Certified Data Privacy Professional passionate about MedTech and healthcare innovation
Thank you, Google Health for sharing this critical depiction of access and socioeconomic status. We must do better to reach all populations. Access to care is critical, but all the access in the world will not solve the current crisis in care delivery. Access, in fact, can be quite deceptive. In the Northeast, particularly in the greater Boston area, we have access to a wide array of health systems, technology, and the finest physicians in the world. One stat indicates our Boston area teaching hospitals boast more radiologists than entire countries have. I am incredibly privileged and fortunate to have access to this medical community. My family and friends have benefited from this health care mecca. Health care Access, however, does not always equate to getting the care you need. The myriad of complexities, protocols, suppliers, players, and payors have created a dangerous, frustrating, and costly approach to accessing care. The stakes are high as lack of patient compliance with medication, procedures, and diagnostics gives rise to escalations in more urgent and costly care detracting from needed health care delivery. I have personally witnessed this journey with friends, elderly, and my own daughter. She is educated and understands the system. Even so, she recently broke down and noted the cost of chasing down her critical monthly medication - which typically means spending stressful hours on the phone, taking time off work, and phoning several entities to get them on the the same page - is not worth the cost to her mental health and she might just stop taking it! (The med is the second of three meds that can treat her condition -she became immune to the first - due to arduous gyrations and delays getting medication into her body). Over the years, we have come to expect this wild ride each cycle and have become less bewildered as thousands of dollars of equipment, erroneously shipped, piled up in our basement, we received incorrect meds and dosages, and cleared calendars for many infusions that would not happen. We manage this repeatedly and know we are lucky. It does, however, make one wonder if others with similar access are on the same brutal journey to fill a life changing script, to get that test, to receive the care they need. How might an hourly employee manage this burden? Is everyone able to read the complex labels and dosage? Might folks facing more challenges give up faster? So, as we solve for access: Are there also simple data driven steps to take now, i.e., after x touches to the combined health care delivery system, a health care coach coordinator intercedes? Could we use AI to model a more linear path to care delivery? Might optimizing care delivery drive down administrative costs and optimize better care delivery? Should entities increase data sharing and track a patient from first touch to care delivery milestones? How else might we optimize the vision of My Health My Right?
In five Nigerian cities, the least wealthy 20% have zero access to emergency obstetric facilities within an hour. A new study in Communications Medicine leveraging Google Maps evaluates how to provide more accurate travel time estimates and improve access and outcomes. Learn more: https://goo.gle/43HvIHK OnTIME Consortium
Assistant Director, Marketing Production at Boston University Metropolitan College and Extended Education
1moLots of great ideas here, Maureen! Indeed, access alone is not the solution.