By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    improving patient experience
    6 Ways to Improve Patient Satisfaction Within Hospitals
    December 1, 2021
    degree for healthcare job
    What Are The Health Benefits Of Having A Degree?
    March 9, 2022
    custom software development is changing healthcare
    Digital Customer Journey Mapping and its Importance for Healthcare
    July 21, 2022
    Latest News
    Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
    May 16, 2025
    Learn how to Renew your Medical Card in West Virginia
    May 16, 2025
    Choosing the Right Supplement Manufacturer for Your Brand
    May 1, 2025
    Engineering Temporary Hospitals for Extreme Weather
    April 24, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    Can Thinking Younger Make You Live Longer?
    April 20, 2011
    Image
    Obesity’s Outlook Unchanged
    June 13, 2011
    When It’s An Emergency Elderly Not Treated As Well in Hospitals
    July 16, 2011
    Latest News
    Building Smarter Care Teams: Aligning Roles, Structure, and Clinical Expertise
    May 18, 2025
    The Critical Role of Healthcare in Personal Injury Recovery: A Comprehensive Guide for Victims
    May 14, 2025
    The Backbone of Successful Trials: Clinical Data Management
    April 28, 2025
    Advancing Your Healthcare Career through Education and Specialization
    April 16, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Can Technology Transform HealthCare?
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > eHealth > Social Media > Can Technology Transform HealthCare?
Social MediaTechnology

Can Technology Transform HealthCare?

Gary Levin MD
Last updated: March 12, 2012 7:18 am
Gary Levin MD
Share
5 Min Read
SHARE


 

Eric Topol MD calls for the “Creative Destruction of Medicine”


More Read

healthcare consumerism
Healthcare Consumerism: Marketing’s New Imperative
Stem Cell Trial to Begin in 12 Months For New Process to Reduce or End Wrinkles
Twitter Chats Build Community – My Contribution to the Mayo Clinic’s New Social Media Book
Scientific Advances on Contraceptive for Men
Improving Modern Medicine: Why Social Media is Just What the Doctor Ordered

 

Eric Topol MD calls for the “Creative Destruction of Medicine”

3.4.01_quote_topol.jpg

My readers will verify that I am always ‘guessing’ that technology increases the cost of medical care.  But not always. Eric Topol readily gives an alternative, and probably viable explanation in most cases.

Certainly there are many diagnostic advances and procedural advances in surgery which shorten hospital stays, shorten surgical procedures, convert inpatient events to outpatient events, and result in more accurate billing.  Hopes for using computers to assess outcomes and new treatments may decrease costs of re-hospitalization, prevent ‘never happen” incidents and reduce errors in prescribing.

He speaks to not only IT advances and emphasizes advances in cancer therapy

“The title simply captures the extraordinary opportunity we have to vastly improve the way we think about and practice medicine. The term “creative destruction” denotes a transformation that accompanies radical innovation. But this transformation is not likely to emanate from the medical community, the traditional way innovation jumps forward. In the current era of social networking, the transformation will likely come from a convergence of technology and consumerism, especially in the cancer space, which offers the most near-term opportunity for positive change.”

This is an extraordinary statement by Eric Topol MD . We all sense the tsunami of changes occuring in health care…reform, financial, information technology, genomics, proteomics,

3.4.22_quote.jpg

I have already seen this occuring in social media, with group advocacy circles on Google plus and interpersonal interaction for patients in Google Hangouts, a video conferencing application whereby 10 participants can interact in real time visually, and share documents, videos and background window’s screens.

You will say what about HIPAA and privacy? The folks using this space seem to say,

“Frankly Scarlet, I don’t Give a Damn” People want change and will use the means to accomplish it, and meet their needs. Government, move out of the way or get run over or kicked out.  They don’t want more bureaucracy.

By self-organization—there are groups out there already taking the lead with online patient empowerment communities. The people in these communities trust their peers more than their doctors, for one reason, because their peers have like conditions that are discussed freely.

With creative destruction, you destroy very expensive methods with marginal benefit. In the United States, we spend $350 billion per year for prescription dugs, and we know at least one-third of that is total waste, offering no benefit or, even worse, inducing serious side effects.

Pharmacogenomics is a perfect way to destroy the old wasteful model of prescribing drugs. It’s very inexpensive to run genotypes, once we have basically cracked the code—knowing the specific variant allele(s)—for each drug.

We have inexpensive ways to drill down to the things that produce good outcomes. For instance, I’m a cardiologist and I don’t have to send a significant proportion of patients to a facility to have a formal echocardiogram, because I have a handheld high-resolution device that’s just as good as the hospital laboratory. Why do we send people to facilities for sleep studies that reimburse at $3,000 per night when the same study could be done in the person’s home for less than $100 and get the same data? (Yes, there are home devices to do it yourself sleep studies.) And insurance will pay for it.

 

Note from the author:

Most physicians are busy already keeping up with journals and advances in medicine, surgery, CME, hospital responsibilities, night and weekend call and the like.  I call for a new resource….”Digital Health Space”.  Digital Health Space will attempt to take over your searches for solutions in software, hardware and technology to solve your problems in managing your office, patients and hospitals.

 

Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

Clinical Expertise
Building Smarter Care Teams: Aligning Roles, Structure, and Clinical Expertise
Health care
May 18, 2025
Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
Health
May 15, 2025
Learn how to Renew your Medical Card in West Virginia
Learn how to Renew your Medical Card in West Virginia
Health
May 15, 2025
Dr. Klaus Rentrop Shares Acute Myocardial Infarction heart treatment
Dr. Klaus Rentrop Shares Acute Myocardial Infarction
Cardiology
May 13, 2025

You Might also Like

Image
Social Media

HealthCare Social Media: What Makes Sense?

February 24, 2013

Notes From Afield—#TEDMED, Day One

October 28, 2011
twitter tips for healthcare social media
Social Media

The Curious History of Hashtags Plus Six Useful Resources

November 3, 2013

How to Use Youtube for Healthcare Marketing

April 11, 2014
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?