Healthcare’s Impending Software Revolution

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

It is clear to me why the healthcare industry has not experienced the same transformation resulting from software innovation that the publishing industry, the music industry and the movie industry have experienced.

After practicing Clinical Endocrinology for 30 years as the founding partner of Endocrine Associates of Dallas P.A. and as President of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, I believe I understand the reasons the healthcare industry has not be able to break through and enjoy the economies of scale offered by the software revolution.  

I have formed these opinions by dealing with local and national hospital administrators, healthcare insurance executives, pharmaceutical executives, healthcare policy wonks and government bureaucrats.

Most of these executives are focused on the wrong customer. Most are too busy trying to solidify their perceived position of power in the healthcare system.

Those executives who understand who the customer is have kept quiet in order to maintain or advance their position in various organizations.

The result is software innovators have been chasing the wrong customer. The result has been greater dysfunction in the healthcare system.

There are also many healthcare system issues making it very difficult to stay focused on the main problem.

I have been fascinated by my son Brad Feld’s insight into the software industry.  His tutoring has helped me learn how to critically think about software development and its transformational potential.

My brother, Charlie Feld, has also helped me through his insight into pattern recognition and the use of information technology to solve the problems of various industries.

I have followed the progress of medical software innovation for the last three decades. I am still far from expert but believe I have a better grasp on the problem than most.

I have a good feel for the potential offered by this software revolution for the practice of medicine and how to use it.

If the software industry understood the physician mentality and understood the real customer, the needed breakthrough could occur.

The result would be a large decrease in the cost of healthcare.

Waste, abuse and overuse would be decreased and the therapeutic effect of the patient physician relationship would be restored.

I believe the medical software is available right now. It has to be manipulated and synthesized as Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have done in their respective software areas.

Brad is not interested in healthcare system software innovation. He dealt with physicians and dentists when he ran Feld Technologies in 1985 while a student at MIT.

He built an interoffice and intra-office network for my practice Endocrine Associates of Dallas P.A. in 1985.  He hired MIT students to write software with him and Dave Jilk.

The network these kids built was the sturdiest Medical Systems network in Dallas. The network lasted from 1985 until 2002. There are still remnants of this software in the practice today.

When he finished my software project he pledged to himself he would never deal with physicians again. He concluded that they are all a pain.

Not true. Physicians know what they want and need. They have an awesome responsibility for their patients’ lives and privacy.

Secondary stakeholders have frequently taken advantage of the medical profession and its intellectual property. Physician mistrust of secondary stakeholders is monumental. 

Much of the “data collected” from information systems has been used against them even if the data is incorrect or incorrectly interpreted.

Healthcare policy has been formulated on inaccurate data and inaccurate conclusions.

These conclusions have been used to devalue physicians and to destroy the patient physician relationship.

Healthcare software companies are paid by secondary stakeholder to create innovative software. The software companies do not realize that the real customers are patients and physicians. These companies do not understand why they cannot get patients and physicians to cooperate.

When data collected is wrong, incomplete or misunderstood physicians protest. They are ignored. The typical response is that this is the only data available.

Healthcare policy should not be formulated on the bases of false data.

 Is it any wonder that physicians are not interested in cooperating with the powers that be in the healthcare system’s use of inaccurate data?    

The medical transaction must be between the patients and physicians. All of the secondary stakeholders have jumped into the center of this transaction to control the healthcare system. The secondary stakeholders only add value at the edges of the patient physician transaction. 

Our health is our most precious asset. Americans are willing to pay as much as necessary for medical care. They want everything done especially if they are not responsible for paying for it.

If physicians do not think something should be done they can get sued. The knee jerk reaction is to do everything.

Physicians only receive between 5-10% of the healthcare dollars.  

Where is the money going? Secondary stakeholders are ripping off the healthcare system as they undermine and undervalue the patient physician relationship.

Third parties have taken control of the healthcare system. They have assumed responsibility for the healthcare of patients. They are also in the process of dictating access to care. The present increased healthcare costs are unsustainable.

All the secondary stakeholders are like a giant hairball destroying the viability of patient physician relationships.

Innovative software used properly can disassemble the elements of the hairball and drive them to the edges of the healthcare system where they belong.

Proper software innovation can accomplish the goal of decreasing costs and increasing the quality of care by restoring the patient physician relationship.

The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone.

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