Healthy World: more Q+A

Yes, The person we trust most is still our physician — but he/she becomes more elusive every day. No time to really speak to them. True patient/doctor communication is difficult to achieve in our fast-moving, technologically sophisticated world.

How can we use the web to improve patient/doctor communication?

Power of storytelling? Me-tube?

Health is about storytelling — they spend most of their time talking about their experience. A long journey of having an illness, there are many stories to tell.

These are storytelling nodes. That’s where you need the experts.

Trust issue? When we put mockups in front of people and ask them if they trust this site. they say yet. You now have to look lke you are trustworthy and they think you are. Examine yourself, then, examine your content, go get opposite view. IF you look good, you are probably OK.

Audience is asked to weigh in. One participant says why not more focus on wellness?

Mowbray: People are interested in learning about their illness or family member’s illness. It will take a while for wellness to catch on and make a difference in the health of U.S. population.

Goldschmidt: People want more guidance on died, a propensity to seek guidance, but when so little credible information on diet and impact on health… difficult to tell people something definitive, other than watch calories and eat a balanced diet.

Panel:

Hoof: Microsoft. Focused on health. Global Health solutions. Consumer focused efforts, we launched a platform. Empowerment is about information. One thing that is clear is fragmentation of information. We turn universe around with consumer at center. We are trying to define this new role. There is concensus that empowering the consumers is the way to go. If you map illness to wellness — asthma and diabetes, acute illness, fitness fanatics.. No single company can provide the solutions for that whole spectrums. IF look at family perspective your 10 or 16 year old kids will have different needs than elderly parents. There is an eco system screaming for a platform. Device connectivity is something we also work on. And in health and fitness when look at devices to empower consumers all of them have the same problem as old devices, we are trying to solve that at platform level.

Jones: Qualcomm: used to make phones and manufacture chip sets for mobile phones. Combining cell phones with medical devices, like to check for diabetis. To bring relevant info to people when they need it.
Pardo: AARP some tends as we navigate healthcare and the issue of intergenerational conversation. HOw do we help these members navigage the morrass of information, and that is an intergenerational conversation. Boomers are confronting life events and this is causing us to go to sites for information, and as we navigate the system for information. Storytelling is more about collective voice. A new campaign, Divided We Fail. It’s role is gathering the stories to change society. How do we use media to have a social impact? Our idea is to come together. In history the one issue that can’t be solved by one party, but has to be a unified force. Gathered 47,000 personal stories through site. That conversation is now in the business sector.

Harrison: Humana. People don’t like or trust us very much. On innovation, we focus on empowering consumers. Making it better for them. We have your money and we negotiate on your behalf. Health entertainment. What we sent media is boring and not about what people want. What does health mean? We say it’s about how to do what you want to do in your life. So we are thinking about what people want to do and look at products we can provide. Bikes. We are adding an online community to biking. Games for Health, mobile and video games about exercise.

Wiesenthal: Kaiser Permanente. Physican. I’m the only one here you can trust. I do take care of patients. Also in charge of health information technology. Electronic records for all physicans. We have empowered our members. 2 million of members have logons to our website. I can make appointment and see lab results and communicate directly with our doctors. Our personal health record is not like others you’ve read about. Our members don’t have to provide claims. A view into their medical record and they have the power. Our vision is that our members are the locus of control. They are in charge of their health care. We are at leading edge of a great health care revolution.

Discussion:

Lockhard: eco system exists, it’s represented by a lot of people here. What will be successful in 12 18 months will make my life significantly different. Swinging elephants — privacy issue.

W: patients probably coem to doctor’s office 30 times a year, for 15 minutes. IT’s an illusion I’m taking care of someone when they are taking care of themselves. Our obligation is to provide them with tools that feels right to them and meet their goals. Not true doctor’s and nurses take care of patients, they take care of themselves.

Mowbray: I’m sceptical change will happen, outside of a closed system like Kaiser.

JonesL text based messaging with health IT sytems. to take advantage of events, an apopintment with doctor, and getting reminder or that lab results are in. This should suck out ineffeciciences of communication. We’ll see marriage of collecting cell phone numbers and using that as primary point of communication. Create smart systems and push it out to you in a timely manner, around weight management. Simple uses of technology that can be put to use. But folks who make the decisions are not the most IT savvy.

Jones: It’s sickness management side of thing and I wonder if we media side of things will be important. To start with health and target this to people is a way to start.