Are we in the midst of healthcare disruption–or not at all?

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/gimlet-eye.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]If you believe we are in the midst of a slow, tidal disruption of healthcare and the ascendancy of patient-centered care–to the point of Topolesque patient ownership–then you will be upset to tears by the contrarian assertions of Dan Munro in Forbes. He maintains that disruption isn’t what we think it is, but (and we cut to the chase here) it’s more like ‘process improvement’ and that it has to be driven by ‘K Street’ (translation: the street in Washington DC where Lobbyists Rule). Technology–patches on the flawed system. Doctors–desperately seeking to pay back their educational loans by picking the most lucrative specialties. (If they survive the internship and residency system without killing a patient or themselves; see The Misery of a Doctor’s First Days)

But..there’s more. We’ve been concentrating on the cost of sub-acute care and insurance companies when really we should be leveraging high cost areas such as hospital care. (Which the Eye cannot dispute–but preventing hospital readmissions has been a mantra for nearly five years. And well-designed patient-centered medical homes have impacted overall spending substantially.) And all those startups? They can’t possibly have transformative mojo because eventually they need to ROI, but Big Transformation is long-term and ‘disconnected from the profit requirement’. So we will be staying in a variation of our dysfunctional model, because it is working–as intended. It’s enough to make those who Labor in the Healthcare Vineyards retreat to a Remote Pacific Island after an exhausting 15 years of Digital Health Hope, Elation and Despair…but where’s a similar exposition on Where Do We Go From Here?  The Big Disruption That Isn’t Happening In Healthcare

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