on those days I go to the gym? I’m wondering if there’s a connection?” If her physician isn’t paying attention to her, she will find a physician, or perhaps even an intelligent medical assistant, who will.


This post originally featured on HISTalk

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Memorial Weekend - Be Happy

This memorial day is a good time to reflect and give thanks - in fact this visual gives a great sense of the sacrifices of so many for our freedoms and life today

BloodofourVeterans

Original from Facebook

Here's one for the SHARE button. A truly powerful image that tells it like it is.

Posted by Madison Rising on Thursday, October 30, 2014  

So while thinking about how lucky we are we should try hard to be happy as Bobby McFerrin suggested: “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” So in the spirit of focusing on happiness which is well proven to improve your life this piece in Time Magazine: Happy Thoughts: Here Are the Things Proven To Make You Happier choked full of great ideas and principles - starting with Gratitude which

Showing gratitude for the good things you have is the most powerful happiness boosting activity there is....which seemed a perfect match for today. But there are many other elements starting with

Doing what you are good at - no matter what that might be as often as possible - Starving Artists are happier with their jobs which goes a long way to explain the power of Regina Holliday and her amazing presence and power in medical advocacy (She’s just a published her first book “The Writing on the Wall” which should be required reading and would definitely be on Oprah's book list if that were still thing)

As for you time - spend it with the people you like - the happiest people are social with strong relationships and that describes much of the online community around Healthcare and Patient advocacy that i consider myself very lucky to be part of. There have been some studies that suggest a causation between happy social networks influencing others and helping them to be happier (I know could just as easily be correlation but either way Happiness is infectious)

Money can help but is not essential to happiness and it is not good to focus on money or the desire for it.

Well known that giving is better for happiness than receiving - notable during the holiday that the giving of gifts is more satisfying than receiving. Interestingly striving for ambitious goals has a positive effect and being optimistic (even bordering on delusional) has positive effects but it is this list of “big life regrets” that is worth highlighting

  • I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
  • I wish I didn’t work so hard.
  • I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
  • I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
  • I wish that I had let myself be happier.

and as someone pointed out - no one says as they near death - I wish I had worked much harder and spent more time at work.

 

Relish the time off, enjoy your life, family and friends, savor the positive experiences and do so frequently even in small doses.