Lessons Learned When Physicians Disrupt Health Care From The Inside

Consumers in healthcare are often forced to make healthcare decisions in an information vacuum. The information asymmetry in healthcare between patients and medical practitioners often translates to undue stress on patients, increased healthcare costs, and increased treatment complication and readmission rates. In this presentation, Grace Park, Co-founder and President of DocDoc will discuss how to build a patient-centric ecosystem that enables patients to find the right care at the right time.

The value-based care model promises great gains for healthcare, from improved outcomes to reduced costs and greater physician satisfaction. But if you’re still playing by fee-for-service rules, you’ll stumble. How can providers succeed in this brave new world?

Poor communication contributes to 80% of medical errors (the 3rd leading cause of death), ⅓ of all malpractice suits, poor outcomes and redundant costs. Unfortunately, these miscommunications are abundant because our care teams are stuck in communication silos. That's why we need to unify ALL systems of care for ALL time sensitive emergencies with regional communication networks that connect ALL members of the care team -- from prehospital providers to interfacility teams to those at other hospitals outside of our own.

As we move into a new era of health care with the increased exchange of medical records in order to provide better, more coordinated care, the question of what information received from outside an organization should be included in a medical record takes on new importance. What with health homes, personal health records, and health information exchanges, as well as increased involvement by patients using digital tools like smart watches and smart phone apps, there is a torrent of information being directed at medical records, and it is essential to understand what belongs there and what should be rejected, and how. This information may come in the form of unsolicited health information, for example, information that is volunteered by patients or by other health care providers, either at the time the patient arrives for treatment or thereafter, and in some cases even after the patient has been discharged.