Time for a Positive Clinical Nudge

“But I’m not really diabetic,” Mom said as she opened a high sugar soda before dinner—a statement that has resonated with me and informed part of my beliefs and the Shearwater Health strategy since 2009. 

Sadly, Mom died two years later. It has now been more than a decade since that initial conversation, but I’m inspired that today’s healthcare technology and innovation have finally aligned in ways that, while too late for Mom, are nevertheless able to generate positive health outcomes for countless others.

Before she became acutely ill, Mom engaged her primary care provider four or so times per year—and I expect each 9-minute physician appointment ended with a reminder (rather an admonishment) on the importance of controlling glucose along with proper diet and exercise.

But after some some 36 minutes of annual physician-patient motivational time, there was virtually nothing to support Mom’s health management the other 525,564 minutes per year, beyond the occasional reminder of a concerned son, daughter, or of my father, most often perceived as an unwelcome intrusion and definitely not a pleasant dinner conversation topic.

But what if my Mom had access to a low cost, scalable, connected ecosystem of technology measuring biometric parameters with medical-grade precision, fully integrated with remote human monitoring including nurse, pharmacy, social worker, or other professional coaching—not as an intrusion to one’s life but as a supportive clinical nudge at the right time and place?

I am pleased to be a part of a Shearwater Health team that is rallying around just a consumer-centric redesign of the healthcare system to unite individual data with a supportive clinical nudge. 

This arrangement provides people (not patients) a multitude of ways to have ownership and personal control of chronic conditions and to leverage the foundation and consistency of a provider’s care plan when a gentle nudge is helpful, delivered by a trusted and individually-known coach. 

Let me know what you think in the comments or private message me…

• In what ways are you a part of consumer redesign of the healthcare system? 
• What would you most like to see changed in the way we manage chronic conditions?