It used to be that patients would wait for the physician or the health system to engage them, but increasingly the patient is charting their own course, having grown tired of the slow-moving behemoth of our healthcare system and enabled by advances in technology that have been applied to other industries.
Dr. Joseph Smith, chief science and medical officer of California’s West Health, delivered that message and other insights at MedCity News’ ENGAGE conference in Bethesda.
“We used to say patients are waiting,” he said. “They’re not anymore.”
With the Rise of AI, What IP Disputes in Healthcare Are Likely to Emerge?
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
He cited a Wall Street Journal article that highlighted dozens of patients, or consumers, who have taken to hacking their own data from a number of different medical devices related to their diabetes. This will likely not be an isolated incident, he said.
“People are taking control of this. The average person is figuring out that interoperability around healthcare is their right. When the vendor community is too slow and when regulations are too slow, maybe it leaks out.”
In addition, patient engagement is just as important for physicians as it is for the patients themselves, and it will go a long way toward reducing healthcare costs in the $2.8 trillion market.
“We need to engage not just for ourselves, but for our healthcare system, because our healthcare system is killing our country in terms of cost,” he said.
A Personalized Approach to Medication Nonadherence
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
The physicians themselves are more overwhelmed than ever, with a constant flow of new rules, technology, diagnoses, medications and research, and they’re not necessarily at fault. But putting more control – engagement – into the hands of the patients would go a long way in both reducing the physician workload while utilizing a capable resource.
“No one is more engaged than the patient,” he said “You just don’t get the data, the price or even an informed choice when you’re a patient.”
As such, pricing transparency and interoperability among medical devices and health systems need to play a key role for patient engagement in the near future.
