TTA Archives 2005-2012

Wonder why investment in the healthcare technology space is low compared with other forms of consumer-oriented tech? This article from Forbes reveals some possible reasons why. The writer (himself a physician in biopharm) proposes that tech investors are far more comfortable with informatics gurus, engineers and developers than with doctors. And the geeks don’t like docs either: “…it’s arresting how many technologists don’t also view doctors as a key element of the solution; instead, there seems to be a common, techno-utopian vision in which medicine has been profoundly disrupted, and the role of physicians largely replaced by computers.” (The Innovator’s Prescription not read past the charts) Doctors have a unique perspective re their patient relationships, but it occasionally is fuzzed (dealing with humans is that way) and always difficult. The opportunities, in Dr. Shaywitz’s view, center around enabling doctors: turning mHealth into mMedicine; behavior modification platforms that aren’t obnoxious; patient-centric care delivery design; and ‘chunking big data’ i.e. making it usable (Ed. Donna references IBM’s work with Watson in healthcare). Read down into Dr. Cory Annis’ comments which is as plain a ‘needs statement’ as one should get, especially the ones on doctor-patient eye contact and ‘overpaid secretary’. Want To Revolutionize Health? Enable Physicians, Don’t Replace Them Hat tip to reader George Margelis from Australia