I was on a panel today at the Chronic Care & Prevention Congress put on by the World Congress. The session’s title was “Innovative Technologies Showcasing Results in the Management of Chronic Care Shaping Future Policy to Drive Innovations in Healthcare.”

The lead presenter for our panel was the always insightful Joe Coughlin, PhD, of the MIT Age Lab. Joe has a lot of thoughtful and out-of-the-box things to say, but I think they boil down to the basic message that people designing health care behavior change interventions need to “meet people where they are” (my words) and they need to be “fun” (Joe’s words).

I particularly liked Joe’s closing slide on the disconnect between chronic care management today and consumers’ values (particularly the values of baby boomer women–who Joe says make on the order of 90% of the health care decisions in the US…that seems a little bit high to me, but his point is well taken). I think I’ve gotten most of this right–if I’ve mistaken anything, I hope Joe can correct me. The today is first and the consumer values are second in each dichotomy below.

• Data intensive vs. Useful knowledge
• Empower physicians vs. Empower consumers
• Trust authority vs. Trust experience
• Populations based vs. Personalized services
• Physician-patient-centric vs. Social networks
• Hospital & home focus vs. Ubiquitous
• Deliberate speed vs. Internet time
• Disease & illness care vs. Proactive vitality (wellness)

I fundamentally agree with Joe on his insights, although–as with many things–the current state of the chronic care management world has probably begun to move away from the left side a little bit already. What will be interesting to see is how many progressive provider organizations and other health care institutions proactively move toward the right side of these dichotomies. If not, consumers likely will eventually get fed up with providers and turn elsewhere (e.g., the Internet, Wal-Mart, Health 2.0 companies, etc.) to get what they need.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Chronic Care Management, Engaging Consumers, Health 2.0 Space, PHRs, The New Health Care Consumer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.