Digital health investment: greenhousing innovation and the accelerator
Traditional venture capital in health care is so 2010: welcome to The Greenhouse Effect: How Accelerators Are Seeding Digital Health Innovation, explained in a new report from California HealthCare Foundation written by Aaron Apodaca. Aaron clearly explains the growing interest in and influence of health accelerators, which grew out of the first era of the Internet (read: dot-com bust v 1.0) and the founding of the Y Combinator, an internet incubator that made relatively small investments in exchange for equity positions in start-ups. Health accelerators emerged around 2011, first with Rock Health in San Francisco, which was quickly followed by
The Accountable Care Community opportunity
“ACOs most assuredly will not…deliver the disruptive innovation that the U.S. health-care system urgently needs,” wrote Clay Christensen, godfather of disruptive innovation, et. al., in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal of February18, 2013. In the opinion piece, Christensen and colleagues make the argument that Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) as initially conceived won’t address several key underlying forces that keep the U.S. health care industry in stasis: Physicians’ behavior will have to change to drive cost-reduction. Clinicians will need “re-education,” the authors say, adopting evidence-based medicine and operating in lower-cost milieus. Patients’ behavior will have to change. This requires
Physicians like mobile health apps for patient health – eClinicalWorks on transformational path
A vast majority – 9 in 10 physicians – like mobile health (mHealth) apps, especially when tied to electronic health records (EHRs). eClinicalWorks surveyed physicians in January 2013, and found physicians bullish on mobile health apps for patient benefit – not just for their own office productivity and workflow. Specifically, – 93% of physicians say mobile health apps can improve patients’ health outcomes – 89% of physicians would recommend an mHealth app to a patient – 58% of doctors note a key mHealth benefit is providing patients with appointment alerts and reminders – 2 in 3 physicians say mHealth apps
Physician workflow: barrier to consumer health engagement?
This week, I had a conversation with a physician whom I consider quite patient-engaged, who uses an EHR, and who works with one of the most wired health organizations in the United States. I complained to her that my user-generated data from my Bodymedia armband, Fitbit, Withings scale, among other #QuantifiedSelf devices, can’t find their way through the cloud to my doctors’ electronic health records or my patient portal. Her reaction was surprising to me. She was not so keen on the idea, saying, “It’s the physician workflow” that’s the problem. The wordle on workflow comes from Dr. Chuck Webster
Managing the abundance of mHealth apps in the urban flea market
The proliferation of mobile health (mHealth) apps appears to be an abundant cornucopia of “lite” tools that look simple to access and easy to use. But this growing menu of a la carte choices that promise to keep us healthy, track our numbers, and access useful health information can also, in the words of three Dutch health researchers, “drive us crazy.” Why mobile health app overload drives us crazy, and how to restore the sanity, by Lex van Velsen and colleagues, makes the case that the plethora of mHealth apps available in online app stores is a fragmented, disorganized marketplace
Formally tracking health data changes health behavior and drives social health
Most of us keep track of some aspect of our health. Half of all people who track do so “in their heads,” not on paper, Excel spreadsheet, or via digital platform. Furthermore, 36% update their health tracking data at least once a day; but 16% update at most twice a month, and 9% update less than once monthly. Tracking for Health from the Pew Internet & American Life Project paints a portrait of U.S. adults who, on one hand are quantifying themselves but largely aren’t taking advantage of automated and convenient ways of doing so. Overall, 69% of U.S. adults track
More consumers want to make health care decisions
U.S. consumers’ desire to take an active role in their health decisions is growing, according to the Altarum Institute Survey of Consumer Health Care Opinions. 61% of people want to make health decisions either on their own (26%) or with input from their doctor (38%). The proportion of people wanting to be “completely in charge of my decisions” rose 4 percentage points in one year, from 2011. This statistic skews younger, with 33% of people 25-34 and 31% of those 35-44 wanting to be “completely in charge.” Only 17% of those 55-64 felt like being totally in charge of their
Retail and work-site clinics – medical homes for younger adults?
The use of retail and work-site health clinics is up, and their consumers skew young. Overall, 27% of all U.S. adults have stepped into a walk-in clinic in the past two years. But only 15% of people 65 and over have used such a clinic. This begs the question: are retail and on-site clinics at the workplace filling the role of medical homes for younger adult Americans? The Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll published in January 2013 discovered that use of retail clinics grew from 7% in 2008 to 27% in 2012. The largest age cohort using walk-in clinics is people between
The Internet as self-diagnostic tool, and the role of insurance in online health
1 in 3 U.S. adults have enough trust in online health resources that they’ve gone online to diagnose a condition for themselves or a friend. “For one-third of U.S. adults, the Internet is a diagnostic tool,” according to Health Online, the latest survey on online health from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Nearly one-half of these people eventually sought medical attention. One-third did not. Women are more likely to do online medical diagnoses than men do, as do more affluent, college-educated people. When people perceive they’re ‘really’ sick, 70% get information and care from a health professional and
One-third of U.S. consumers plan to buy a new fitness tech in 2013, but most buyers are already healthy
Over one-third of U.S. consumers plan to buy a new fitness technology in the next year, especially women. They’ll buy these at mass merchants (females in particular, shopping at Target and Walmart), sporting goods retailers (more male buyers here), online and at electronics stores like Best Buy. These potential buyers consider themselves in good or excellent physical health. They’ll see the latest applications on retail store shelves in pedometers, calorie trackers, fitness video games, digital weight scales, and heart rate monitors that will be launched this week at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. In advance of the
Physicians’ growing use of the Internet: where trust and value drive information search
“The Internet will have a profound effect on the practice and business of medicine. Physicians, eager to provide high-quality care and forced by competition to offer online services, will introduce e-mail and patient-friendly Web sites to improve administrative services and manage common medical conditions. Patients will identify more helath information online and will take more responsibility for their care. The doctor/patient relationship will be altered. Some aspects of electronic communication will enhance the bond, and others will threaten it. Patients will have access to vast information sources of variable validity. Many physician organizations are preparing for the electronic transformation, but
Growing use of online health tools is replacing going to the doctor for more patients
41% of Americans are comfortable using websites that allow them to check health symptoms. Furthermore, 25% of people trust online symptom checkers, mobile apps and home-based vital sign monitors as much as they trust their doctor. In fact, roughly the same proportion uses these tools instead of going to see the doctor, according to a consumer survey from Royal Philips Electronics (Philips). The infographic illustrates some of Philip’s top-line findings from this poll, conducted among 1,003 U.S. adults 18 and over in November 2012. Over one-third of Americans also believe that technology allows them to monitor their health — a
People want more control over health care in the midst of rising costs: a tale of two surveys
Two surveys of American consumers point to their growing concern over (1) rising costs and (2) wanting control over their care. More than 1 in 3 U.S. adults put off health care due to costs in the past year, a Gallup poll found. As shown in the graph, this is the highest proportion of people forgoing care due to cost since Gallup began asking the question in 2012. This survey was conducted in November 2012. There are differences between people without insurance and those with commercial or public sector plans such as Medicare and Medicaid. Over one-half of uninsured people
The physician time-squeeze and burnout: just-in-time information is part of the solution
One in two doctors is burned out. Physicians are seeing more patients in a day and spend less time with each of them. This leads to job burnout, and greater probability for medical errors and eventual liability challenges, along with feeling pushed toward early retirement. In a study published in August 2012 in the Archives of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic researchers learned that physicians are more burned out than workers in any other profession. And those at greatest risk of “being on a hamster wheel,” as Dr. Jeff Cain, president-elect of the American Academy of Family Physicians describes the scenario, are primary
Mobile is the new black in health care
Mobile technology will change the delivery of health care, according to 2 in 3 health IT execs polled in the 2nd Annual HIMSS Mobile Technology Survey, sponsored by Qualcomm Life. Only 2% of health IT management says mobile won’t impact the delivery of health care in the future. This week finds the mHealth Summit convening in Washington, DC, hosting some 3,000 interested stakeholders looking at the intersection of mobile devices and platforms and health and health care. The 2012 theme is Connecting the Mobile Health Ecosystem, and the exhibitor area of the Summit speaks to the broadening of that ecosystem, including
Americans #1 health care priority for the President: reduce costs
Reducing health care costs far outranks improving quality and safety, improving the public’s health, and upping the customer experience as Americans’ top priority for President Obama’s health care agenda, according to a post-election poll conducted by PwC’s Health Research Institute. In Warning signs for health industry, PwC’s analysis of the survey results, found that 7 in 10 Americans point to the high costs of health care as their top concern in President Obama’s second term for addressing health care issues. Where would cost savings come from if U.S. voters wielded the accountant’s scalpel? The voters have spoken, saying, Reduce payments
Elsevier’s ClinicalKey Hits the Road – a mobile healthcare search tour
There are many definitions of mobile health, and Elsevier is adding another to the list. The world’s largest medical publisher has taken its new clinical search tool, ClinicalKey, on the road. Coined the ClinicalKey Experience Tour, Elsevier is coming to a medical center near you to enable clinicians, medical librarians, and health care administrators to give ClinicalKey a spin in their hospital’s parking lot. The challenge: the amount of new medical information doubles every 5 years, while 4 in 5 physicians say they have less than five hours a month to keep up with this, according to a DoctorDirectory survey. At the same time, health care providers feel hard-pressed
From fragmentation and sensors to health care in your pocket – Health 2.0, Day 1
The first day of the Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco kicked off with a video illustrating the global reach of the Health 2.0 concept, from NY and Boston to Mumbai, Madrid, London, Tokyo and other points abroad. Technology is making the health world flatter and smarter…and sometimes, increasing problematic fragmentation, which is a theme that kept pinching me through the first day’s discussions and demonstrations. Joe Flowers, health futurist, offered a cogent, crisp forecast in the morning, noting that health care is changing, undergoing fundamental economic changes that change everything about it. These are driving us to what may
What Jerry the Bear means for Health 2.0
A teddy bear in the arms of a child with diabetes can change health care. At least, Jerry the Bear can. Yesterday kicked off the sixth autumn mega-version of the Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco. Co-founded by Matthew Holt and Indu Subaiya, a long-time health analyst and physician, respectively, this meeting features new-new tools, apps and devices aimed at improving individual and population health, as well as health processes and workflows for physicians, hospitals, pharma, and other stakeholders in the health care ecosystem – even health lawyers, who met on October 7 to discuss up-to-the-minute e-health law issues. Yesterday was
3 in 5 physicians would quit today if they could
Being a doctor isn’t a happy profession in 2012: 3 in 5 doctors say that, if they could, they’d retire this year. Over three-fourths of physicians are pessimistic about the future of their profession. 84% of doctors feel that the medical profession is in decline. And, over 1 in 3 doctors would choose a different professional if they had it all to do over again. The Physicians Foundation, a nonprofit organization that represents the interests of doctors, sent a survey to 630,000 physicians — every physician in the U.S. that’s registered with the AMA’s Physician Master File — in March-June
Personal health records and online record access – a view from the UK
Consumers’ online access to electronic health records is growing in and outside of the U.S. — particularly evident in the U.K., where the National Health Service (NHS) patients are being given online access to their health records held by primary care providers (GPs). This program is termed “Record Access” and could morph into the larger concept of personal health records which, today, aren’t prevalent in the U.K. A new report analyzes U.K. consumers’ perceptions about online health record access called, Personal Health Records: Putting Patients in Control? The report was published in the UK by 2020health.org with support from Microsoft. The report is written
In this Age of the Healthcare Consumer, most people want online access to doctors and health records
Just as people go online for travel planning. photo development. and financial transactions. they’re looking for health engagement with their doctors and health records online, too. Harris Interactive heralds this as The Age of the Healthcare Consumer. Harris Interactive polled U.S. adults and found that people are interested in a range of technologies for engaging in their health, arrayed in the chart: when asked which would be important for health providers to implement, consumers said (NET = very important + important): – Online medical record access to visits, Rx, test results, and history, 65%. 17% of consumers said their doctor
Democratizing Health IT – it’s National Health IT Week
Among factors that contribute to patients’ positive experiences with health care providers, the doctor’s ability to access ‘my’ overall medical history is nearly as important to consumers as the doctor’s overall knowledge, training and expertise. This enlightening data point comes to us from a Harris Interactive poll conducted in July 2012 and published this week. This news is important because it’s National Health IT Week. I attended the kickoff meeting for #NHITWeek yesterday in Washington, DC, held in the Department of Health and Human Services headquarters building named for Hubert Humphrey – an early public health proponent (and trained pharmacist,
Time is of the essence — ARRA as HIT-adoption stimulus bill
“The world changed yesterday at 1 pm Mountain time,” Steve Lieber, President of the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS), told over 1,500 attendees of a webinar on February 18. These new times, Lieber said, “will require our vendor community to react a little bit differently and change business practices.” Lieber said that health information technology vendors will need to be, in his words, “more forthcoming” as well as “make absolute iron clad binding agreements.” The bottom line: time is of the essence, based the HIT details written within the 1,100 pages of
The Health Data Vault, circa 1999
Today, October 4, Microsoft unveiled its long-awaited electronic health records system, Health Vault. In a white paper called Concepts of the Health Data Vault, the author discusses the value of an individual’s “health data bitstream.” The author goes on to say that, “The value of this bitstream is based on its organization and communication within an individual’s context. This value is not necessarily reflected in specific dollars and cents savings, but rather in the individual’s health, trust in the healthcare system, and community. It has the potential to radically shift the balance of power in today’s health care system.” This
I was invited to be a Judge for the upcoming CES 2025 Innovation Awards in the category of digital health and connected fitness. So grateful to be part of this annual effort to identify the best in consumer-facing health solutions for self-care, condition management, and family well-being. Thank you, CTA!
Thank you Team Roche for inviting me to brainstorm patients as health citizens, consumers, payers, and voters in the Healthcare Transformers series.
For the past 15 years, the annual CES conference in Las Vegas has been my go-to meeting for updating my research and network in digital health and consumer-facing electronics that people find meaningful for their well-being, families, and home lives. I'll be back in Vegas in January for a full week of Media Days, one-on-one meetings, and speaking about my perspectives on health consumers.