Is The Future Of Healthcare Communications In Social Media?

While most doctors decline ‘friend’ requests from patients, there’s no unwritten law that says doctors can’t be friends with one another on Facebook. In face, UK-based DocCom thinks that social media may be the future of communications in the healthcare industry, and is visiting Silicon Valley this week for the Future Health Mission 2011 in order to spread awareness to this end.

So what is DocCom exactly? Basically, the company offers a cloud-based Enterprise Social Networking and messaging platform that provides an easy and effective way for healthcare professionals to engage with one another. Concerned primarily with solving the problems that different organizations and professionals within the healthcare industry have in communicating with one another, DocCom opens a channel for these organizations and professionals to share and exchange important information with relevant healthcare professionals.

As an example, the company’s product description states that, “DocCom Alert allows organizations such as the National Patient Safety Agency to send urgent medical information, targeting only the relevant healthcare professionals.”

Additionally, other apps within the service allow for emergency shift filling for doctors and nurses and more. “These ‘apps’ increase the recruitment from internal and local resources, thereby reducing spend on expensive external agencies and allowing better continuity of care for patients.”

DocCom’s vision for the future of healthcare communications, which is stated on their website, is as follows:

“In the future we see global opportunities to revolutionize the way healthcare organizations and their professionals communicate using enterprise social networking technology. Throughout the world healthcare organizations have mobile workers, in multiple organizations, which require coordination and effective communication. DocCom’s unique insight allows organizations to know who is where, when, doing what, and how best to get hold of them.

“Our vision is that by enabling organizations and professionals to harness the power of their network we can help them collaborate, share, improve efficiency and productivity and ultimately improve the safety and quality of care for patients.”

Co-founder and technical director of DocCom, Jonathan Shaw, who also happens to be a doctor, is visiting Silicon Valley and San Francisco along with 19 other healthcare technology companies from the UK, in order to forge relationships and boost awareness about their groundbreaking healthcare-related products and technologies. The mission is supported by Microsoft, UKTI and the Technology Strategy Board. The Board’s Director of Innovative Programmes, David Bott, says, “The Technology Strategy Board believes the San Francisco and Silicon Valley areas have created the most unique environment in the world for spawning and growing the technologies that will change the world – and that innovation is crucial to UK businesses.”

DocCom is currently focused on healthcare professionals in the UK. However, the company plans to launch in the United States by the end of this year. What do you think of the idea of using social media to improve global healthcare?

Written by: Meghan O'Neill
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What Is Healthcare's Most Important Medical Instrument? Not What You Think

“A good scalpel makes a better surgeon. Good communication makes a better doctor.”

- Dr. Josh Umbehr

It’s clear the days of the “do more, bill more” model of reimbursement are numbered.  While there are many unknowns regarding the future model, one thing is couldn’t be more — highly effective communication will separate the winners from the losers.

The improvement in the depth and breadth of communication seen in the consumer Internet and in the consumerization of the enterprise (iPhones, Yammer, etc.) is just beginning to fully impact healthcare. With healthcare representing nearly 20% of the economy, it is inevitable that communications will be a key driver as the tectonic shifts in healthcare shake out. Ushered in will be an array of new technology players similar to consumer and enterprise arenas disrupting ineffective and expensive communication methods of the past.

 “I don’t think you can overstate the importance of communication in clinical care. Even with devices, robotics, genomics and personalized care, it all rests, and depends on, clear communication.”

- Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson, MD, MBE, FAAP

[Disclosure: Dr. Swanson is an advisor to my company, Avado. Some of the individuals and organizations highlighted below have worked with my patient relationship management company, Avado, which is why I'm familiar with their approach to communication.]

The Patient is the Most Important Member of the Care Team

While relatively little has been done to reflect this statement, it’s long been said that the most important member of the care team is the patient (or their care giver).

In a world where one is compensated on value and outcome, it’s nearly impossible to have success without recognizing the importance of the patient. Consider the diagram in this article. It is clear and appropriate that the “system” — i.e., the collection of healthcare providers — is in control of decisions that drive outcomes in high acuity cases such as when one is unconscious in the ER. In contrast, in low acuity situations such as managing a chronic condition, the individual and/or their family are clearly in control of actions that will drive the ultimate outcome. Whether adhering to an exercise, diet or prescription plan, the patient plays the pivotal role in determining the outcome.

The importance of this can’t be overemphasized given that roughly three-quarters of healthcare spend is driven by chronic conditions. Decisions made while a condition is in low acuity can rapidly lead to high acuity flare ups that drive large medical bills. As Dr. Swanson states, “the steering wheel should be attended by the patient.” After all, even someone with a chronic condition spends 99+% of their life away from healthcare providers and no one else besides them is in the driver’s seat.

Adapted from Nuka System of Care

There has been great focus put on improving communication between healthcare professionals through standards and incentives related to the new models being driven by private and federal insurance programs. The Patient Centered Medical Home and the Accountable Care Organizations are the two most high profile of these. However, the communication focus has been about the patient not with the patient. Having implemented or review hundreds of healthIT systems, the fact is the fundamental purpose of the “patient” as envisioned by these systems is that the “patient” is merely a vessel to attach billing codes to — not a core part of the care team. This old approach will prove to be a fatal flaw in the new reimbursement models. Throwing bodies (e.g., care coordinators) at the problem can help, but will be at a disadvantage versus approaches that combine the best of human and technology driven communication methods.

There are efforts being made to tweak legacy software to address these requirements. Unfortunately, they are as likely to meet the new imperatives asYahoo YHOO +1.9%, AOL AOL -0.12%, and Microsoft MSFT +10.45% have been at becoming market leaders in social networking. The reality is Facebook FB -1.09% built social networking into their core design from the ground up and bolting a dramatically different approach onto an old system rarely works whether it is social networking or patient-provider communications.

Forward Looking Healthcare Organizations in a Great Spot

I get knowing nods from my physician friends when I share that I hear more frequently from my dog’s vet than my doctor or my kids’ doctor. I realize why the historical reimbursement models have contributed to this dynamic. Considering that people retain less than 20% of what a doctor tells them, this lack of communication and patient retention is a wicked combination driving sub-optimal outcomes. The good news is there is a tremendous competitive advantage that a healthcare provider can realize if they choose to focus on improved communications for the 99+% of the time when a patient isn’t staring them in the face. If a provider is to succeed in Accountable Care Organizations, they must place as much or more focus on the time the patient is away from the healthcare facility as when they are in front of them.

Not only can this communication opportunity provide a competitive advantage, it is imperative in the new models. The smart healthcare providers realize simplistic patient portals, however, won’t get the job done. Simple patient portals are like a muddy puddle of water in the Sahara Desert — a big improvement but far from ideal.

Whether out of desire or necessity, consumers are ready for improved communication so they can save on their healthcare costs. Roughly one-third of thDIY Healthcare to explain how far things have already come and to assert her opinion that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

e workforce expect to be permanent freelancers, contractors, consultants, etc. with zero expectation of employer-provided insurance. Even those with employer-provided insurance, are picking up a growing percentage of the premium. The current average is 30% of the costs are picked up by an employee (up from 10% in the recent past). This coincides with the rise of consumer empowerment that has happened in virtually every other sector. Dr. Patricia Salber wrote about

Thought-leading Physicians Are Ready

Fortunately the economics and simplicity of the consumer Internet and SaaS have finally come to healthcare. Once upon a time, sophisticated new software was first deployed in large enterprises. Today, greatly improved communication technologies begin with small organizations. Consider a physician like Dr. Craig Koniver who uses various free (e.g., Evernote) and low-cost off-the-shelf software to manage his communications without employing any administrative staff. Dr. Kent Bottles wrote about reverse innovation in healthcare talking about offshore innovation making its way to the U.S., but it’s not just offshore healthcare that can be a source of innovation. Dr. Howard Luks, an orthopedic surgeon, is another example of an innovative individual physician that is more sophisticated than most large healthcare providers by simply using free and low cost software to communicate with current and prospective patients.

As was highlighted in The Rise of Nimble Medicine, there is an large and growing cadre of disruptive innovators as well as innovation groups inside established healthcare organizations. In many respects, healthcare has been measured on production with an almost factory floor-like model of producing as many “widgets” (i.e., procedures, appointments, tests, prescriptions, etc.) as possible. However with a shift to a service model where success will be driven by factors such as satisfaction and health outcomes, smart healthcare providers recognize that systems optimized for production are ill-equipped to optimize for outcome.

So what is healthcare’s most important “medical instrument”? Communication.

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ongoinhttp://www.forbes.com/sites/davechase/2012/03/22/healthcares-medical-instrument-of-the-future-communication/2/g updates on healthcare innovation and disruption.

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