Since we are heading towards a possible economic recession, people will be very attentive at their spendings, by this means people will buy what they urgently need. And while healthcare is one of the priorities with food expenses and housing, we can expect that a cut on that budget occurs, especially for the category that pays for the visits.

In that sense how can we keep with health expenses when our overall budget is tightening? You cut on on your healthcare budget waiting for better times? This is certainly the immediate solution, still, it does not solve the problem, as ignoring your condition will just make it harder to diagnosis and to treat.   Afterall, and we all agree, our health is our most precious capital. What if you could access healthcare services from the comfort of your home, without having to take a day off for a doctor visit and most importantly at an affordable price?

In fact, when considering an online visit, we profit from the following benefits:

-The online consultation’s price is lower than a visit to the emergency room or at a doctor’s office. In the United States for instance, it costs as high as $140 per visit to the emergency room while teleconsultations can be priced as low as $50 without a loss in quality, as online doctors have the same formation as the doctors you visit at the office.

-Consulting a doctor implicates driving a distance, making you lose time and money while teleconsultations can be conducted immediatly and from the comfort and privacy of your home.

-When diagnosing a condition early on, the chances for a fast recovery are higher while avoiding complications. The overall recurring cost, although harder to materialise, from complications and complex diagnosis is reduced and in certain cases, eliminated. In that sense, telemedicine encourages preventive medicine by trying to understand the causes of the medical condition rather than trying to hide its symptomes with drugs; doctor being physically distant from his patient will take the time to circle the problem and propose an indepth solution.

How do you foresee telemedicine and remote consultations in the near future? Do you see yourself as a potential user of such a service? Do you think remote consultations will become mainstream any time soon?

I won’t reinvente the wheel by telling the story behind Health 2.0 Accelerator. I have pasted the original article for more details. However, I want to talk about how I can be benefical to be involved in this project. For example the first project in which members will take part is about moving pharmaceutical data. The advantage of such an initiative is inspired from the opensource contribution widely common in software communities. People in healthcare  could then focus on solving more complex problems that plague the actual healthcare sector. Stay tuned, the wiki is up and running at Health2Accelerator.org

“For several months there has been discussion amongst Health 2.0 companies about the concept of a Health 2.0 Accelerator. It started with Marty Tenenbaum’s introduction of the concept in September 2007. It continued with the discussion at the San Diego meeting in March 2008. Since then conversations and meetings among a small group have continued to define a first cut at what the Health 2.0 Accelerator should be.

The basic idea is for organizations to collaborate to create “public goods” —frameworks and strategies that will help all concerned to advance the industry. The way to do this is via projects that tackle particular problems, and leave behind frameworks and utilities that all can use.

The reality is of course going to be more complex, but we’re delighted to announce that the first project concerning moving pharmaceutical data has been announced, and the first principles and statements about the future of the Accelerator are now up at its own wiki at Health2Accelerator.org.

We are now asking for everyone in the Health 2.0 Community to become members, suggest projects, and contribute to the wiki. This is very much a work in progress, but we believe that the potential is huge. Please go to the new site, and contribute by giving us your comments.”

By Mathieu Hault and Indu Subaiya

I was reading Scott Shreeve’s crossoverhealth blog the other night, and I stumbled upon maybe the most insightful article on IT and healthcare I read in the last couple weeks. He is stating that governments are spending more and more money in Telemedicine projects that use their proprietary network and hardware software. These guys have missed the train, and are doing an anachronism. Sadly, this article just clearly states the IT medical space is still taken from another perspective than other fields and is still in its infancy while it should clearly be mainstream nowadays. In fact, all technologies needed to support it are available.

But we need to not forget that people are driving the revolution themselves, by using web 2.0 tools to communicate, find information about health and wellness, and even practice auto diagnosis. People are then ready to use more advanced tools to perform other tasks, like auto managing their health, their medications intakes, and health in general. They also want to use these tools to talk to their doctors. 

Some startups have seized the opportunity, and are developing tools, using technology that has existed from some time now, to enhance patient experience with health care, making the end user happier and healthier.

I have been thinking all day long about ways to enhance the experience for the people that will be using a teleconsultation service over the Internet. One simplistic idea will be to allow patients to consult a doctor without caring about his/her location. This is what I call the global healthcare marketplace. As for any disruptive idea, there will be many hurdles that should be surpassed:

• Developing countries physicians are not as competent: A number of doctors in developing countries have degrees outside their country and attend international conferences to keep up to date.
• Laws protecting doctors like in Quebec, Canada and North America in General: Like for any other service, the globalization and internationalization of medicine is something that cannot be fought against for a long time from now on. Medicine is becoming more and more transparent. The people that want to keep it opaque are doing it to protect their interests and those of a community of doctors. This has nothing to do with the consumer. The consumer/patient should be empowered and should be the central piece of the puzzle. We need to give the consumer its lost place. (Rate my doctor).
• Cultural Difference: Most doctors in the United States and in Canada are immigrants. There are some minor specificities to the medicine and sicknesses but a doctor has the same formation and the human body is the same wherever you go. Many studies have reaveled common traits in humans no matter their ethnicity or skin color.
• Remote consultations are not as reliable as face to face: There has been many studies in the subject. In Ontario for instance, it was shown that patients resent no major difference compared to face to face visits with their psychiatrists. Also, it has been shown that more than 80% of the visits to a general practitionner end up without having a physical contact with the patient.This idea to develop the service into a world wide advice network of physician has grown up and could present an alternative to the shortage for doctors in Canada and the States.

A new report shows that providing patients with e-mail access to their surgeons improves communication. The conclusion of authors of the  report says that “People who use e-mail certainly would like to have e-mail access to their physicians”.

Concerning the issues raised in the emails, we have general information (55%), post operative recovery (21%),  results (13%) and reassurance (11%).

This data gives us the reassurance that a service that will be offering interactive consultations with physicians will be well accepted. People are already using tools like email, social tools, and the new tools for web 2.0 to interact with each other. We won’t be changing the habits of people just suggesting a better way to interact with your doctor. Medicine just like other disciplines is in a great need to take the leap for the information age. Right now there is so a huge amount of  medical information on the web, what is needed is to give it a human face. Your TeleDoctor will be the regulator of information. It is in between people doing auto diagnosis online and people visiting their family physician at the medical office.

P.S. The original article can be found here.