| I decided to turn my rant on the 2011 mHealth Summit into something productive and submit a talk to the 2012 Summit. A description of the proposed talk follows, as it appears on the application.
We’ll see what happens…
Why are doctors so apparently reluctant to embrace mHealth? It is easy to appreciate the mHealth community’s frustration regarding this question. Clearly the physician community and the mHealth community do not understand each other very well. The purpose of this presentation is to establish a mutual understanding and better lines of communication between practicing physicians and the mHealth community. The first part of the presentation addresses practicing physicians’ concerns about mHealth: 1. What is mHealth? Has it been clearly defined? 2. The safety and efficacy of mHealth / HIT products are not proven. Technology always has unintended consequences. In medicine such unintended consequences can increase costs and can harm patients. 3. There is no widely accepted business model that establishes the return on investment for mHealth / HIT products. 4. Government regulations and incentives may also have unintended adverse side effects. Many of these concerns originate from the cultural differences between the physician and HIT communities. Each of these cultures sees the health care system and the role of mHealth / HIT differently. The second part of the presentation addresses the cultural differences between these two communities and how these differences impede the adoption of mHealth / HIT. Examples of cultural differences will include e-prescribing, health information exchanges and telemedicine. The final part will outline the concessions both physicians and the HIT community need to make in order to facilitate communication, promote adoption of mHealth and improve the quality of mHealth products. This will be difficult but worthwhile for both sides. |
My Presentation Submission to 2012 mHealth Summit.
You may also like
About the author
Dr. Michael Koriwchak
Dr. Michael J. Koriwchak received his medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine in 1988. He completed both his Internship in General Surgery and Residency in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Koriwchak continued at Vanderbilt for a fellowship in Laryngology and Care of the Professional Voice. He is board certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.
After training Dr. Koriwchak moved to Atlanta in 1995 to become one of the original physicians in Ear, Nose and Throat of Georgia. He has built a thriving practice in Laryngology, Care of the Professional Voice, Thyroid/Parathyroid Surgery, Endoscopic Sinus Surgery and General Otolaryngology. A singer himself, many of his patients are people who depend on their voice for their careers, including some well-known entertainers. Dr. Koriwchak has also performed thousands of thyroid, parathyroid and head and neck cancer operations.
Dr. Koriwchak has been working with information technology since 1977. While an undergraduate at Bucknell University he taught a computer-programming course. In medical school he wrote his own software for his laboratory research. In the 1990’s he adapted generic forms software to create one the first electronic prescription applications. Soon afterward he wrote his own chart note templates using visual BASIC script. In 2003 he became the physician champion for ENT of Georgia’s EMR implementation project. This included not only design and implementation strategy but also writing code. In 2008 the EMR implementation earned the e-Technology award from the Medical Association of Georgia.
With 7 years EMR experience, 18 years in private medical practice and over 35 years of IT experience, Dr. Koriwchak seeks opportunities to merge the information technology and medical communities, bringing information technology to health care.
[…] My Presentation Submission to 2012 mHealth Summit […]