Health Care And The Internet
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Aug 3, 2012
A short post but not necessarily a short video. Actually, it comes in around 8 minutes, but I felt the topic would carry more weight if I spoke rather than wrote about it. Unfortunately, based on my premise in the video I'm not expecting this one to be seen by all that many people but you never know, right?
In essence, I'm lamenting the reality that the health care industry really hasn't embraced the internet yet. I have my reasons for why I say that in the video, but suffice it to say that what I see by visiting hospital websites and what I don't see coming from hospitals says a lot about just how far behind this industry is in catching up with everyone else in the 21st century. It's a shame really because health care was way ahead of most other businesses in the 70's and 80's when it came to using computer technology, and now it's lagging way behind in so many ways that it's shameful.
In any case, I've done this video with my point of view, and I hope some of you watch it and have commentary on it. And if you're in health care, please prove me wrong, but be warned; just because you say what you do doesn't mean that everyone's doing it. 🙂
I think you are definitely right, Mitch. I recently read an article that shows statistics related to many different niche and surprisingly nearly 53% of the businesses are not using latest technology and Internet is nothing new, but let’s hope that things will change.
It’s much worse than that in health care Carl, probably because so many people are concentrating on many more things that cost a lot of money.
One more thing, watched recently one of the videos of Neil deGrasse Tyson, and what was mentioned is that very big part of lab test for health related sector could be automated, for example taking blood or urine sample directly by something similar to vending machine, this will definitely reduce the cost and save a lot of money and waiting, but I guess the downside is that many people will lose their jobs if there is dramatic change.
The problem with things like that is protecting privacy, which is a big deal in our laws. For me, I don’t want anyone I don’t specifically give permission to having any access to something like that, and I’m not alone.
Again unfortunately, you are right, Mitch and unfortunately the way things are going privacy will be completely lost in the future.
I have to admit that the whole area of “health” is underrepresented in what we do online, and consists mostly of supplements sales and generic type advice (fitness, nutrition, etc).
That’s an interesting take David; not an area I’ve thought much about but it’s fairly true. The thing is that most of that information doesn’t come from people with real knowledge in health care and that can definitely be problematic.
Way to explain yourself, I am sure you know better than most. The hospitals are concentrating equipment like x-ray machine so they can charge us more. I recently saw an advertising for one hospital that seems to be embracing the internet. They allow people to make appointments for the ER, if it is not life threatening of course. This is a small step towards going where the people are. it makes a lot of sense to focus more on technology like social media because most the people are already familiar with computers and stuff. Great post and video.
Thanks Michael. There are some creative people everywhere, including health care, and if they can convince others that something will work then you see certain things you won’t see everywhere. Overall health care can be a stodgy business unfortunately, but it can’t last forever; at least I hope not.