Great podcast of an interview with Don Jones (DJ) (pictured above 3G Video Consulting with 3G Doctor back in 2009) by Neil Versal (NV) at the Washington DC mHealth Summit. Things I found interesting:
Developing Vs Developed Focus
4:50 “The secret with developing countries is that you’re often not forced with having to deal with changing something that already exists say in Europe or America and instead you’re actually offering them a benefit or service they never ever had before and so as a result they’re willing to skip over obstacles that we would otherwise find in the developed world. A lot like what happened with the cellular industry, in Latin America for example it was common to wait 10 years for a landline. When cellphones came out the question evaporated and as a result a lot of telephone poles never got put in place” DJ
This is exactly why we started 3G Doctor as a service offered directly to patients. Taking the entreprenuerial way to fix healthcare processes (where we compete with them instead of complaining about them) has meant we’ve saved ourselves from just growing older and poorer. I think lots of mHealth providers are going to wake up to this reality in 2011.
The need for EHR’s to move on
7:05 “One of the things we’re looking forward to is the opportunity to add physiological data acquired from the patient directly into the records. Today most electronic records are just observations made by healthcare professionals typed into a system they are not actually the medical images the electrocardiograms or other physiological information that’s been gathered from sensors. But these can be added to the records and then we can apply analytics and use predictive modelling techniques and we think this can improve care and prevent errors” DJ
When you realise that the mobile is a sensor that we carry with us all the time it becomes obvious that to get value from this mHealth needs to leverage new ways of doing things as 99% of today’s billion dollar EHR’s have simply been built to serve other masters eg. Insurance companies, employers, healthcare providers etc
What’s stopping the iPad flying…
13:20 “The one criteria missing on the iPad is that it still doesn’t fit into the Lab Coat pocket… it doesn’t fit the definition of ‘where do I put it’ when I need to use my hands” DJ
Despite Steve Jobs protests, for this fact alone I think it is inconceivable that Apple will not wake up to the 7in screen opportunity in 2011.
13:40 “A couple of people at this conference have just been raving about the Samsung Galaxy Tablet which is about half the size of the iPad and available from more than just one wireless carrier” NV
Neil is here referring to myself and Samsung’s Peter DeNagy who were the only people at the show with this new device. I think Don has made the case for clinician appeal and this is most definitely one of the major reasons that I’m a such a fan of the Samsung Galaxy Tab. I also prefer devices that are mobile phones (eg. you can make a call with them) and have cameras (the GTab has 2).
The importance of getting global leaders to support mHealth
20:00 “Registration doubled as soon as they got confirmation that Bill Gates was attending” NV
Strong Operator Opportunities in mHealth
20:20 “Orange for example has teamed up in France with GE Healthcare to deploy a Paris Wide virtual in the cloud PACS system with dicom convergence to the mobile device you have so whether it’s on the wired workplace system or onto the smart phone, ipad, tablet computer that you’ve got they’re putting in a region wide system and that has a huge impact… …in this case it’s a telco stepping in and saying ‘we’ll be the regional health authority and what we’re taking off the table is the need to spend tens of millions of $’s on storage and offering it as an ASP use base model rather than a capital expenditure up front model’ ” DJ
A great example of the massive market opportunities for Telco’s to leverage their position to profit from mHealth. Makes it all the more irritating for me every time I hear Orange banging on about how mHealth is a natural mobile device maker opportunity.
The mHealth opportunity emerging as a result of the Primary Care Crunch
23:30 “There is a crunch coming (for primary care) and that is usually an opportunity to create change and that change is necessary for efficient new ways… …key areas are workflow efficiencies… …why are we having front office Healthcare workers, the front office girl or the back office nurse, playing telephone tag to tell you your lab results are in? it’s a crappy system and a complete waste of time and effort… …so why don’t we have appointment reminders, exam reminders, times for the kids innoculations, mammogram reminders, appointments where you can say ‘yes I’m confirming’ or ‘no i need to reschedule? …why isn’t this all automated? …A huge messaging opportunity that’s not yet being taken advantage of at any large scale in the Healthcare Industry… and it takes out a tremendous amount of labour” DJ
I’d like to add: Why are we making expensive Healthcare Professionals spend their working lives acting like drones repetitively asking patients basic questions all day every day? Why aren’t we leveraging interactive digital tools to better prepare patients? Why aren’t we leveraging the immortalized knowledge and experience of the worlds best clinicians to better inform those working on the frontline so they can benefit from having a more accurate written history of their patients prior to consultations? Click here to watch a video of Dr John Bachman explaining this.
Obama’s Health Insurance Reform Initiatives
26.20 “I think what the public wanted was healthcare delivery reform and what we got was healthcare insurance reform… i don’t think we’re going to see it being reppealled… …but just the edges worked on… …and hopefully on the innovation side and on the delivery side” DJ
Sometimes adopting simple upfront ways of working can save lots of money
27.40 “If we just said ‘when we ask for your notes this is the electronic format we want them in’… …we could have saved ourselves $30-40 Billion” DJ
Enthusiasm for M2M devices to come with new business models
29:10 “Vitality Glow Caps have a (Amazon) Kindle model paid for by someone else – Pharma. Because they can see compliance leading to consumption translates to better sales” DJ
Whilst this is a positive move I think this needs a lot of tuning as it’s clear to almost everybody that increased drug sales aren’t always aligned with a patients best interests.
How “Lifestyle Products” for Healthcare Professionals are going to drive mHealth market adoption
31:00 “A company called Airstrip which provides the same information on the ICU screens or the fetal monitoring screeens and gets it on the smartphone in the physicians pocket. The reality is that everyone thinks of it as a clinical application eg. you’re going to take better care of that ICU patient, that expectant mum, better through having information wherever the Doc is. But it’s actually a lifestyle product for the Doctor, it helps the Doctor understand do I put my food down and leave the dinner table? do i leave my kids soccer game? do i turn my car around on the freeway? do I get up out of bed right now? Because I can now make a better decision, that’s all lifestyle. That means that the Doctor can go to the Hospital CEO and say I need this. I have to have this”
This is exactly what we’re seeing for both Doctors and Patients eg. when demonstrating 3G Doctor I meet lots of people who are so blinkered that they can only see the clinical benefits and fail to see the important lifestyle benefits that patients and Doctors can experience from being able to access an informed Doctor without needing to go and wait in a ER or Clinic.
