Thenewnewmedia

We are coming close to the end of the Summer semester (3 down, 1 more to go!) and on my long commute back home, I was thinking about the various topics we have discussed over the last few semesters and how they all connected to one another. What I came to realize was that it wasn’t so much about the dearth of "Innovation" (see Danielle’s point about the repeated use of this word in MOT) offered by companies but rather the lack of standardization that existed between them.

Case in point, last night (7/16) my classmate and I presented on one of the most innovative companies in the Healthcare industry; the Cleveland Clinic. The company recently partnered with Google and Microsoft to test new approaches to medical record access and monitoring of patients with chronic diseases. That’s great. That’s innovative. But what about on the flip side of things? What happens when these two test projects prove to be successful and are deployed for their respective purposes? What happens to the patients whom will be a part of one system and not the other? What if the Clinic merges or acquires another hospital that is just as innovative yet using a completely different set of "standardized systems"? Part of the problem with revolutionizing the Health care system is not that "we are not ready" for the change (we can believe in) but rather what will be the "standard" to follow?

We’ve learned about the plethora of innovative companies like Microsoft, Google, GE, Intel, IBM, etc. and their investments in R&D and innovation in general. All of these companies rely on technology as the core to their success and efficiency. They continually strive to adopt and implement new and progressive technologies that would maximize their business; however, with the rapid pace of computer technology, standards are developed haphazardly. Each innovation leads to a more complex problem for society as we are forced to choose between one system or one company rather than a complimentary mix that can offer the best of both worlds.

My point is, without specific standardization processes there can be no real progress no matter how many times you use the word ‘innovation’ in association with the company name. There are close to a million global standards in this world, how can companies ever improve their products, whether software or hardware, if they do not know its compatibility in relation to other products.

To go back to the Health care problem, this is exactly what we are confronted with today - What should the standard be going forward if we were to make a genuine effort to fix our broken health care system?

Just imagine if the floppy disk were never standardized to 3.5", there would be hundreds if not thousands of different sources of information but all on different products. This would drastically slow down the exchange of free flowing information and set back advancement immensely. Now think about that in terms of Health care. Scary, isn’t it?

Anthony Oren
MOT2010
07-16-09
www.anthonyoren.com

I agree that some standardization in healthcare is needed. Clearly the way the system is now is not sustainable. I attended a teleconference yesterday on Federal Health Architecture (FHA) sponsored by National Institutes of Health (NIH.) http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2009pres/04/20090406a.html. The mission of the FHA program is to “support the development and exchange of interoperable health information within the federal government and with the tribal, state, local and private sector enabling better care, increased efficiency, and improved access to care for American citizens.”

Using the “CONNECT” software platform (http://www.connectopensource.org/) doctors and other health care providers will be able to access the same patient health information from the Nationwide Health Information Network to get an overall view of a patients profile. Although I see wonderful benefits from this concept in that it allows for better and more cost effective health care, I was left wondering about how patients are going to feel regarding their loss of privacy. Perhaps after an appointment with my doctor I want to get a second opinion or even a third, is it really their business to know this? Or, now that this data is so easily accessible, what other entities outside of the healthcare environment will petition for access to this data (employers?, ???.) I think the privacy issue needs to be addressed before standardizing on this system.