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
    An Expert’s Guide To Building and Improving Endurance
    June 30, 2022
    medical assistants
    What Do Medical Assistants Do On a Day to Day Basis?
    April 5, 2022
    superfoods to help with prostate health
    10 Healthy Foods That Can Help Protect Your Prostate
    August 29, 2022
    Latest News
    7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
    August 20, 2025
    Hospital Pest Control and the Fight Against Superbugs
    August 20, 2025
    Hygiene Beyond The Clinic: Attention To Overlooked Non-Clinical Spaces
    August 13, 2025
    5 Steps to a Promising Career as a Healthcare Administrator
    August 3, 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
    Handling HIPAA Rules In Sports: Why Athlete Privacy Matters
    April 18, 2016
    Bioterrorism: Pentagon Goes Back to the Drawing Board
    August 23, 2017
    Anavex Receives Approval to Commence Phase I Clinical Trial in Alzheimer’s Disease
    September 9, 2017
    Latest News
    How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
    August 22, 2025
    How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
    August 22, 2025
    How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
    August 22, 2025
    How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
    July 17, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: IT Can Make a Big Difference in Healthcare: Why Hasn’t It?
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 > Medical Records > IT Can Make a Big Difference in Healthcare: Why Hasn’t It?
eHealthMedical RecordsTechnology

IT Can Make a Big Difference in Healthcare: Why Hasn’t It?

Anne Weiler
Anne Weiler
Share
6 Min Read
Determinants of Health
SHARE

The final in the excellent collaborative healthcare series from the University of Washington and WBBA did not necessarily end the series on a high note: speaker Peter Neupert presented a view of the near-term realities of healthcare evolution that was sobering for technology vendors.

The final in the excellent collaborative healthcare series from the University of Washington and WBBA did not necessarily end the series on a high note: speaker Peter Neupert presented a view of the near-term realities of healthcare evolution that was sobering for technology vendors. Basically Neupert’s thesis (and investing thesis) is that technology alone cannot have an impact on healthcare process and outcome improvement, and that pure technical solutions are doomed in the current situation where there is a lack of symmetry between the recipient of service and the payer of the service.Determinants of Health

The benefit of technology historically has been to create efficiencies and economies of scale by reducing manual efforts and waste. In the current system, the payers are incented to decrease costs, however, the way many providers are paid (fee for service) result in no incentives for them to reduce cost. Also, we currently have a disjointed system where payers and employers are responsible for the health of people until age 65 and the government is responsible afterwards, which is not conducive to preventative medicine or efforts to help the long-term health of the population.  Changes in healthcare models as part of the Affordable Care Act will drive the need for providers to be concerned about both population and long-term health but right now, we are in transition, which is why Neupert is betting (at least in the mid-term) on services that are delivered with technology rather than technology on its own unlike other industries. Neupert believes the winners will be those who can deliver a healthcare service more efficiently with technology, for example, home care systems that are able to do remote monitoring with telehealth and sensors and find problems before they become major issues.

Another reason Neupert cited as a reason that Health IT has not made the impact it could have is that in the US in particular, 5% of the people represent 50% of the cost. The reasons for poor health in this 5% are heterogeneous, which also makes it hard for a pure technology solution to address and do what technology does best which is scale. Neupert gave the example of an outpatient care company that produced better outcomes by simply making sure that patients had a ride to their follow-up care, a decidedly low-tech solution. As we think about preventative health solutions, it’s not enough to consider the person in treatment, we also have to consider the environment, for example, if you want to change a person’s diet you also have to change the diet of their family. Technology could help here, for example visual food journals have proven to be effective, but step one is often making sure the family has access to fresh food and knows how to prepare it.

More Read

[VIDEO] Considering Provider Burden in Healthcare Quality Assurance
Beyond the Buzz: How to Use the New Klout for Healthcare Marketing
Should Hospital PR Engage Journalists with Social Media?
Money and Power Embrace Patient Engagement
Beyond the Buzz: An Essential Guide to Becoming a Healthcare Influencer on LinkedIn

Big data is another lauded savior of healthcare. But if data is not used it is not accurate. Again, there needs to be incentive to use it and that will drive data accuracy and results. Neupert gave the example of New York Presbyterian who have over 100 hospital applications and consequently very good data and contrasted that with the statistic that cause of death is cited incorrectly 25% of the time. Applying analytics to that data would be futile as we’d be trying to prevent the wrong cause of death.

Healthcare IT is grappling with problems that other industries faced years ago, for example, moving to the cloud, bring your own devices, or single-sign on. The key is for both healthcare organizations and technology companies not to see IT or the implementation of an EMR as the savior of improved healthcare, but as a tool that can enhance human-based processes. At Wellpepper we know that a key driver of patient adherence to outpatient treatment plans is the connection and relationship patients feel with their healthcare provider and think that technology is a great tool to enhance and extend that relationship.

We’d like to thank the Health Innovator’s Collaborative, the University of Washington, and the WBBA for this series. It provided inspiration, innovation, and an important dose of reality to big thorny problems. We hope to see this continue.

TAGGED:Health IT
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share
By Anne Weiler
Follow:
Anne Weiler is CEO and co-founder of Wellpepper, a clinically-validated and award winning platform for patient engagement that enables health systems to track patient outcomes in real-time against their own protocols and personalize treatment plans for patients. Wellpepper patients are over 70% engaged. Prior to Wellpepper, Anne was Director of Product Management at Microsoft Corporation.

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

engineer fitting prosthetic arm
How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
Health care
August 20, 2025
a woman explaining the document
How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
Public Health
August 20, 2025
physiotherapist at work
How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
Health care
August 20, 2025
Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs
7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
Health News
August 20, 2025

You Might also Like

eHealth

3 Implications of 3M’s Open Source Health Data Dictionary

June 13, 2012
vaccinations
Public HealthSocial Media

Vaccines Matter: A Public Health Rant

February 4, 2015

4 Models for Alarm Vigilance

February 10, 2016
eHealthMedical Records

More Pharmacy Software Vendors are Linking to the eHealth Record System

November 8, 2017
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?