I had a very interesting conversation with a dear friend of mine yesterday. An opportunity has arisen to partner with a company that will work with us to use a daily text as a vehicle to reach the teens and engage them in healthy behaviors, something that my friend and I are passionate about. My friend presented the concept to her colleague, a physician, and his immediate reaction was negative. At first I was surprised and then I realized the issue was the way the information was presented. The technology of texting was presented as the solution not as a vehicle. After some good discussion we came to resolution. Our conversation brought to light a challenge that is facing all of us who are working in healthcare today.
Health IT is s a vehicle, a channel, a tool. Not the solution. Technology is only one piece of the immense ecosystem of caring for people.
We would never position Outlook as the solution to all business communication, would we? (Maybe Microsoft would, but we know better). It is a tool that helps us to communicate in an asynchronous fashion. It is not solving all the communication problems that occur in business or the only way to communicate in business.
It is no wonder that many healthcare providers including lots of physicians are "fed-up" with all of this talk about HealthIT. We get so excited about all the incredible new technology products out there. We discuss every tiny detail using terms that only technology or Health 2.0 gurus get. Open source, HTML 5, 2 factor authentication, single sign-on, EMR, PHR, EHR, HL7, add in HIE, REC, LEC, a whole new language, who wouldn't be lost?
Where is the discussion about how these new technologies are really going to improve the lives of the people using the technologies, doctors, nurses, hospital staff and the most important group in the equation - the patient!
This is not an easy discussion as we don't have much if any data yet to prove that these new technologies are going to improve outcomes. Additionally, in order to get the data we have to create the technologies and get people using them.
Healthcare providers, especially physicians, live in a world where very few decisions are made without at least some data.
We in the Health 2.0 advocates need to start moving towards conducting research to validate the effectiveness of the health IT tools that are being created. This is going to take time.
In the short term, we can use literature and outcomes data that is available to us about enhanced communication, increased access, regular follow-up, enhanced education, for improving outcomes to bridge the communication gap between HealthIT professionals and the healthcare professionals that are on the front lines of patient care.
Finally, let's not forget that we can ask healthcare professionals to help us learn how to better communicate with them. Most of them love to teach. I am sure they would welcome a collaborative conversation in which Health IT providers are experts about their technologies and we allow healthcare providers to be the experts about caring for their patients.
