Hype in Healthcare: What’s Real

 Game Changer...Transformative...Next-Gen...Major disruptor...Frictionless...Big Data...Scalable ...Machine Learning...AI...Social Determinants ...Wearables...Health Apps, Remote Monitoring…Frontier Medicine...Precision Diagnostics...

Is Healthcare is Under a Magic Spell

Magic potions and wizards seem to have less allure these days than ‘digital health’ and ‘consumerism.' Unicorns and rainbows seem to naturally fit into a sentence with ‘high-tech,’ ‘digital,’ and ‘tele,’ as the latest (and best) new dreams and hopes to be 'game changers/transformative/major disruptors/...

Such dreams and hopes spurred on by the promise of technology, is not confined to healthcare. Why just last week I heard a radio commercial for a carpet cleaning company that says it uses ‘machine learning’ to concoct just the perfect cleaning cocktail for your carpets!

Willingness to Accept Less Evidence and Proof

But in healthcare we are typically a bit more reserved about ‘the promise’ of things and hence, slow to adopt new ideas and new approaches. Perhaps it’s for the best—after all, our particular ‘brand of magic’ is curing people of illness. So the idea of solutions being ‘proven’ seems like a good thing.

However, it seems even the most conservative organizations are bitten by the bug of digital and remote care as a panacea to lower costs, improve efficiencies, gain or retain greater patient/customer loyalty. Almost every healthcare provider organization that I know of is thinking about how to develop strategies that focus on a digital health. (I know since I’m helping some of them develop just such strategies.)

And even though I’m involved with just such strategies, I have to step back and ask, ‘Will these new approaches, technologies and capabilities make a difference to the cost, quality, experience and efficiency of patient care?’ And additionally, ‘Which business will garner enough momentum, market size and material presence so that they are worthy of investment and adoption?’

In other words, what and who is hype versus the real-deal?

So here’s what’s Real:

When Amazon announced a pharmacy acquisition in the morning and caused Walgreen and CVS stock to drop by 7% within hours…that’s real.

When Kaiser Permanente started seeing more patients remotely than in person …that’s real too.

When the American Medical Association added 95 new codes (modifiers) for telemedicine services therefore allowing for billing of those services …that's definitely real.

So here's what’s Hype:

When Theranos said it could take a few drops of blood from a simple finger poke and detect everything from AIC levels to H.I.V…well, that’s definitely hype.

When people believe IBM’s Watson supercomputer could more accurately detect cancer treatment recommendations without the aid of medical experts….that’s hype.

When people believe that ‘big data’ will and AI will solve all of healthcare’s inefficiencies and failures, well that’s definitely hype too.

 ‘New Hope’ in Healthcare

But there is a certain type of ‘new hope’ that those of us in healthcare have not felt in a long time, which is perhaps why there is unprecedented receptivity to the promise of new technologies and biomedical solutions.

And much of this new hope is attached to the belief that radical improvements can be made in sectors of healthcare that have been previously unreachable. Think of mobile phone applications for healthcare in developing countries.

Smart phones are ubiquitous and are a route for people to track their health and disease conditions, as well as to share this information with their healthcare team.

 And yet, ironically, the biggest barrier to improving health is not something technology can readily address: human behavior. Fully 86% of all healthcare spending in the U.S. is for patients with chronic illnesses like arthritis and emphysema which require a great deal of engagement and participation by the patient themselves.

Again, while there are promising solutions and companies involved in just this part of the market, getting people to do what’s in their best interest is well, tricky business.

‘Make New Friends, But Keep The Old’

Perhaps what ends up being ‘real’ is the mix of two fields: old fashioned human-to-human inspiration guided by enabling technologies.

Let’s face it, while technology and machine learning changes every 6 months to be better, faster, smarter—people do not! People are mostly creatures of habit and require a whole host of emotional, contextual, and supportive help.

Recalling a camp song from my childhood (‘Make new friends, but keep the old….,’) reminds me that new and hopeful, high-tech solutions are important, but the older, high-touch approaches of human relationships also matter when it comes to improving overall health and healthcare.

About the author: Recognized by LinkedIn as a "Top Voice" in Health Care in 2015 & 2106, & 2107, Julie Kliger is a Healthcare Realist who is passionate about improving health care and improving lives. She is a consultant, speaker and author. She specializes in future-oriented healthcare redesign, implementing new care models and strategic change management.