Kvedar: Automate healthcare to fix 'failing' delivery system
BOSTON—With 30 million diabetics, two-thirds of the population overweight, one-third of adults with hypertension and 10 percent of the elderly with congestive heart failure, “healthcare delivery is failing,” according to Joseph C. Kvedar, MD, who spoke Oct. 1 at the 2012 Future of Health Technology Institute Summit Hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Healthcare hasn’t changed much over time, said Kvedar, founder of the Center for Connected Health at Partners HealthCare in Boston. More preventive care and self-health management could drastically reduce healthcare costs, but this isn’t occurring right now. Patients are generally expected to utilize healthcare services when they’re unhealthy, rather than engaging in activities and behaviors to stay healthy. “We expect you to come in when you’re sick and we’ll make you feel better. This has created an enormous engine of failure.”
Limited resources prevent providers from delivering more preventive care. The demand for healthcare is simply too large and the supply simply too small. “At the root of health reform is a broken system for providing a service and not enough service providers to do it,” Kvedar said. “Primary care providers are unhappy for a reason. They don’t like seven minute visits, but there is a waiting room full of people that also need to see them.” Cultural factors influencing eating and exercise habits also play a part. However, modern technology has produced tools for both providers and patients to engage in more preventive care.
Interacting with technology in a healthcare context still “feels a little creepy” to many providers and patients, Kvedar said, but he believes automated care can help fix the system and free providers to spend more time with patients who require the most care.
Research suggests patients might prefer technology over human providers and some interactive health IT projects, such as one to develop virtual healthcare agents by Northeastern University researchers, have enjoyed success when put to the test. “We have relationships with things,” Kvedar said, citing the pet rocks of the ‘70s and the nanopets of the ‘90s. “That’s not so hard to overcome.”
People do a lot of things that used to be done for them. Rather than asking a customer service employee about a product in person and joining a checkout line to purchase an item, shoppers research and purchase products without leaving their desks. Kvedar is optimistic that if patients had healthcare options like this, they would use them. “We want to move care out of the enterprise. The biggest thing I’ve learned is how much patients can do for themselves. Providers could give them more to do and they would gladly do it.”
Healthcare hasn’t changed much over time, said Kvedar, founder of the Center for Connected Health at Partners HealthCare in Boston. More preventive care and self-health management could drastically reduce healthcare costs, but this isn’t occurring right now. Patients are generally expected to utilize healthcare services when they’re unhealthy, rather than engaging in activities and behaviors to stay healthy. “We expect you to come in when you’re sick and we’ll make you feel better. This has created an enormous engine of failure.”
Limited resources prevent providers from delivering more preventive care. The demand for healthcare is simply too large and the supply simply too small. “At the root of health reform is a broken system for providing a service and not enough service providers to do it,” Kvedar said. “Primary care providers are unhappy for a reason. They don’t like seven minute visits, but there is a waiting room full of people that also need to see them.” Cultural factors influencing eating and exercise habits also play a part. However, modern technology has produced tools for both providers and patients to engage in more preventive care.
Interacting with technology in a healthcare context still “feels a little creepy” to many providers and patients, Kvedar said, but he believes automated care can help fix the system and free providers to spend more time with patients who require the most care.
Research suggests patients might prefer technology over human providers and some interactive health IT projects, such as one to develop virtual healthcare agents by Northeastern University researchers, have enjoyed success when put to the test. “We have relationships with things,” Kvedar said, citing the pet rocks of the ‘70s and the nanopets of the ‘90s. “That’s not so hard to overcome.”
People do a lot of things that used to be done for them. Rather than asking a customer service employee about a product in person and joining a checkout line to purchase an item, shoppers research and purchase products without leaving their desks. Kvedar is optimistic that if patients had healthcare options like this, they would use them. “We want to move care out of the enterprise. The biggest thing I’ve learned is how much patients can do for themselves. Providers could give them more to do and they would gladly do it.”