Some truths about health IT and innovation
This morning at the annual SAS Health Analytics Executive Conference in Cary, N.C., former national health IT coordinator Dr. Farzad Mostashari dubbed Dr. Eric Topol “the high priest of personalized medicine.”
That reminded me of an e-mail I received a couple weeks ago, suggesting that someone should start a blog called, “What’s Eric Saying?” As this correspondent explained it, all you need to do is read Topol’s Twitter stream to know where health IT and the practice of medicine are headed. I checked it out. It’s true.
Some examples:
A futuristic nanomedicine approach to #cancer “1-2 punch” http://t.co/I2aEOms8Qe rewiring signaling pathway + timing pic.twitter.com/3eO8xrLiWU
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) May 13, 2014
“Big Data in the Doctor’s Office”-today’s @WSJ front page teaser…might be #bigdata for each individual anywhere pic.twitter.com/qvcDeOBbzv — Eric Topol (@EricTopol) May 13, 2014
The Cheap-Smartphone Revolution:”it will have an astonishing global impact” http://t.co/agFzSmFxWN |especially in medicine| by @andykessler
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) May 13, 2014
On the profound waste in American healthcare–$Billions in unnecessary testing http://t.co/KCG1GIWOOP@JAMA_currentpic.twitter.com/1ubTJ4m0tO
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) May 12, 2014
And that’s just since Monday.
Meanwhile, Mostashari added some truisms himself this morning. “Med speed is slow. Tech speed is fast,” he said, apparently paraphrasing current TEDMED owner Jay Walker. Then, speaking as a physician, Mostashari said, “Most of what determines our outcomes isn’t what happens in our office.” Which is kind of what Topol has been trying to get across for several years.
If only the financial incentives would encourage care outside the office, we might be getting somewhere. It’s starting to happen, but, as it says above, med speed is slow.