Ridesharing

This week I have been reflecting on healthcare's infatuation with "Uberization." Our organization has not been shy about embracing this new innovation as something that will revolutionize our work. Just imagine the hoards of physicians clutching their black bags, driving their Escalades and watching their smartphones as they rush towards the waiting patient with a sprained ankle. (Actually, they probably will be driving beater Honda Civics after the economics of Uberization take effect...) 

But, before we blindly embrace the gig economy as the default future of healthcare delivery maybe a little skeptical analysis is in order. This article asks some fairly rational questions wrapped around a blog post from Jay Parkinson, MD (the guy who who was the hipster equivalent of Uber Healthcare back in 2007 before Uber was cool.)

(For balance, you might want to explore the Libertarian view of the magical way market discipline will reduce costs and improve healthcare delivery by unleashing the superpowers of consumerism. Did that last sentence come across as a bit too sarcastic?) 

The reality is that we're not even sure that Uber is a "good thing" on the whole. It certainly is a good thing for the folks who own the platform - like a lot of powerful technological platforms that aggregate the power to control and broker supply and demand in the digital world. Maybe a broader understanding of what is actually going on in the background is useful? This guy's new book might be worth reading. And, my favorite Russian has a few things to say as usual. 

At the end of the day, I am a realist and firmly believe that the combination of data, connectivity and algorithmic processing power will fundamentally change the role of healthcare providers. But, I tend to believe that it will be the virtualization of the services that we deliver as providers that will be our path forward. Much of the cognitive work performed by providers distills down to information exchange: collecting information from the patient, analyzing the information and pushing a synthesis of that information back to the patient to act on. This work can (and will) be automated and virtualized as a self service.  

And, the vast majority of preventative health maintenance falls in this category... (I tend to think we should be partnering with Jiffy Lube instead of Uber.)

What do you get when you combine 100 drones, a symphony orchestra, some computers and Beethoven?

This week's drone mashup, of course!

(I suspect there are a few algorithms involved as well.)

Have a great weekend!

Randale

The Games We Play

For all of you who fled to Go after Deep Blue beat Gary Kasparov in Chess, thinking you would be safe from embarrassment at the hands of a machine…

…sorry.

I will share this eulogy to human Go players. Here are a couple of other points of view on the milestone if you are very interested.

This distinction around "narrow AI" is interesting in that, once again, we see the two competing pathways forward: AI (Artificial Intelligence) versus IA (Intelligence Augmentation.) It seems that the consensus is that the short term commercial value favors IA and the long term challenge is a "general purpose" AI that tries to mimic human capabilities - including consciousness. (I suppose that the one we have to worry about destroying the human race is the later.)

One of the other debates around predicted tectonic shifts that I try to follow is the one about how consumerism is poised to remake healthcare. The digital transition of healthcare is intimately intertwined; it is the vehicle that, presumably, will finally allow this shift to be realized. Here are two recent resources that I found useful in evaluating how much hype surrounds this driver of healthcare transformation.

Looking back over the last 30 years, it seems clear that the provider-patient relationship has moved from a relationship that is perceived as primarily fiduciary in nature to a relationship that more resembles a service transaction that is dictated by the ethos of the market. The idea that we will ultimately become another market based commodity seems entrenched in our current strategic thinking about the future; that we must respond to consumerism seems to be an unquestionable assumption. (Given that our entire culture has been heavily influenced by this neoliberal transformation, I guess it would be hard to refute...)

Regardless, we are certainly investing heavily in that strategy.

What do you get when you do a mashup of NASCAR, YouTube, Drones and $8 million in Venture Capital?

Have a great weekend!

Randale