Is HealthTap good for doctors? I had a chance to hear Ron Gutnam, CEO and founder of HealthTap, at the 2013 Stanford Innovation Health Summit. He describes it best (comments begin at 3:00). “Patients or people can get health answers from physicians in minutes for free using their mobile devices, using their web browser from any time and any where. We started with pediatricians and obstetricians serving pregnant women and moms. Less than two years we have expanded our physician network to over 37,000 US licensed physicians in good standing, 128 specialties in all 50 states. We have physicians in over 3100 cities across the country. You can go to HealthTap, ask any question you want and get an answer for free in minutes or a few hours. There is a shift in how people want to get their health information today, from whom, and how fast they expect to […] Read More »
Author Archives: Davis
The Thrifty Patient – Book Review / Testimonials
Posted on July 15, 2013
I’m humbled and privileged to review high praise and testimonials for my book –The Thrifty Patient: Vital Insider Tips for Saving Money and Staying Healthy from those working hard to make health care more accessible, higher quality, and more affordable. In an ideal world, our health care system would be incredibly simple to access, extremely convenient, and intensely personal. It would allow patients to focus on staying healthy and healing and getting the right preventive care and treatment the first time and every time. It would not have them worrying about medical errors, wrong site surgeries, unnecessary surgeries / procedures / treatments, their own (patient) safety among other things. We are not there yet. Nevertheless, those who have provided the testimonials are also making our future system that much better though their work, actions, and words. As we all build to fixing our health care system completely, books like The […] Read More »
Life After Residency / Fellowship – Financial Advice and Planning
Posted on July 8, 2013
It’s July and the newest doctors, interns, have continued their journey in becoming experienced doctors. These newly minted and graduated doctors have excitement, anxiety, and anticipation not unlike the first day of medical school, college, or high school. But as new doctors begin their next step, we rarely talk about those who also graduated. Specifically, doctors who have completed their residency and in some cases their advanced fellowship training. What about them? Certainly they have similar excitement, anxiety, and anticipation as they move on in their careers now as attending doctors. Unlike the past, however, this new part of their lives is less structured. There are no SATs, MCATs, or prerequisite classes to take. There are no applications to fill out. There is no checklist of things to do to get to the next part of training. In many ways, finishing residency or fellowship, aside from having a job, could […] Read More »
Water for $1.50 or Soda for $1? Which would you choose to stay healthy?
Posted on June 20, 2013
Obesity is unfortunately too common in this country. The treatment of eating less and moving more should not be a mystery, yet the data shows that about 1/3 of patients are obese (a body mass index of 30 or higher) and another 1/3 are overweight (body mass index of 25 to 30). It is difficult to make healthier better choices when fast food restaurants, like McDonald’s, offer bottled water for $1.50 (plain bottled water) and soda, with its sweet sugary decadence, fizzy bubbles, and coloring for $1! They also give you a larger volume of soda compared to the water. In essence, individuals are paying more to be healthier! This does not make sense but is a unfortunate reality. The other challenge is that portion sizes are far larger than they were thirty years ago. A soda today is three times the size of a soda when I was growing […] Read More »
Recasting the Patient as Consumer – Good Idea? Consumer Driven Health Care?
Posted on June 13, 2013
Are patients now consumers? I recently jumped at the opportunity to attend the 2013 Healthcare Innovation Summit at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Subtitled IT-Enabled Disruption, it featured opening keynote speaker Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini, Stanford psychologist and lecturer Dr. Kelly McGonigal, and many other interesting people asking – how do we change health care? Recasting the Patient as Consumer As a practicing primary care doctor, the most intriguing session was labeled – “Recasting the Patient as Consumer”. I have major reservations that this is what patients really want. I have some skepticism on whether consumer driven health care can truly make care more affordable (here, here, here, and here). Was the current fad of pushing the onus of health squarely on the individual may be too simplistic? Panel members included: Ron Gutman, founder and CEO of HealthTap Bassam Kadry, Anesthesiologist and Participatory Medicine Advocate Ann Lamont, Managing Partner of […] Read More »
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