Innovate for the Young

So let me get this straight.

You want to radically change the way healthcare is delivered?

You want to disrupt how patient’s interact with the health care ecosystem?

Great!

So why are you wasting your time trying to renovate the system for those that don’t want the system to be renovated?

Stop focusing on healthcare delivery reform on the old.

There I said it.  Let the backlash begin.

I am in no way saying that we need to stop finding new and better treatments/therapies for the diseases of those over 40.  I am only trying to understand why are most healthcare disruption dollars are focused on changing the system for those that have worked a long time to make the system what it is today?

Those who have grown up with a broken healthcare system do not want to have to learn a brand new way to navigate a new healthcare system that will undoubtedly have frustrating bumps and stuttering.  They have slowly developed to learn to love and deal with their broken healthcare system.  Let us focus our efforts on those who have not had the opportunity to deal with a fragmented and tortuous system  Let us re-imagine healthcare to those that are expecting an UBER-instant level of ease and availability of healthcare.

Let us start by innovating pediatrics.

Similar to how when drastic changes to education are proposed we start with changing birth to three and kindergarten curriculum, and we are not insistent on changing the system for high school seniors, or senior citizens for healthcare matters.

Millennial parents and their children want and are expecting a patient and consumer driven healthcare landscape.  The same way that millennials are owning less and less things, trading the values of ownership for quality and experience in life, we can start to give them that same experience in health care.  And the new generation of physicians are ready to deliver.

The next generation of doctors, and pediatricians for that matter, are not scared of using EMR, want to have more connectivity with families and patients in both the electronic realm with emails, text messaging, and telemedicine.  They also want what their mentors had including enough time with families and patients and develop those great doctor patient relationships and they know that technology, if used and developed correctly, can help this and not be a hindrance.  We know in study after study that all patients really want is more time with their doctor.  More time asking question and less time waiting.  And we know how to use technology to achieve these patient goals if given the opportunity.

New physicians also know that we are no longer the all knowing and keeper of medical knowledge for a patient population, and unlike many of our more senior colleagues, we are ok with this.  We were trained and educated in a time of WebMD and doctor google.  Yes, we have some dismay as to some of the things that our patients report from the deep dark trenches of the internet, but we are also enthused and not turned off by the interest of our patients to learn about their health.  We are enthusiastic to share our knowledge of how to weed out good vs shaky health research and data on the world wide web.  And we have been trained to do this both formally and informally.

Newly trained physicians have been trained and ingrained with how to be effective communicators both in person, through email, or online.  Let us use these tools to the most of our ability.  We can do so and be paid for.  We know that doctors are now more like consultants than holders of knowledge and in being so we can start valuing our time and education as so.  Let us charge for phone calls, emails, and telemedicine visits if it saves the patient a trip to the ED or office visit.  And if they pay out of pocket for such services it will still be much less than the copay for the family if they came to the office.  If a lawyer and other consultants can charge for their expertise in minutes over the phone or email, doctors can too.  And the stigma that we should not because that is “just want doctors have always done” is not going to cut it anymore.

So here is my proposal

You want to turn the healthcare field upside down?

Start at the pediatrician’s office

Not only can you usher in healthcare change to those that will grow into it literally, but also you have young tech savvy, google crazy, and uber’d out parents who are adept at navigating a digital health field that is changing the way they and their doctor can care for their child and their family.  Trust me they want and can handle all and any new tech health care changes you can throw your way.  And if it doesn’t work or makes it worse we will know right away without using NIH funding to do RCT trials to look for cause and effect.  They will just change doctors or go to the closest Doc in a Box.  These are a fickle clientele that can yelp you into and out of existence.  You will know if your new text messaging system about vaccines is good or bad for the patient and their family because they will either be there for their shot or they won’t.  No p values to worry about there.  They will leave a practice if it is not meeting their standards of ease and accessibility.

And let’s say your new tech advance works and is a big hit.  How do most trends start?  With youth adoption and then their parents and older statesmen eventually catching on.  Facebook didn’t go out to court 50 year old aunties at their inception.  They went to where trends start, with the 20 somethings and their social spheres.  Let pediatricians and pediatric offices test innovation in healthcare delivery and let IM and surgery clinics catch on in due time.

So again, I make a plea to focus on innovating for the young in our healthcare system.  They deserve a better healthcare system and new physicians are ready to take on that challenge.