February 4, 2005
Information flow changes to healthcare
Since I commute an hour and ten minutes each way to work, I have time on my hands to listen to a little public radio.
There are two stories that caught my ear on public radio this week one from NPR and the other on Marketplace (American Public Media). They both show how healthcare is now beginning to feel the wave of change that long ago washed over other organizations (to varying degrees). One is that the NIH will now have to provide a FREE repository of government-funded healthcare studies on their website.
It is shocking to me that such a repository does not already exist and that it took 10 YEARS of lobbying to make it happen. Who is resisting? The publishers of scientific journals, of course. If you get a chance, listen to the story. The arguments of the publishing lobby seem a bit weak to me (i.e. we pay for editorial boards, vetting, and indexing). Maybe they need to consider a new model for these things?? I know change is hard but...
The other story about empowering healthcare consumers is from a different perspective. The story is titled Your Genes in a Box and it describes how you can now go online and order a genetic test on yourself. The company, called DNAdirect, has you fill out a bio (including potential health risk factors) sends some swabs to you in the mail, you send them back and a few days later you log in to a personalized website to see whether you have genetic predispositions for the risk factors in your family history.
I am not sure how sophisticated this is yet but the big change is that your personal doctor is not involved. You can get this diagnostic information yourself and begin to make decisions about your own healthcare. While sites like WebMD have given some power to consumers, this begins to really shift the control to the individual about his or her own health. Now, whether the vast majority of couch potatoes will take advantage is a different story 
Posted by Rovy at February 4, 2005 7:40 AM