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Can Web 2.0 reform healthcare? Prof. Vance Wilson Arizona State University An electronic copy of this presentation is available online at http://vancewilson.com. Web 2.0: What is it anyway?.
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Can Web 2.0 reform healthcare?Prof. Vance WilsonArizona State UniversityAn electronic copy of this presentation is available online athttp://vancewilson.com
Web 2.0: What is it anyway? • Web 2.0 term was coined five years ago to describe a new wave of HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL web applications which apply web technologies in novel ways; these include: • social networking: 200 million active Facebook users • wikis: Wikipedia had 67 million unique visitors in 9/2009 • podcasts: PodcastAlley.com lists 4.7 million episodes • video sharing: YouTube streams over 1.2 billion per day • blogs: over 900,000 blogs are posted every day • microblogs: over 5.5 billion tweets have now been sent • mashups:Trulia, NewsMap, Twittervision
What does Web 2.0 offer business? • Promotes business objectives • Generates buzz • Distributes information • Replaces or augments printed materials • Increases capabilities • Podcasts, online videos, and mashups inexpensively extend business reach • Supports collaboration • Social networking and blogs make it easy to interact • Motivates participation • Inherently more interesting than bulletin boards, etc.
Healthcare ITInvestmentProjection $35billion $16.4billion 2005 2011 BCC Research Why focus on healthcare? • Healthcare is a HUGE industry, accounting for 16-18% of U.S. GDP in 2009 and projected to grow at 7.3% per year through 2013 • IT investments are growing FASTER than overall healthcare, so funds exist to support Web 2.0 expenditures
Why focus on healthcare? • Healthcare is in the NEWS • Broad agreement exists that healthcare needs to beREFORMED* in order toprovide greater access,restrain cost growth, andimprove quality • Yet NONE of the conventional solutions being offered to reform healthcare gives much consideration to the role that Web 2.0 applications might play * A Google search on “health care crisis” produces 45 million results
Who is building Web 2.0 apps in the healthcare domain,and what do they plan to accomplish?
Personal health records • Goal: to let everyone securely store and manage medical information for themselves and their families online • If you prefer a different flavor, Google is also developing a PHR product
Health Q&A platform • Coming in 2010: Builds on success of WebMD and Dr. Oz show by supplying expert answers and blog-style commentary to participants’ health questions • “Leveraging the power of social networking . . . contributors ‘share care’ through personal experience and expert knowledge” • Supported by Discovery Communications, Harpo Productions, and Sony Pictures Television
Sermo, an online community of ~115,000 U.S. medical doctors, provides similar opportunities for professional interaction in non-wiki format Medical knowledge wiki Translation: Get a note from your doctor • Free medical knowledge base . . . • Can be read by anyone, but primarily targeted to support medical professionals • Can be edited by any registered medical practitioner in the UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, or New Zealand • All content (over 6500 topic pages) and administration (~450 editors) is provided by volunteers
Experience matching • “Like a Facebook for those who suffer from multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's disease and other ailments . . . allows patients to share stories, treatments, drug side effects and more”
Online communication • Communication between patients and clinical staff • Enhanced online services, including prescription refills, lab test results, appointment scheduling, and payment
Epidemic mapping • Utilizes an automatic text processing system to aggregate data by disease and display by location through a mashup
Cost transparency • Online marketplaces for medical testing and broad-ranging services; provides an important step toward increasing consumer power in healthcare markets
We know that • Web 2.0 apps are popular overall • Healthcare is in crisis & needs reform • Numerous Web 2.0 apps are now being targeted toward healthcare So . . . how much reform can simple software actually generate, given several key barriers that exist?
Barrier: The healthcare industry is slow to accept change, especially involving IT • Historically, healthcare has lagged general business in IT investment by approximately a decade • Current increased investments are targeted largely toward electronic medical records and other “back-shop” IT, not toward Web 2.0 apps • HOWEVER, application development is being funded largely by organizations outside healthcare (Microsoft, Google, Sony Television, and independent start-ups) • This effectively bypasses the role of healthcare industry in accepting or rejecting initial Web 2.0 capabilities
Barrier: Healthcare is about medical procedures, not keeping patients happy • Historically, medical practice has focused on cures rather than prevention • Patients have been viewed as compliant subjects of treatments rather than partners in the process • HOWEVER, many modern health conditions, such as Type 2 diabetes, are addressed better by prevention tactics which can be supported by Web 2.0 apps • Increasingly, patients are informed consumers and want to actively participate in decisions about their healthcare • The BANKING industry presented similar barriers in the early 1990s; banks that stayed offline are now defunct
Barrier: Patients are happy with the current healthcare system • 80% of Americans are satisfied with the quality of health care they receive (Gallup Poll, 9/2009) • HOWEVER, patients are not happy about the current availability of online access to their healthcare providers (WSJ/Harris Poll, 9/2006) • Three-quarters want online access to see lab results, communicate with physicians, schedule appointments and receive documents • Over half of patients surveyed say online access would influence their choice of doctors
Barrier: Patients have little individual power to change the healthcare system • Due to the way healthcare payments are structured in the U.S., patients have had relatively little consumer market power compared to other major purchases, such as appliances, automobiles, and houses • HOWEVER, the U.S. insurance industry is moving toward consumer-directed health plans which require patients to pay directly for routine care • Web 2.0 applications increase consumer power by • Providing ratings of physicians, clinics, and hospitals • Increasing transparency of services and charges • Automating the process of acquiring a new provider
Returning to the original question: Can Web 2.0 reform healthcare? Discussion
Can Web 2.0 reform healthcare? An electronic copy of this presentation is available online at http://vancewilson.com