October - 202019In short, patients suffer from a lack of empowerment because they lack the information needed to allow them to make informed decisions about their care. This represents a failure on the part of the healthcare industry, and an exceptional opportunity for the entrepreneurs who step in to solve this problem. There is nothing inherent in healthcare which prevents the creation of a consumer-friendly journey. In the same way that Amazon defined ecommerce, and Airbnb and Uber the sharing economy, the company that defines patient intelligence will reap the benefits of teaching consumers how to consume healthcare. The issue is not one of technology. The technology to create category-defining companies was not invented by today's leaders. Today's leaders defined their categories because they built a highly functional ecosystem that worked for consumers. In the Asia-Pacific, the healthcare technology industry has grown to become the second largest in the world, only behind the United States. Just last year, the region's industry attracted a staggering US$6.3 billion in investments. Much of these investments have gone into digital technologies which acquire data through devices such as the Internet-of-Things (IoT), or process data more efficiently and effectively through artificial intelligence (AI), or in delivering care remotely through telemedicine.But how exactly do these investments create a patient-centric approach to the consumption of healthcare? What is the role of insurance companies, large employers, and governments in shaping the patient's journey? These groups, collectively referred to as payers, represent the patient in today's healthcare ecosystem as they pay the bulk of medical bills. If the Internet has taught us anything, it has shown us that empowering consumers with the information they need to make informed decisions improves the overall efficiency of the market and is a good business opportunity for the first mover. From this perspective, the missing ingredient in creating a consumer-centric healthcare system is a deeper understanding of the problems consumers face in the consumption of healthcare by the payers. When payers begin to demand and pay for better customer service, the market will respond accordingly. There are four main pathways payers should begin exploring how they can empower patients to gain greater control over their health and healthcare:-. 1. Empower patients by bridging the information asymmetry in healthcareAt any point in time, individuals can find themselves in a situation where they need to make important medical decisions for themselves or their loved ones. However, making such informed decisions often becomes challenging without access to crucial information packaged in a way that is easily comprehensible by the healthcare consumer.This translates to massive information asymmetry in healthcare, where doctors know much more about their expertise than patients and patients often do not have enough information to make an informed decision about their own healthcare. Patients need access to relevant medical information at a procedure and condition level of granularity. They also need access to non-partial medical professionals to help them understand the decisions they face and to navigate the medical landscape. Cole SirucekPatients need access to relevant medical information and non-partial medical professionals to help them understand the decisions they face and to navigate the medical landscape
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