Tech: Another Healthcare Reform

When you think of health care reform you immediately think of government intervention in the healthcare market, right? But there is another “reform” underway that is more of a transformation: decentralized innovation fueled by low cost computers, digital sensors and the web. The NY Times reports:

The trend promises to shift a lot of the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of disease from hospitals and specialized clinics, where treatment is expensive, to primary care physicians and patients themselves – at far less cost.

The new models emphasize early detection of health problems, prevention and management of chronic disease. The approaches have adopted a range of labels including “wellness,” “consumer-directed health care” and the “medical home.”

The potential transformation faces formidable obstacles, to be sure. Some of those hurdles include getting patients to embrace healthier lifestyles and persuading the government and insurers to reimburse at-home testing and monitoring devices.

Photo by Horia Varlan

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