Jeff Parks

Today I had the pleasure of talking with the Chief Experience Officer and Healthcare Principal at Mad*Pow, Amy Cueva.

Amy partners with clients like the New England Journal of Medicine, Google, Aetna, Fidelity, and Monster to create strong multi-channel experience strategies, intuitive digital experiences, and streamlined processes.

We discuss the many different ways social technologies can conceivably simplify communication flows, enhance access, increase information sharing, and augment timely collaboration, resulting in faster, more informed decisions, improving clinical outcomes.

You can download slides from Amy’s recent presentation to the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Social Media and Patient-Centric Design: Facilitating Provider / Patient Relationships.

Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) are meant to provide primary care physicians with the ability to share comprehensive patient files, across hospitals and patient-teams, so that they can make better care decisions. There is enormous potential for integration of social networking technologies to enrich the EMR experience.

A few examples of Social networking for EMRs include:

* 2 doctors in different locations could treat the same patient or obtain opinions on treatment. They could both access the patient’s EMR, and deliberate possible diagnoses and treatment options.
* Doctor-to-doctor, and doctor-to-nurse communication could occur LIVE via Online chat, Voice (VOIP/Skype), Video (Webcam/Skype Video), Telephone.
* Communication could also occur asynchronously via Text message (Twitter/Yammer), Email, Voice (Voicemail/Voicethread), Video (Voicethread/Webcam).
* Doctors could digitally mark-up files in the EMR such as X-Rays to communicate visual thinking to their peers.
* The care team and the patient would benefit from the interaction but there is also downstream value in having the discussion and relevant subject matter parsed and elevated up to the larger community.

User experience design in the health care space is of keen importance. As designers we have the capability to expedite the diagnostic process, resulting in both proactive and preventative measures for treatment that is more comfortable and effective. We can reduce errors, reduce costs, and essentially improve outcomes for all involved.

President Obama’s stimulus package (ARRA) includes 19 billion dollars which has been earmarked for health care research, technology and improvements. In the next few years there will be a great deal of activity and change in this space. We have the ability to shape that change in a positive direction via the patient-centric design approach that comes naturally to us. We also have the opportunity to share assets and patterns and build the standards that will positively affect learnability, adoption and momentum.

The current medical system is in dire straights. We need to start looking at tools that are in place today without putting on blinders to both the current and future potential risks and barriers to success. A few of these include, the following:

* Doctors are outnumbered: There are many more patients than doctors.
* Frequency & access: How often do you have access to a doctor vs. access to a computer, phone or mobile device?
* The information is out there: In our minds, in websites and DBs. Tech and SM frees the info, makes it searchable/shareable.
* We have the tools: Healthcare is behind.
* People care: They are motivated, there is a strong sense of community, karma, give and take.
* It is already happening: The Pew Internet and American Life Project Survey says 61% of Americans go online for health information, with a majority turning to user-generated content.

Thank you to all of my listeners for another year of helping to provide greater context to the content we all share! Many new projects underway for 2010, two of which I’ll be sharing early in January!

Happy holidays and best wishes for a great New Year to friends, family, and colleagues around the world…Cheers!