The Changing Health IT Landscape Offers New Terrain for Consumerism

Guest Post:

By: Marc Perlman, Global Vice President, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Oracle Corporation

Consumerism in healthcare, while not a new concept, has failed to gain significant traction in the United States…until now.  The unprecedented recent shift in public policy and technological innovation presents our best opportunity yet for broader consumer participation so that individuals have greater control over personal healthcare decisions.

Proponents of greater consumer empowerment in healthcare have faced numerous barriers over the years, including early resistance from physician provider communities.  More challenging, however, has been a lack of transparency and full disclosure - about pricing, treatments, outcomes, services and other aspects of care delivery - which consumers need in order to make informed decisions about care.  This obstacle is now crumbling which will allow the United States to reach a new paradigm of consumerism in healthcare.

Much of the momentum can be attributed to the national focus on comparative effectiveness and outcomes-based medicine, stimulating Americans’ growing appetite for information delivered to their fingertips at the click of a mouse.  Facilitating this access is the rapid adoption of health information technology that enables integration of clinical, treatment and outcomes data from disparate sources to support expanded business intelligence and information delivered via Web 2.0 applications.  Combined, these applications provide an opportunity to open the door for a new era of transparency that can benefit consumers, providers and payers alike in the quest for higher quality and more affordable care.  To bend the cost-curve in healthcare we have to find a way to be successful in this quest.

All the pieces are coming together.  Now, the work of assembling them must begin, starting with IT investment as the foundation.  Public funds in the form of grants and programs for health information technology are an important catalyst.  Providers and payers must also be willing participants by making comparative cost and payment data readily available to consumers via the Web in an easy-to-understand format.  With the increase in better information, they must actively empower consumers to understand their roles and responsibilities in transforming healthcare in the United States.  And Consumers must commit to using the new tools at their disposal to make more informed choices that benefit all.  Together, we can use information to lower the cost of healthcare while ensuring that outcomes and quality are improved.