The
Doctor
Will See
You Now
H O W T E C H N O L O G Y,
S AV V Y C O N S U M E R S ,
AND ‘BEDSIDE MANNER’
CONVERGE TO RESHAPE
THE FUTURE OF
H E A LT H CA R E
BY L AU R A P H E L P S
Picture this: A busy mom drops off her kids at school, heads
to work, and is about to meet with clients when an alert pops
up on her phone. Her 10-year-old son’s watch has just detected
tachycardia, an abnormally high heart rate. It’s the third time
this month. Suddenly, she receives another alert — this time a
calendar notification. Triggered by the troubling trend in her son’s
heart rate, his pediatric cardiologist just scheduled him for an
appointment at the first available opening.
Here’s another: A 67-year-old man is ready for his annual
wellness check. Instead of scheduling an appointment with his
general practitioner, he heads to his local grocery store which
offers a diagnostic booth. He steps up into the booth, equipped
with digital displays and sensors, and walks through the steps
on the touchscreen. The results — height, weight, blood pressure,
cholesterol, body mass index, glucose levels — are emailed to him
and automatically uploaded to his virtual, cloud-based medical
record. He’s healthy, but needs to go easy on the red meat.
Or this: a man injures his shoulder while doing weekend yard
work. He opens the app for his subscription-based insurance
service and scrolls through ratings and reviews for orthopaedic
specialists in his town. He chooses one that received high
marks for communication skills and relatability. The doctor’s
profile includes a short video where he shares his background
and specialty. With the tap of a finger, the man books an
appointment for the next day.
These futuristic scenarios are closer to reality than you might
expect. Today, there are wearable devices that can perform an
EKG. More and more physicians and hospitals are converting
to secure, cloud-based record keeping. Physician ratings and
reviews are now easy to access, and in fact, major insurance
companies have developed user-friendly lists of in-network
doctors ranked by “customer” reviews.
Behind all of this innovation is a trend that many experts
believe is reshaping healthcare. With enhanced accessibility and
advanced technology, patients are becoming savvy consumers
who shop around and demand a high-touch customer experience.
“The days are long gone when [patients] do whatever the
healthcare provider says without thought,” said Dr. Cheryl
Bergman, interim dean of the Brooks Rehabilitation College of
Healthcare Sciences. “They want to be a partner in their health.”
So, what does this mean for aspiring healthcare professionals?
“There’s such a focus these days on the soft skills of healthcare
providers,” Dr. Bergman said. “The patients demand that they
are regarded as individuals. They want to be treated respectfully
and be part of the decision-making process in their care. You
have to relate to the person.”
The bedside manner. It’s a once-common term used to describe
how a healthcare professional relates to the patient, or how well
they communicate. These days, there’s little tolerance for a poor
bedside manner.
As patients become more demanding consumers of healthcare
services, they expect more information and more options. They
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