The world has gone content marketing crazy–and we add fuel to that as well. However, with the mantra of ‘Be Useful’, there are other content sources that are already highly useful. Blending the utility of information with the delivery system of consumer-friendly utilities like Twitter can dramatically impact the healthcare world. To achieve truly personalized, patient-centric healthcare, the future of medicine will have to include real-time collection of data, monitoring and sharing of information. Whether this be for patients themselves, for their interactions with providers, or their need to discuss costs with payers, a live feed of data is the easiest way for this to happen.
Additionally, with growing use of social media, even by our most vulnerable populations, the preference of using auto-updating feeds may lend itself to improved patient engagement, activation and adherence.
Recently, The Health Care Blog published an article in which Dr. David Do contends that US healthcare information may resemble a social media feed sooner than anyone thinks. He asserts in his post that innovations in social media could be great frameworks for those in the health sector, especially when it comes to managing large amounts of data.
New predictions like Dr. Do’s estimate that the future of real-time information sharing could look similar to a Twitter or Instagram feed, one in which doctors can subscribe to updates for individual patients. If accurate, this premise could also stand to be true for entire communities, geographic regions and cohorts of individuals with defined characteristics.
Given physician needs to be able to access patient information and share it with others on a regular basis – especially in a world with more providers handing off and sharing patients than ever before – electronic communication and documentation is essential for everything from note taking to billing. Additionally, for longer episodes of care or chronic diseases the extensive number of notes and touch points with the health system can be sorted easily by key terms or read chronologically.
Dr. Do asserts that a Twitter-like feed would also reduce the overwhelming burden currently placed on healthcare staff because extensive, “daily documentation often exists in two separate streams, the daily progress note (located in the official chart or the official EMR) and the summary/signout document (often located in a Word document on a hard drive in the hospital).” By improving the coordination
With various streams of collecting and accessing information for one patient, there is inherently poor communication, and therefore worse outcomes than if the electronic communications were seamless. These inefficiencies also contribute to slowed work efficiency and workflow.
However, according to social media proponents, a timeline feed that combines patient information, provider notes and payer documentation could lead to a more cost-effective system. It could also lead to an electronic recording system that is as easily searchable as Twitter and Instagram hashtags (#) or user names (@nic_fisher), or #CMWorld.
As we search for new ideas, practices and standards for obtaining and meaningfully using individual and community health data, a single live feed for health history, could be a disruptive force that patients actually embrace.