Market Driven Compliance

This week, I've been pondering what the word "compliance" will mean in the future.

Imagine all those people who are non-compliant taking their medications, following their provider's instructions or maintaining ideal body weight. (I'm 3 for 3...)

Do they not understand the risks they are taking?

Do they not understand they are letting other people down in their risk pool?

Do they not understand what this is costing the pharmaceutical industry in lost revenue?

Well, in the future there will be technologically driven solutions to those problems...

This approach essentially turns the individual into a risk pool of one. Individual behavior becomes a market commodity that has a projected monetary value attached to your potential risk. Given that our financial scheme for healthcare is primarily an employer based insurance model, you might risk becoming a "cost center" with a discrete number attached... That should provide some incentive to all us laggards.

There is also the somewhat ephemeral approach to behavioral modification that has been in vogue for some time - "the nudge" - where a sophisticated "choice architecture" is created to influence the end user to do the right thing. This is not a technological solution, but rather a combination of policies and incentives designed to stack the deck a bit towards the preferred solution (i.e., the solution of whomever establishes what should be preferred.)

The problem is that there is a lively ethical debate around nudging; is it benevolent paternalism or creepy manipulation in disguise?

Someday, maybe we'll ponder on whether we really have anything like "free will" at all or are simply rats in a Skinner box responding to environmental cues... But, for today, let's just ask ourselves where we will strike a balance in our choice architecture. Incentives and outcomes fall into a utilitarian's quantitative rubric - neat and tidy. Compassion and tolerance fall into the deontologist's qualitative framework - a bit more messy.

How ready (and willing) are you to become a responsible member of the collective?

If you would prefer to distract yourself from all this pondering, you could download a drone racing simulator and join this virtual racing league:
 
Have a great weekend mastering the simulator!

Randale