A Refreshing Conference
I was reminded today of the Blind Melon music video No Rain. For those of you who don’t know the video this tap dancing little girl dressed in a bumble bee outfit desperately tries to find a group she can identify with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYlAwvz8uwc
So what does this have to do with Understand and online patient education you ask?
For the first time I am at a conference where I do not have to politely disagree with Susan the practice manager who believes that a piece of paper with medical jargon and a scribbled drawing from the doctor is all the practice needs for patient education. I don’t have to convince Dr. Fantasy that he does in fact need a web site because many of his patients are doing research on him and checking his qualifications online.
To be fair, many doctors and practice managers get it, especially in elective markets like plastic surgery. Those practices and hospitals that have not embraced technology will begin to find themselves at such a severe disadvantage that it will have a significant impact on productivity and patient care. Practice web sites, online patient education and EMR's will soon be as common as telephones and computers are today.
But this conference is far ahead of others focusing on Health 2.0 topics like the impact of social media (Facebook, Twitter, blogs…) on healthcare, using web-based tools to improve health outcomes and compliance, studies outlining the technological sophistication of patients, how best to communicate with patients online…interesting stuff when you live in my world.
Even though Understand has been doing this for six years, we are still in the infancy of online patient education. Our products have morphed from “you can have it in any color as long as it is black” into personalized patient experiences customized by the doctor with extensive metric tracking. In this otherwise bleak economy, I am grateful to be in an industry that continues to grow, innovate, and provide essential services that doctors and patients need.
So I find myself sitting in my hotel room and my head spinning with new ideas. This will not be conducive to a good nights sleep! Maybe I’ll watch the Blind Melon video again. Darik
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYlAwvz8uwc
So what does this have to do with Understand and online patient education you ask?
For the first time I am at a conference where I do not have to politely disagree with Susan the practice manager who believes that a piece of paper with medical jargon and a scribbled drawing from the doctor is all the practice needs for patient education. I don’t have to convince Dr. Fantasy that he does in fact need a web site because many of his patients are doing research on him and checking his qualifications online.
To be fair, many doctors and practice managers get it, especially in elective markets like plastic surgery. Those practices and hospitals that have not embraced technology will begin to find themselves at such a severe disadvantage that it will have a significant impact on productivity and patient care. Practice web sites, online patient education and EMR's will soon be as common as telephones and computers are today.
But this conference is far ahead of others focusing on Health 2.0 topics like the impact of social media (Facebook, Twitter, blogs…) on healthcare, using web-based tools to improve health outcomes and compliance, studies outlining the technological sophistication of patients, how best to communicate with patients online…interesting stuff when you live in my world.
Even though Understand has been doing this for six years, we are still in the infancy of online patient education. Our products have morphed from “you can have it in any color as long as it is black” into personalized patient experiences customized by the doctor with extensive metric tracking. In this otherwise bleak economy, I am grateful to be in an industry that continues to grow, innovate, and provide essential services that doctors and patients need.
So I find myself sitting in my hotel room and my head spinning with new ideas. This will not be conducive to a good nights sleep! Maybe I’ll watch the Blind Melon video again. Darik
Labels: patient education
posted by Darik Volpa at
4:26 PM
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