After the FREDDIES: 5 Trends that will Shake the World (of healthcare)

I'm back from the FREDDIE Awards in New York City.  I had a wonderful time at the event which was held at the Cipriani on E42nd Street.  It was a star-studded evening and a chance to catch up with a few of my colleagues from the world of television, including CNN anchor Paula Zahn who I used to work with at ABC Network News on "The Health Show". 

Thursday morning I'll be delivering the opening keynote address for a regional conference put on by MultiCare at the Convention Center in Tacoma, Washington.  The conference, sponsored by Microsoft, is "Emerging Trends in Health Care Technology".  My keynote will focus on "5 Healthcare Trends that will Shake the World and Reshape Your Business".  Those trends include greater personal responsibility for healthcare costs; the retailization of medicine; commoditization of medical services and providers; information everywhere; and globalization of healthcare services including Internet based tele-medicine, home monitoring services and medical tourism.

On another note, I received an email from my colleague Dr. Joseph Kvedar at Partners Healthcare.  Dr. Kvedar is a leading tele-medicine expert.  Under the heading of What's New from the Connected Health Initiative, Dr. Kvedar shares this thought:

• A Metric for Connected Health Success? "One of the most memorable moments from the Connected Health Symposium occurred during a panel I lead on the voice of the patient. Each panelist, in a spontaneous way, told of experiences with the health care system that were not patient friendly. Perhaps the most dramatic story was told by Gene Sacco, whose 20 year old son, dying of cancer at the time, spent 12 hours waiting in a doctor’s office only to be told that the test he was there to discuss was inconclusive and that they would need to visit again in a week after a better imaging study. After hearing this and other similar studies, John Henderson, a network theorist from the Boston University School of Management, proclaimed that a new metric for health care should be considered – Return on Time Invested (ROTI). This was an a-ha moment for me, and I think others in the session."

What do you think? Read more of Dr. Joseph Kvedar’s discussion and post your own comments on the topic.

If you happen to attend the MultiCare conference, please stop by and say "hello".

On Sunday, my wife and I travel to Las Vegas where I am pleased to keynote for the NextGen User's Conference at the Bellagio.  NextGen is one of our very good partners in the ambulatory EMR space, and I look forward to spending time with their executives and users.  Wish me luck at the tables :)

Bill Crounse, MD    Healthcare Industry Director      Microsoft