The Biz of Healthcare
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Twitter founder Biz Stone gave the keynote presentation this week to kickoff the Healthcare Information & Management System Society’s HIMSS12 conference . As one of Time magazines “most influential people in the world” and a founding father of the social media movement, his presentation dealt with the changes the healthcare industry is facing in the Internet-age. He touched on a few concepts that we also hold very dear here at DoctorBase. So, we’d like comment on a few of the tasty nuggets of insight he shared with the crowd and the healthcare industry as a whole…
Uncertainty in Change.
Biz mentioned that the predictable nature of healthcare is gone, and along with it has gone the certainty of business & reimbursement models that have been the mainstay of the healthcare industry for decades. Whether you run your own private practice or are the CEO of a hospital group, these changes can be nerve-racking. When faced with this, you need to be able to change your outlook in order to avoid having to change your job!
Opportunity in Creativity.
When you change your outlook to embrace change, it leads to creative solutions to the issues we face in a rapidly changing healthcare industry. Along with this, Biz implored the attendees to also look outside of the industry for creative inspiration. He noted that (as is the case with most large industries) there’s often a mindset that healthcare is ‘unique’ and that models in others industries won’t apply – a sure waste of innovative ideas that have proved beneficial outside of healthcare.
Everybody Wins.
In order for creativity to thrive, we need to set aside the protectionist stance of defending the way healthcare has been delivered the past because “that’s how it’s always been.” It’s led the industry into the bad habit of distinguishing between what’s best for the doctor’s business versus what’s best for the patient’s health. Fortunately, accomplishing the best for both is not mutually exclusive. In the light of social media where the patients’ voices are amplified and transparency is key, the competitive edge is going to doctors who are more concerned with taking care of their patients than they are in simply driving a profitable business. When doctors do the right thing for their patients, doctors and patients can realize what Biz refers to as a true “win-win” situation where more patients get better care while reducing the financial burdens on doctors & patients.
The Internet & social media has already led to change in other large, historically slow-to-change spaces from the recording industry to political regimes. There’s no reason to believe it won’t do the same in the healthcare industry. It’s up to the doctors to embrace that change in order to guide it in a way that benefits patients and, ultimately, themselves.
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Groupon Instead of Health Insurance?
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Groupon CEO Andrew Mason was interviewed on 60 Minutes this past Sunday night. He discussed more about how the daily deal website has exploded over the past few years, resulting in their IPO at the end of last year. There was even an example of how doctors are using Groupon to reach more patients. One thing the segment didn’t touch on was how patients are using Groupon when it comes to healthcare.
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