Not yet anyway. So…what’s it going to take?
I recently read an insightful and thoughtful review written by Leonard Kish about Eric Topol’s latest book, ‘The Patient Will See You Now: The Future of Medicine is in Your Hands.’
In it, he summarises several of the key objectives and takeaways of the book and got me thinking about what it will take to see the benefits of peer to peer medicine, intelligent networks, a redefining of the patient-clinician relationship and, of course, the revamping of medical education to integrate technology. Quite frankly, we are still a long way off but there’s much we can do to make it happen in 10 years rather than 50 years.
1. Data Security
This is a commonly cited barrier to health information exchange and it matters. We want to make sure patients have access to their data and we want them to be engaged in their own care and wellbeing. However, doing so means they need to have faith that the myriad of interconnected IT systems are operating in a standardised and secure manner. In order for information networks to work, they need to be robust without being obstructive.
2. Data Quality
We know the data is secure but is it of any value? Is it accurate, accessible and informative? This is going to be a real challenge. Both patients and clinicians need to work together with IT vendors to define what needs to be collected that’s informative for all the stakeholders involved. You can’t redistribute the clinician – patient relationship if what everyone is now collecting makes no sense. This is a particular danger for patients.
3. Data Sources
