“Avoid Brick & Mortar” = “Care Anywhere” : 2 Names, Same Strategy.

Posted on | January 21, 2014 | Comments Off on “Avoid Brick & Mortar” = “Care Anywhere” : 2 Names, Same Strategy.

Editor’s Note: In an excellent piece, by Intel’s Eric Dishman(below), we are introduced to the “Care Anywhere” movement. This reinforces our “Avoid Brick and Mortar” strategy for managing health care cost while increasing quality outcomes. Eric’s piece deserves a careful reading.

“In the currently raging debates about healthcare, there’s little attention to population aging and the cost of care — two critical trends that I call the $4.6 trillion question.

By 2020, there will be 55 million Americans over age 65, reflecting a global population aging trend that could be as important to our future as global climate change. Also by 2020, according to federal government projections, the nation’s healthcare costs will be $4.6 trillion, close to doubling in a decade.

One of the ways we must respond to these trends is to use technologies that enable a model I call “care anywhere.” Thanks to a range of personal health technologies available now—mobile health (mHealth) capabilities for smart phones and tablets, telehealth technologies for remote patient monitoring and virtual visits, intelligent software assistants for prompting and coaching, and social technologies for connecting patients, families, and providers in powerful new ways—we have the opportunity to move away from costly, institution-centric care delivery for the majority of needs.

The core necessity is this: care must occur at home as the default model, not in a hospital or a clinic. We need this to curb escalating costs, increase access and improve patient experience and outcomes. (more….)