TREATING THE NEW PROSUMER

It took a pandemic to release this untapped innovation. And there’s no going back. Patients aren’t going to miss the pre-COVID norm of waiting rooms, appointment queuing and travel. Our new prosumers (proactive consumers) during this contagion developed a taste for convenience that they hadn’t thought about before. Doctors will finally get paid for what they’ve for some time been thinking was a solution. Zooming versus rooming patients will be an efficient alternative.

As a result of emergency waivers, patients now have a geographically wider choice of providers, even across state borders. What a concept!

INNOVATION IN CRISIS

This inflection/tipping point now seem obvious at this present intersection in time of telepresence technology, the ubiquity of mobile devices and and the exigency of a mean-hearted virus gone viral.

Alas, we now have yet another social determinant of health to deal with—internet bandwidth. The digital divide between the have’s and the have-not’s just got wider, especially in rural areas. We’ll figure it out because the stakes are high. This coronavirus crisis has not been wasted as it gave us proof of concept for this needed technology-enabled care. This genie is not going back in the bottle.