I don't mean to be ridiculous by stating the obvious. Also, I do realize that all health-related institutions and companies "put people first" on some level. My concern is that very few of said businesses venture to the place where they consider modifying a core model in order to make people less dependent on their product or service. There is simply too much money on the table.
In addition to all that money, which is very difficult to give up, I wonder whether the barrier to businesses shifting is the unpredictability of people.
In these days of health reform and innovation, there is talk about educating doctors, work flow improvements, insurance provisions, new gadgets, avoiding medical error, reducing drug-to-drug interactions, diet, healthy living, the genomic revolution, earlier interventions, etc. While each of these single channels has merit, not a single one of them acknowledges the wildness of people and the chaos of healing behaviors as a starting place.
Why is it that we find it so very difficult to discuss how to cultivate the wild seeds of health; the creative and intuitive "I AM" that powers the best healing. As I write I am wondering whether working with a person's wild side could at least be an option.
Isn't acknowledging an awareness and understanding of the wild side as efficient as spending billions to tame it?
The most gifted physicians and nurses get how people matter -- they always have. Some business people are starting to understand. Now we need the top creatives to bring everything they've got (which is more than color and layout expertise) to the table. We need the hearts and minds of these creative people to give voice to people's health problems in a new way. The solutions we market as "healing" will be much better for it.
Creative business partnerships that put authentic experiences of people at the helm are the future of health 2 and 3.0 applications.
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| Sketchnote by @thegraphicrecorder |
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Companies so need to learn this lesson. I have worked for some of the largest health care companies in St. Louis, MO only to leave feeling like just a number. Thus I'm self-employed!
ReplyDelete"It's not about me," he said. "It's about patient power."
ReplyDeleteThis is how an excellent article from the Washington Post ends today:
Sharing the Pain: Rare Disease puts an Economist in Touch with Fellow Patients Around the World
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/06/AR2009020603102.html
Hello! I'm so impressed by your post, and I wanted to alert you to a project that is right up your alley!
ReplyDeleteI'm helping out on a project called SpeakHealth.org, & your thoughts echo some of the issues we are dealing with. Just look at our non-profit project's mission statement and TELL me it doesn't relate to your post:
"To improve health by linking the efforts of those in medicine with those in the arts in order to stimulate meaningful public discussion that can expand our culturally normal views of health, healthcare and medicine, and ultimately affect personal and collective choices."
I really think you'll appreciate what SpeakHealth is trying to do, and perhaps have helpful suggestions and opinions to share. (But bear with us, because the site is in its infancy!)
Thanks for letting me post here, and I've definitely looking forward to more posts- and tweets from you.
~c