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Reforming Healthcare with Web 2.0 Technology

Explore the impact of Web 2.0 applications in healthcare reform, detailing their benefits and barriers to adoption. Learn about the potential of social networking, medical knowledge wikis, personal health records, and more.

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Reforming Healthcare with Web 2.0 Technology

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  1. Can Web 2.0 reform healthcare?Prof. Vance WilsonArizona State UniversityAn electronic copy of this presentation is available online athttp://vancewilson.com

  2. 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

  3. 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.

  4. 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

  5. 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

  6. Who is building Web 2.0 apps in the healthcare domain,and what do they plan to accomplish?

  7. 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

  8. 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

  9. 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

  10. 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”

  11. Online communication • Communication between patients and clinical staff • Enhanced online services, including prescription refills, lab test results, appointment scheduling, and payment

  12. Epidemic mapping • Utilizes an automatic text processing system to aggregate data by disease and display by location through a mashup

  13. Cost transparency • Online marketplaces for medical testing and broad-ranging services; provides an important step toward increasing consumer power in healthcare markets

  14. 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?

  15. 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

  16. 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

  17. 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

  18. 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

  19. Returning to the original question: Can Web 2.0 reform healthcare? Discussion

  20. Can Web 2.0 reform healthcare? An electronic copy of this presentation is available online at http://vancewilson.com

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