Call Your Doctor or Check an App?
David Schenkein, MD
Hematologist, General Partner and Co-Head Life Science @ GV,
The practice of medicine is changing. Patients and their doctors or caregivers today have access to information and to each other in ways that were never imagined. I believe these changes are influencing and potentially enhancing the patient-doctor relationship, but the impact these changes could have are likely to be far reaching, including the way individuals are diagnosed and treated; decisions on global health initiatives, creation of payor guidelines and policies; the training of doctors and other caregivers, and the development and testing of new medicines.
Since the explosion of the Internet, many people are more actively involved in their healthcare and now show up in the doctor’s office, including mine, armed with information about new therapies, statistics about treatment outcomes, and questions from other patients with similar illnesses that they have met over social media. This change in patient behavior could be good for everyone, but in reality it’s not without its complications and issues.
According to a recent article in the New York Times, we may be able to use our smartphones to communicate with our doctor for the diagnosis of an illness. There are also wearable devices available today to track your health. Clinical trials may be designed and implemented via social media sites and “big data” could be generated to facilitate new discoveries.
Are we ready for these changes? I am concerned that we have not yet determined how to harness the power of these concepts to ensure a quantum leap in medicinal discovery and delivery in a way that preserves the doctor-patient relationship, protects privacy, and leads to a better healthcare outcome. I am equally concerned that it is unclear who is and should be helping to coordinate and integrate the disparate efforts (patients, caregivers, tech giants, pharma/biotech, government, etc). The next decade is likely to see tremendous progress incorporating technology into healthcare, so let's do it right.
Thoughts?
Photo: Tyler Olson/Shutterstock
Senior Global Health Consultant (Africa wide experience)
8 年It helps, diseases dont follow text books, is the old norm from my Med School. there is advance in health, health and climate, allergies, inflammation. It helps to have information at hand, and then consult a doctor. It is useful for us from low income countries....I often do it..... I remember my none medical friend. The child had a rare disease bleeding into tissues, it was an auto-immune syndrome. She was living in the first world, she had to refer online information and discuss with the physician to guide the treatment. The child survived...... The challenge though is the quality of information because not everything out there is correct....
Mentor and Coach in Drug and Device Development and Regulatory Affairs
10 年Information is not wisdom. Having access to the medical information on internet is useful but requires deeper understanding of the clinical issues. These development in IT, do open tremendous opportunities but require new approach to harnessing it correctly.
Pusan National University Doctoral Course
10 年Most of circumstance has been changed since IT technology came to us. That is more efficient and convenient but we lost something in our mind at the same time.
“we may be able to use our smartphones to communicate with our doctor for the diagnosis of an illness. There are also wearable devices available today to track your health. Clinical trials may be designed and implemented via social media sites and “big data” could be generated to facilitate new discoveries.” It is very promising field and have huge demand as well.