Driving In Traffic

Well, well…. I go for my usual monthly checking up on my government representatives to make sure they are working…. and what do I find?!?!?! A BLOG!!!

Now how cool is that! My life has become much easier. I can now just subscribe to the feed and I don’t have to type in the link anymore! Yeah!!!

Welcome to the blogosphere, Rep. Gingrey. Please keep writing and keep your staff writing too. It was fun to learn about the interns and it is wonderful to be informed of the latest topics in Washington and how they may affect us in our small corner of the world.

Tags: Phil Gingrey, House of Representatives, Blogs, Georgia Politics

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It just drives me crazy when someone comes up with a truly simple solution to a describe or fix a complex problem. I’m not talking the genius of Ron Popeil, the inventor of great things like the “Veg-o-matic”, “Mr Microphone”, “Great Looking Hair” spray paint for your bald spot. and the oft coveted “Popeil Pocket Fisherman“. Here, I’m talking about true inspiration, obvious to all that reflects true genius. Well, I just happened across Steve Rubel’s Magic T model. It’s simplicity made me want to crawl into the corner for dunces and wimper. In Rubel’s new model, traditional marketing is used to reach the masses to let them know you exist. Interactive marketing strategies (blogs, podcasts, vcasts) to meet, appeal to and engage the audience who seek you out. Nonprofit and healthcare businesses generally fail to develop marketing strategies that truly get at engaging people to take action. I think the thought is that everyone should want to help a good cause or improve their health. Subsequently, they just cast a wide net and wait for the catch. If they were to utilize more interactive marketing, success would be easier. Afterall, patients, donors, and volunteers share the desire to utilize companies /providers that they like and trust. Much of the hard work of building trust is done through information gathering. No one likes to come to a new business or health relationship ill informed. Afterall, given our rushed lifestyle, we do not have time to waste. Like it or not…. the internet is the primary source for learning about everything. So what are you doing to meet the informational needs of the people who might consider using your service or supporting your cause? Tags: Magic “T”, Steve Rubel, nonprofit marketing, healthcare marketing

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A couple of weeks ago, I posted a review of a new health information search engine, Healia.  After touring, I found that I had many more questions about the story behind Healia. Recently I was afforded the opportunity to spend some time talking with Tom Eng and Craig Husa about their work and their vision for Healia. How did you come up with the idea for Healia?

Tom:  I have 20+ years of experience in public health, both in the US and abroad. That experience has taught me exactly how important information is in helping people to find factors and things that can help them lead a healthier lifestyle.

Thus, in 1999, Tom came up with the idea for a search engine specifically for health information.  Then in 2001, he was given an Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Instates of Health.  He explained that the current version of Healia has been in development for 4 years.  Tom also notes that the National Cancer Institute has been very supportive with R&D, getting the word out and financially. How did you come up with the name?

Tom: The name was hard.  As you know, most good names are already taken.  It took us about 6 months to come up with it and it is derived from two concepts.  Part of the name is Heal which comes from health.  The other part is a derivation from Helios, the Greek god of the Sun who sees and knows all.

What is your take on the Internet’s impact on the delivery of healthcare?

Tom:  The Internet as a public platform has only been with us for 10 or 12 years.  Its probably too early to draw any conclusions.  However, we are seeing a shift in how people get health services and how they find information on how to live healthier.  It will probably fundamentally change how we interact with providers and systems. In the last few years there has been a push for consumer-driven healthcare. It is here to stay.  The perfect storm of the Internet as a vehicle has given consumer-driven healthcare traction.  Employers are pushing health plans that encourage employees to take more control of their health services. People are having to learn how to help themselves.  They are having to direct their own care:  when they purchase, where they purchase, who they purchase from. Individuals are getting more control over their health destiny. Craig: Healia is to help people educate themselves. With the vast information out there on the Internet, people are coming in to their doctors with fraudulent stuff and it is taking more time for physicians to sort out. Healia hopes to streamline this process.  Decrease waste and decrease duplicity of services.

What is your favorite feature of Healia?

Tom:  I don’t really have a favorite, but I would like to talk about three really important features.  Quality:  All search engine results should have a minimum level of quality. Healia really has focused on making sure that searches produce high quality results.  Personalization of search results: Content filters based on algorithms enables people to precisely drill down to the most relevant results for them. Ability to give other search terms: We have tried to build in relationships between general search terms and very specific terms. This enables people with limited medical knowledge to expand their searches to very specific medical terms.  This really gives users intelligent and guided searches based on their needs.  Its almost as if you get your own health librarian.

Tom and Craig went on to tell me about a blinded study that was conducted by an outside agency to examine the quality of the searches from Healia.  In this study, three physicians were asked to rate the quality of search results from Healia compared to the search results on the same search terms from Google.  The physicians were not informed which search engine generated the results.  All results from Healia were preferred to those of Google. How do you plan on getting the word out about Healia?

Tom: We are, of course, using traditional methods of advertising.  However, we want to use bloggers to get the word out. 

Tom and Craig also talked about partnering with organizations to put Healia on their site.  One partnership they can talk about is with the Veterans Administration.  Healia is currently  the search engine for the E-vet Program, the VA’s personal health record program.  They are working on expanding these types of partnerships. How are you measuring success?

Tom:  Just like every other Internet site, we measure how many people use our service, but that doesn’t really tell you if you are successful.  More importantly, we want to be the ultimate consumer health search engine tool where any person can get a good answer to any health question at any time.  This is harder to measure.  We hope that one day people will let us know exactly how Healia has helped them.  Newspaper articles, letters or positive feedback submitted through our site would certainly be a sign we are doing something right.

Lastly, is there anything that you would like people to know about you as a person?

Tom:  Healia is based on my many years in public health at local, state and national levels as well as in over two dozen countries.  I’ve seen first hand how important it is for people to have access to personalized health information.  A few years ago I went to the Ukraine, where I was able to go to Chernobyl, where in 1986 there was a terrible nuclear plant disaster. The government never told the people in the surrounding area of the health risks of the residual radiation and many citizens today are still having health problems because they never knew their health was in danger.  If people there were able to educate themselves about the risks, things could possibly have been different for a lot of people. So, I’m hoping that Healia will be a place where people can go to get good information so that can help them lead healthier lives. Craig:  Not about me specifically, but the team here is really talented and dedicated. There is the underlying theme here [at Healia]:  There are a lot of places to work, but all the people here are passionate about what the company is doing to educate and empower people improve their health and lives.

Thanks to Tom and Craig for their time.  From talking with them I’m convinced that they have assembled a talented, multidisciplinary team that really does genuinely want to enhance people’s lives by providing quality personalized health information that enables folks to take a more active role in their own health and wellness.  At this stage, they seem focused on improving the search engine and are actively soliciting and responding to feedback.  So drop by Healia and give it a spin on topics that reflect your own health interests.  Then drop them a line– feedback buttons are posted on almost every page.

 Tags: Healia, Tom Eng, Craig Husa, Health Information, Search engine, Health

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I recently watched a video editorial by Dr. Karen Davis over at Medscape General Medicine (registration required to view). It discussed the findings of The Commonwealth Fund’s Commission on High Performance Health System on the characteristics of high-performance health systems. According to the editorial, all Americans should have the opportunity for:

1. Long, healthy and productive lives
2. Appropriate care for their health needs
3. Coordinated care over time that reduces duplication of tests, treatments and procedures
4. Safe care that “does no harm”
5. Patient-centered care that reflects patient preferences and values
6. Efficient, high-value care
7. Universal access to care
8. Affordable care that does not undermine financial security of the patient
9. Equitable care that is not influenced by income, race, or ethnicity
10. Care that is innovative and focused on improvement.

The full report can be found here.

I agree with Ms. Davis that these are quite lofty goals given the complexity of the US healthcare system. The full report does provide some suggestions on how to make progress toward achieving these goals. Many of these “levers” are focused on making new policies to correct the market failure in our system.

One of the first suggestions in the report is to “restructure financial incentives” including changing provider reimbursement to promote high quality and efficient care. As we have seen, doctors are not really fond of the implications of this solution. Additionally, the report makes a place for increased patient cost-sharing. Here again, patients don’t like this either. It also calls for businesses to become more involved in demanding health plans that find innovative ways of focusing on efficient and quality care.

Importantly, the report also advocates for information and transparency in the system.

Information about quality, safety and efficiency of care can be used by health plans, providers, consumers, and patients to determine the most effective use of limited resources

The report has a lot to say about the state and federal government’s role in helping to define quality and best (evidence-based) practices. Additionally, the report calls for the government to be very involved in the funding and standards around the implementation of HIT.

Hmmmmm……..More accountability for providers, more investment from patients, more demands on health plans by businesses, more investment from companies for oversight to insure the quality and efficiency goals are being met, more involvement of the government, more cost to the taxpayer. Wow! It sounds like everyone is going to be unhappy.

After reading this report, I’m still convinced that things are lining up so that patients are going to be required to take a more active role in coordinating their care. Having good systems for educating patients on their treatment, treatment options and expected outcomes will be crucial. Additionally, the patient-provider relationship is on the cusp of big change. To date, that relationship has been a bit unbalanced — with the provider having more prestige and power than the patient. In the future, the relationship will have to become more of a partnership that considers patient values and preferences as well as quality of the outcomes and efficiency, rather than simply dictating treatment without discussion of the options.

Tags: patient-centered care, health policy, healthcare, Commonwealth Fund

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While I did have Wifi in Mexico, it wasn’t that great. In fact it was quite spotty. Subsequently I could not read all of my favorite feeds. Well, after three days, all the vacation laundry is done, all is caught up at the office and now I’ve had a good bit of time to catch up.

The first thing of note is that I’ve found a series of articles in the May 20th British Medical Journal (BMJ) that discusses the use of social marketing to influence health behaviors. Thankfully the “Blogging Doc” has a subscription so I was able to get the articles.

The final article in the series by Hastings & McDermott discuss putting social marketing into practice. They use marketing examples of Coca Cola and Nike of how public health endeavors should be crafted. The key to success being that the marketers should spend time learning about and understanding their audience’s values, motivators, and overall point of view.

Often the picture is much more complex than ignorance of the public health facts. Most people know, for instance, that smoking is dangerous or that diet can be improved. They continue with unhealthy behavior because they see some other benefit in doing so — relaxation, perhaps, or a treat. The secret of the social marketer is to devise a way of getting the same benefit more healthily. In this sense, social marketing has a great deal in common with good, patient centered care.

I think the points made in this article perfectly compliment the my post over at the Medical Blog Network about knowing your audience. It also reflects one of the key points that Katya Andresen makes in her book Robin Hood Marketing. She makes the point that you don’t get too far when you try to be preachy about your cause. In fact her Robin Hood Rule 2 is:

The most important values are those of our audience, not our own. The closer we align with our audiences’ values, the higher our chances of motivating them to take action.

Hastings and McDermott are quick to point out that social marketing is much more that simple advertising. It works because it meets the person where he or she is at and then meets a real and valued need.

Social marketing is likely to be the most important process in the implementation of health policy and meeting important benchmarks of success. I agree with Hastings and McDermott, it is much more than just simple advertising. Success also depends on having trusted health professionals being the footmen for the policy. They will need to build the relationships and partnerships with patients that will foster healthy change.

Believe me, the policymakers will soon be using social marketing messages to promote healthy lifestyles. This, in turn, will set the expectation and further promote that consumers need to be more involved in their own healthcare. I fear that healthcare providers and organizations will be blind-sided by these dramatic shifts. If healthcare professionals are poorly prepared, poorly equipped and/or resistant to this new type of relationship, progress will certainly be stilted. Certainly, everyone will be even more frustrated.

Tags: social marketing, healthcare, health policy

I actually first heard about Healia through David Williams at Health Business Blog. At that time, I gave it a drive by but did not really take time to examine all of its features. However, I did think that I would give it a full test in the future when I needed to research something.

Then this week Tom Eng, the president of Healia, sent me a email and asked me to provide some feedback on the site. So for the last two days, I’ve been on an extensive driving road trip of all the features of Healia(Beta).

First- I absolutely love it and find it quite easy to use. The interface was intuitive to me. It is important to remember that Healia is not for diagnosis of disease! Instead it is for researching health conditions and treatment options. After my tour, I firmly believe Healia is on the right track for becoming a premier portal for health information research.

The filter system for information is what makes Healia great. There is such a variety of filters that easily makes a health information search pertinent and darn near exactly what you were looking for. Results can be tailored based on:

1. Reading level (basic, advanced and for health professionals)
2. Gender
3. Race/ethnicity

Other thoughtful and fantastic features include:

1. The ability to adjust the fonts! Great accomodation for those with vision problems and ADA compliant. This feature works well.
2. HoN Code Accredited Filter. I’ve been quite a follower of the development of this code and how it is being implemented. I personally think this code should be promoted more as a model.
3. Interactive Tools filter: allows people to easily find assessments and fun health quizes.
4. Rollover explanations of the filters. Very helpful and concise. I love how these change font sizes when you adjust the fonts.

I found the search result for average and advanced users to be very good. I liked that I got some things that I had not seen before when searching for similar targets.Healia is still working on sorting out spelling errors and alternative spellings for search terms. I honeslty cannot imagine how hard that task is when one must start from scratch. Please believe me, I’m not complaining. Healia does a pretty good job already with this, but there are a few holes (one expects that in Beta). To help with this, Healia has a feedback form on every page to help them flesh out areas that need some work.

It would also be helpful if Healia had a function that would enable users to open links in a new window. I know how I do research. If I find an interesting link on a page, I click it and go there. I often get 5 or 10 pages away from my search results. I also may have a hodge-podge of open windows. Sometimes I close out of one of the windows and then I lose my search results. Then I have to go back and re-enter the search term and try to remember what page of results I was on. Opening results in a new window would help decrease that for me.

As people become more involved in their own care, I think people will also be looking to connect with others who are going through the same health issues. Oftentimes information gleaned through message boards, advocacy groups and support sites is based on anecdotal experiences and not on scientific research. Yet, this kind of contact can engender hope and inspiration in difficult times. I think Healia could really benefit from a filter could return a list of patient support sites, message boards and/or advocacy groups (similar to the way they have done for interactive tools). Given the wide range of types of these kind of sites, I realize that this is a very difficult proposition. However, perhaps they could partner with well-respected advocacy groups to help them with this endeavor.

Overall, I am delighted in Healia. These folks have created something wonderful and very useful. For a beta product, I think they are almost ready for prime time.

Thanks to Tom for the invitation. I invite each of you to drive by and offer some constructive feedback too.

Technorati tags: Healia, consumer-driven healthcare, search engines

You know… bloggers spend a lot of time crafting thoughtful posts.  Sometimes, one wonders if items are being read.  Weeks go by without comments and some posts never get any traffic. 

Well, Dmitriy Kruglyac gave me a wonderful shout out during his Pre-Rounds Interview by Dr. Nicholas Genes over at Medscape (you will likely need to have registered to Medscape to read it– sorry…).

Thanks, D!  That was really thoughtful of you!

Technorati tags: Medscape, Shout-Outs,

As if hosting HWR wasn’t enough work, Dmitriy over at The Medical Blog Network has done his coding magic to develop an automated system for submitting entries.

Drop by to read HWR and think about submitting your entry for Grand Rounds to be posted next week (June 6th).

sidebar: Thanks to Dmitriy for helping me getting my post submitted yesterday.

Technorati tag: health wonk review, health policy