In The Know - MEDSEEK News and Expert Opinion on the eHealth Industry

The Next Generation of Patients: Healthcare Expectations of a 17 Year-Old

There was a fresh face in the hallways of MEDSEEK this summer - Luke Wilson, a rising high school senior who interned with our sales and marketing departments. He worked with sales operations to understand the current market place and helped research new marketing campaigns before returning to California to start his senior year. Luke wrote a few blogs from his newly acquired, unique perspective: that of a 17-year old who grew up in a world that always had email, the internet and cell phones and got an inside look at the current state of the healthcare system. This is the first post of his three-part blog series:

I came to intern with MEDSEEK with no prior knowledge of healthcare technology. With few visits to the hospital and no desire to watch the news, I really had no clue of how healthcare works in our country (see my next blog post for more on that). What was strange to me, as I started working with MEDSEEK, was learning how far behind healthcare technology is. I have grown up with technology in my life: I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t able to access the internet, I have always been able to contact my parents through their cell phones, and I build websites and learn coding languages for fun. So when I hear that if I go to the emergency room while I’m here in Birmingham that they won’t be able to find out I’m allergic to penicillin unless I tell them, and that I can’t go online and get my health records from my home-town hospital, and that some hospitals are still storing patient information in filing cabinets with locks, I’m astounded.

Having technology be a part of my entire 17 years of existence has brought some expectations with it. So if healthcare executives are asking themselves (which they should), “what does the next generation of patients expect from us?” let me move you in the right direction:

• I expect everything to be easy to understand. I have never read an instruction manual in my life, and if I come to a website that looks jumbled or confusing, I click that ever-ready back button on my browser.
• I expect to be able to log in to my account and find all my health records. I want to see the X-rays of my broken wrist and even have the ability to share it with my friends on Facebook.
• I expect be able to schedule appointments online. Even the California DMV offers this capability, and they are known for their terrible customer service.
• I expect to be able to instant message my doctor, and have someone who knows my medical history message me back.
• I expect to see one, easy to understand bill that I can pay online.
• I expect to be able to get an estimate of the cost of a certain procedure online. (Yet another feature the California DMV offers.)

… and the list goes on. So, though this list from an interning 17-year-old may not seem too important, it is proof that healthcare needs to quicken the pace and get on track with the times.

Learn more about how MEDSEEK is keeping up with the times with our online patient experience.

Read all of Luke's Blogs:

• The Dangers of Self Diagnosing
• What if People Actually Understood Healthcare?

Regulating Mobile Medical Apps

As of August 5th, when you conduct a search for “medical apps” in Apple’s App Store, over 10,000 results are shown for the iPhone, illustrating the increasing demand for mobile medical apps by today’s consumer. As momentum grows for these apps, it’s inevitable that scrutiny isn’t far behind, whether from consumers or the government.

As such, it comes as no surprise that last month the FDA announced that it is seeking public comments on a proposal concerning the regulation of mobile medical apps. Specifically, the FDA has targeted those mobile apps which are used “as an accessory to a regulated medical device” or “transforms a mobile platform into a regulated medical device”. Just a few years ago, this announcement wouldn’t have been a blip on anyone’s radar, but times have changed. Some estimate that over 81% of doctors have a smartphone[1], which means that regulation could impact many users.

As such, it begs the question “Is regulation really necessary?” Proponents of these apps will cite convenience, particularly while on the go. There’s no better example of this than emergency room doctors, of which 40% are users of mobile devices and content[2]. Opponents will cite concerns over patient safety, even though the FDA has not received any reports of adverse health outcomes connected with these apps[3].

No matter which side of the fence you are on, the decisions to be made concerning this topic will affect us all one way or another.

Learn about MEDSEEK's mobile solutions for consumers, patients, and clinical staff members.

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[1] Doctors driving IT development with their mobile technology choices by Pamela Lewis Dolan

[2] Emergency room doctors number one consumers of mobile, pathologists last, per report of physician mobile use by Iltifat Husain, MD

[3] mHealth Care Crisis by Torie Bosch

Working in Healthcare IT: A Blessing and a Curse

For me, working in the healthcare IT industry can be a blessing and a curse. On one hand, I get to see firsthand the exciting technology that is the future of healthcare and the amazing advances that are being made for both the patient and physician experience. But on the other hand, I’m a patient struggling to work within the confines of the limited technology options that are currently available in my area. It’s like going to a bakery and seeing a delicious cake and then being handed a plate with crumbs.

Consumers these days are used to websites doing so much for them - from planning trips, to setting up automatic bill pay and to communication with an entire network of users. The patient portal available to me seems to have the right ideas, but upon closer inspection the functionality and workflow are not up to par. I should also point out that, while I do live in a larger metropolitan area, this is the only portal option, so switching – which I would if there was anything better available – is impossible.

My initial intent was to provide a laundry list of gripes I have about what the portal doesn’t do.  While this would be an informative, albeit dry, exercise, the more I thought about it, the real message I wanted to get across was  - if you are going to do something, do it right, even if it offers less than you want or hope to provide.

• Yes, I want to do all the cool things in a patient portal – direct schedule an appointment and get wayfinding information immediately with special instructions on what I need to do to prepare for my appointment.

• Yes, I want to be able to get reminders for preventive care when I reach an age milestone and be provided the explanation as to why.

• Yes, I want to be able to manage my bills and make payments, and ask questions, and get information all online whenever I want.

• Yes, I want all of these things, and I want them yesterday!

But I know that is not realistic.  And, I expect more than the average patient since I am in the eHealth world, so I will cut providers some slack.

What I really want is for the functionality that is available to me now to work easily and as advertised.  To ignore basic usability (dead end links, forcing me to use the phone during the process, not allowing me to manage or delete obsolete listings in MY address book) and not having your own workflows in place (giving me the option for communication method and then ignoring it), not being able to share my basic information between PCP and specialist in the same group (I could go on) does not instill me with the warm fuzzies (read: confidence) that you actually know what you are doing. 

Remember what I said about switching earlier?  Do you really want to lose me, a relatively healthy, well-insured, long term patient to a competitor because your patient portal implementation was bad?  Trust me, when something better comes along (and it will – in the brave new world of risk sharing and bundled payments, patient portals are necessary),  I will switch.  And you will probably not get me back. 

A complete enterprise solution that works with the physician and the patient to create a user-friendly ehealth world isn’t the future. It is here now. It works and is a huge patient satisfier.  Organizations have to start somewhere.  And they have to get the basics right.  This means under promise and over deliver.  Provide key things that people want and need and make it work right the first time.  If people get a benefit they will stick around to see what will happen next.  If they don’t, you have lost their attention and at best their experience will be status quo, manual processes and not benefits in time or money savings for anyone.  At worst you will lose patients to someone else doing it better, and the time and money required to (hopefully) bring them back one day will far outstrip the investment that could have been made up front to get it right. 

It’s time for healthcare systems to understand that they have a limited amount of time, and chances, to get this right. 

Jim McGregor, Sr. eHealth Strategist

Read more about MEDSEEK's eHealth ecoSystem - a 360 degree enterprise solution for employees, patients, consumers and physicians.