Enabling Change Through Information Therapy

There is a lot of talk these days about consumer centered health — also referred to as patient centered health. Essentially the idea revolves around the concept that consumers or patients are the key heath care decision makers. This is more than semantics. It is a fundamentally different way to look at the health care delivery model.

Consumer centered health care recognizes that providers are only one source of information consumers will use to learn about their condition. Consumers can and do readily learn about their condition and the treatment options from the internet. It also recognizes that due to the growth of high deductible health plans, many consumers face different economic burdens with different treatment options. The ability to learn about their condition from many different sources and the potential for vastly different out-of-pocket costs for different options means consumers need be the key decision makers in their treatment plan. Consumers are essentially buying a treatment and like any other buying decision they need good information to make good choice.

The model of the past was a provider centered approach where providers were the decision makers and the consumers followed the decision. This may have been an appropriate care model when patients had few treatment options for a particular condition, had little information available to them and had minimal economic stake in the selected treatment plan. But things have changed. With the proliferation of medical technology there are now many different treatment options for a condition including drug therapies, medical technologies, surgery and behavior change solutions. Information about options is more readily available and each of these paths could have a different economic impact.

With the increasing adoption of high deductible health plans as cost savings measures, different treatment options carry different economic burdens. 20% of Americans now participate in some sort of high deductible health plan and another 15% or so have no insurance coverage at all. Consumers need to consider the outcomes but they need to consider them in the context of the cost. Surgery may be the most effective but it also may carry the highest risks and the greatest out-of-pocket costs. Drug therapy may be less expensive but may carry unwanted side effects and drug to drug interaction problems. Behavior change may be the least expensive but may be too difficult to initiate and maintain. Consumers need to make educated choices about the options and if behavior change is the selected path, consumers need to be committed to make the needed changes. They need to be committed to what they are buying.

Social media can help Consumers make better, more informed decisions by giving them more information about their options. Online video, blogs, social networks, online support groups and other social media provide information that people can use to make informed decisions. In most cases, these media provide the information in terms that the consumer can understand from people who have faced the same decisions they are facing. Unfortunately, some of these media have an agenda. As an example, Pharma companies support social networks for people using their drug. While these sites may present an unbiased view the tie to a particular manufacturer is a dangerous one.

The introduction of information therapy by the provider can support the shift to consumer centered health. We are all familiar with the term drug therapy where the provider prescribes a drug for a given condition. Information Therapy is where the provider prescribes information as a therapy for a condition. Information therapy could be shared decision making tools to help the consumer make a better decision on the options available. It could also be a behavior change plan to help a consumer define and comply with a plan to manage their chronic condition through behavior changes such as diet and exercise.

Information therapy prescribed by the provider provides three main benefits to consumers. First, it provides the information needed to truly assess and weigh the options available both from an outcomes and a cost perspective. Second, it can make less expensive treatment paths an option where they weren’t before. For example, information therapy that contains a personalized web and mobile driven toolkit for helping consumers self manage their diabetes or high cholesterol through behavior change could be just as effective and much less expensive than drug therapy. Without such a toolkit, behavior change may not work but with it behavior change is more likely to succeed. Third, it is integrated through and leverages the provider-consumer relationship so it strengthens the relationship rather than fragmenting it.

For information therapy to succeed it must leverage and be integrated with the provider-consumer relationship. It should support the relationship not fragment it. Consumers need doctors but consumers also need information to make complex decisions or to make difficult behavior changes. Doctors need patients to trust them but they also need patients to be committed to their treatment plan. They also need consumers to be educated enough to identify problems in the treatment plan. Information therapy can build trust, loyalty, awareness and commitment. All these are elements necessary for a successful relationship that grows and adapts.

Economics and technology are causing the shift to a consumer centered health care system and there is no turning back. The emergence of social media tools can make this shift a successful one if these tools leverage and are integrated with the provider relationship through the expansion of information therapy.

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