Just recently a new report was released on the role of big data in healthcare. The report made projections for the next year on how data would be used to improve the efficiency of health care. Sounds great, right? Well, slow down. A closer look shows that this report, if it accurately reflects the way things will actually go over the next few years is nothing to celebrate.
First, they are projecting out to six years. What on earth actually makes them think that they can make solid projections about what healthcare will be like in six years? How anyone can make those kinds of claims in a post-COVID world boggles the mind.
Second, the projections are only about squeezing every last drop out of current processes and models. There is little talking about where things might be headed. Much of what the report talks about isn’t even all that innovative. When they are breathlessly talking up telemedicine as an important new development, you know something is wrong. To read this report you would never know that people have already been using video chat with ease for years.
Third, and most importantly, the report does nothing to talk about different ways to actually improve patient care. It’s all about trying to maximize the bottom line.
There are a lot of problems with that last point. No, not that they have to make money. We get the necessity for that. However, it becomes a problem when making money becomes the primary focus, when making a profit isn’t enough. When profit becomes the main focus, it has do more than be steady, it has to exponentially increase. What’s really strange about that is it certainly doesn’t help people improve their lives and it’s possible that it winds up costing people money in the long run. How could that be?
Modern medicine follows a reactive model. That is, it waits for you to get sick or injured and then charges you a ton of money to put you back together. This model definitely brings in a ton of cash, but what if healthcare returned to a preventative model? One based on check-ups and solid advice meant to keep you from getting sick in the first place?
Now, in this model, you would go, get a physical, a stress test, and a bit of blood work done. You’d see if you have any leading indicators of problems like diabetes or cancer, or even simple vitamin deficiencies that could lead to problems down the road if not addressed. The doctor would give you a prescription for some heavy duty vitamins (yes, it turns out that prescription grade vitamins are a thing) and some diet and exercise recommendations and if you followed them, your health would improve.
Obviously, this model means that hospitals are losing out on some of the massive waves of money that come from treating significant illnesses. But would they really be out anything in the long run? After all, if you are trying to avoid getting sick, you might actually see your doctor more for regular checkups instead of waiting for an emergency. That, plus a few scans and the handful of necessary prescriptions (especially as you get older) could wind up creating a more steady revenue for the hospital, especially since with improvements in medical care people would actually be living longer as well, meaning another ten or twenty years of doctor visits instead of dying at an unnecessarily early age from a disease that could have been prevented.
TARTLE is eager to help with this. By partnering with medical providers and researchers, we help them get to the source data, to you, so they can see the whole picture regarding your health and learn why you have the problems you do, or why you don’t have any. In this way, they can gain a better understanding not just of your health but of health overall. By working with TARTLE, you and various medical companies will be able help not just improve the bottom line but the quality of healthcare for all.
What’s your data worth?
The report made projections for the next year on how data would be used to improve the efficiency of health care. Sounds great, right? Well, slow down. A closer look shows that this report, if it accurately reflects the way things will actually go over the next few years is nothing to celebrate.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to TARTLE Cast with your host Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby, where humanities steps into the future and source data defines the path.
Alexander McCaig (00:24):
Hey, Jason.
Jason Rigby (00:25):
Alex.
Alexander McCaig (00:26):
A little bummed out with this article we're going to talk about.
Jason Rigby (00:29):
I know. I saw it and I knew you would catch on to a couple of things. I sent it to you and you were starting to rant.
Alexander McCaig (00:36):
Yeah. What bums me out is they didn't, not once in this whole healthcare article, right? And about the market and where it's headed, it didn't talk once about the quality of care.
Jason Rigby (00:50):
No. It's big data analytics in healthcare, 2020 global market share, segmentation, applications, technology and forecast to 2026.
Alexander McCaig (01:00):
Okay. So these geniuses with their crystal balls are forecasting out six years. I don't know whether it's going to happen tomorrow. So, any of that nonsense, first out of the gate, is just absurd, right? And then, their forecasts are strictly from a profiteering standpoint. None of it talked about increase in the quality of life.
Jason Rigby (01:23):
No. Yeah. They were...
Alexander McCaig (01:24):
Increase in the quality of care. There's nothing about the efficiency, it's like, "Oh, we can make the hospitals run more efficient, like a well-oiled machine, and we can do it the next six years by using all this big data." What about making people run like well-oiled machines?
Jason Rigby (01:38):
Yes, exactly.
Alexander McCaig (01:40):
And the article breaks down for the report two things. You have services.. Did that just pass?
Jason Rigby (01:49):
Yeah.
Alexander McCaig (01:49):
Is it taking photos? We guys, we use a GoPro and it takes voice commands. Hold on a second. Okay, we're back the. So the article breaks down into two separate things, it's service. Where'd you go with the article?
Jason Rigby (02:05):
Yeah. I have it right here on my phone. So yeah, it breaks it down in two. This is funny.
Alexander McCaig (02:09):
It was service and product.
Jason Rigby (02:11):
Yeah. And so, first I want to make sure that we know the top players.
Alexander McCaig (02:15):
Yeah, go ahead.
Jason Rigby (02:16):
So let's put the top players out there on this big data analytics and healthcare market. Cisco, Cognizant, Healthcare Catalyst, IBM, McKesson.
Alexander McCaig (02:25):
Yep. McKesson.
Jason Rigby (02:26):
Media Analytics, Microsoft, Oracle, SAS Institute and Visiant.
Alexander McCaig (02:31):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (02:32):
So those are the ones that... These are the big boys that are playing in this, and we know Microsoft, we did a whole podcast on Microsoft. Market segmentation by type. The product can be slid into software service, and then market segmentation by application split into hospitals and clinics, finance and insurance agencies, that's a big one, research organization and then, market research mythology. That's what they're it in.
Alexander McCaig (02:56):
So if we're looking at the big data, they're splitting it and it's like, "Okay, we've got two categories here." How do we make more money analyzing information? And how do we make more money selling the product that analyzes the information? That's it.
Jason Rigby (03:06):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (03:07):
That's where they see the big money, it's like, and then, "Oh, cool telemedicine, super cool." We've had video chatting forever. You're just going to mark the price up because now we're doing FaceTime with a doctor? Come on. It's not like a new technology. It's not revolutionizing everything.
Jason Rigby (03:23):
Right.
Alexander McCaig (03:23):
They're just trying to find a way to keep people out of the hospital because people are expensive.
Jason Rigby (03:27):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (03:27):
They're not trying to... It's like, "What about...." We've got to talk about the quality of care of their life, and for the analysis, they're creating all these products, analyzing information that wasn't giving them answers in the first place.
Jason Rigby (03:41):
With this whole idea of a company having to make money indefinitely.
Alexander McCaig (03:47):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (03:47):
That's what you're graded on.
Alexander McCaig (03:48):
Yeah, you are.
Jason Rigby (03:49):
Think about that.
Alexander McCaig (03:49):
And then it's like, "How do we project out those earnings, and then has that come back to the shareholders?"
Jason Rigby (03:55):
Indefinitely.
Alexander McCaig (03:56):
Indefinitely.
Jason Rigby (03:56):
You could do this and do it better.
Alexander McCaig (03:58):
All the time.
Jason Rigby (03:58):
All the time.
Alexander McCaig (04:00):
Unless robots run the entire hospital, it'll never be perfectly efficient. So why don't you stop focusing on treating it like a business and start treating it as a place that actually increases the quality of human life? It's depressing that their focus for the next six years is all about, what's a better product or service we can give to analyze information to make this thing a better machine, rather than saying, "What can we do with information people and the quality of their life over the next six years?"
Jason Rigby (04:30):
It's just simple things, and I don't want to get too medical with it, but we know blood types playing issue with COVID. We know DNA and genomes are playing an issue.
Alexander McCaig (04:40):
What about habits?
Jason Rigby (04:40):
We know native Americans versus black Americans versus... There are so many different variables of how people are reacting to this.
Alexander McCaig (04:52):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (04:53):
Are people taking vitamin D or not? Is that... Who's come out and said... We've heard all these doctors come out and say, "You need to take vitamin D. Vitamin D is really important. It helps with your hormones and stuff." But...
Alexander McCaig (05:02):
Think about this.
Jason Rigby (05:04):
But how cheap is vitamin D and is it... Should we be taking vitamin? How much should we take?
Alexander McCaig (05:09):
Think about this logically though, okay? Who are people that are naturally deficient on vitamin D?
Jason Rigby (05:15):
People that don't go outside.
Alexander McCaig (05:16):
And are already sick.
Jason Rigby (05:17):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (05:19):
Obviously, those people are probably going to get COVID first.
Jason Rigby (05:23):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (05:25):
It's not vitamin D is the direct thing, see, that's the issue here. When we're creating these products or services like this big data healthcare, that's how they focus and analyze information.
Jason Rigby (05:34):
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Alexander McCaig (05:35):
That's not the full picture, okay? Because you're not having that direct conversation with that individual. You really don't understand the quality of care of the full life cycle of that person, the products aren't designed for that. You got sick, let's be real, let's create products that deal with reactive technology.
Jason Rigby (05:52):
But when you look at, like for myself with this direct primary care that I'm going to, and it's a new model and it's being real crazy, they're doing lots of blood work with me, doing lots of preventative stuff. Okay.
Alexander McCaig (06:06):
That's...
Jason Rigby (06:07):
And there's money to be made in all of that.
Alexander McCaig (06:09):
Preventative though.
Jason Rigby (06:10):
There's still... I want people to understand I may do this Dutch hormone test and I get charged 400 bucks, 600 bucks, whatever. I just paid $400 because I want to see how my hormones are reacting, and then what I'm deficient in. I didn't even know there's prescription grade vitamins that you can only prescribe.
Alexander McCaig (06:30):
There are.
Jason Rigby (06:31):
And that they're way better than the stuff that's not regulated by the food and drug administration.
Alexander McCaig (06:34):
That's correct.
Jason Rigby (06:35):
So, why isn't all this out there? Why are we just reacting to people's...
Alexander McCaig (06:40):
Because the reactive model... We're so used to putting out fires and there's so much money in a reactive model that they're like, "Why would we want to take a proactive approach?
Jason Rigby (06:50):
But I think long-term because you said lifecycle.
Alexander McCaig (06:53):
Yep.
Jason Rigby (06:53):
So if we're going to look at it in a marketing standpoint with a person in the lifecycle, like the LTV, the long-term value of that person. If I have them coming to the doctor's office every few months and I'm doing this and doing this, checking this, making sure this is good, doing this test preventative, I'm having them purchase products through me too to be more proactive in their health, I'm checking in saying, "Well, maybe you shouldn't eat as many carbohydrates. Maybe you should. Maybe you should eat more fruit. Maybe you should eat more..." Whatever it may be, looking at their diets, and I'm getting into this. I'm helping because a sick person can't work very well.
Alexander McCaig (07:32):
They're sick.
Jason Rigby (07:33):
They're sick. And a person that's at 50% is only giving you probably 20 and 10% from your work.
Alexander McCaig (07:41):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (07:41):
If we're here in the United States and we're worried about all these other countries that are going to be... Like India and China and all these other companies. They're kicking ass and moving up in the... And then, we're sitting here looking at it and we have obesity levels, and the list goes on and on.
Alexander McCaig (07:55):
People are unhappy, depressed.
Jason Rigby (07:55):
People are unhappy, depressed, all that. That's the problem that needs to be fixed.
Alexander McCaig (08:00):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (08:00):
Because when we unite together, as whatever country it may be... Look Sweden.
Alexander McCaig (08:08):
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jason Rigby (08:08):
And look at their healthcare models and the way that they... And the time off that they have. Netflix just came out and said, "You have unlimited time off. You can take as much vacation as you want."
Alexander McCaig (08:17):
At TARTLE we have unlimited time off.
Jason Rigby (08:19):
And how many people take advantage of that? How many employees are really taking advantage? Are people working harder than they normally would?
Alexander McCaig (08:26):
They actually would. They end up working harder because they know, here's a job, it has to get done.
Jason Rigby (08:30):
Right.
Alexander McCaig (08:30):
Someone's offered me the flexibility, it's a more humane model, but I'm willing to work harder for a humane model. If you go to work and you're freaking depressed and you can't stand your job, you're like, "I need to use my two weeks now."
Jason Rigby (08:41):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (08:41):
And you are calculating how I can get the most value out of my time off. You shouldn't have to live your life like that.
Jason Rigby (08:47):
Right.
Alexander McCaig (08:48):
That's a reactive approach to life. So when we look at this big data in healthcare, we need to take a proactive approach with big data in healthcare, and proactive is looking at the life cycle of the person, the quality of life, the quality of care, not just saying, "Here's a new telemedicine system", right? And, "Here's what we're going to analyze this information or the efficiency of the hospital from an accounting standpoint." That doesn't help people live, okay?
Jason Rigby (09:13):
No.
Alexander McCaig (09:14):
Helping people live is taking big data and analyzing all aspects of their life and their behaviors, and then affording them the best options, education and information so they can make the right choices.
Jason Rigby (09:25):
Yeah. Because you take somebody that, let's just use cancer, for instance, and they've gotten cancer because of bad, poor choices or whatever, maybe it's genetics, who knows? And they die at 65.
Alexander McCaig (09:35):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (09:36):
If they would have lived to 90 and you wouldn't have been able to build them for all this proactive healthcare, you see what I'm saying?
Alexander McCaig (09:43):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (09:43):
But that life cycle would have been longer, and it would be interesting to see a study of this. How much money you would have made off that person, or a piece of cattle? [crosstalk 00:09:53]. But how much money you would have made over 90 years instead of 65 years, and then basically waiting till they get sick and then you're making all these hundreds of thousands of dollars over these cancer treatments?
Alexander McCaig (10:05):
Yeah. Only at the [inaudible 00:10:06].
Jason Rigby (10:06):
Could you have made more by having them? Because if you're going to be proactive, you're going to see the doctor more.
Alexander McCaig (10:14):
Of course, you are. I don't want to see the doctor.
Jason Rigby (10:17):
Right.
Alexander McCaig (10:18):
And there's a lot of people in the same boat as me. They don't want to go into a hospital because then when you're going in, you're probably going to get sick. Someone will probably find something, right? The probabilities are higher.
Jason Rigby (10:27):
Yeah. But my blood tests the other day, she's like she spent 45 minutes with me and she's like, "You're low in vitamin B6 and vitamin B6 causes this and this, and we need to get this. You need [inaudible 00:10:37] which is going to help you with estrogen levels because you're older now, testosterone levels are here. All this stuff it's like, if you would have stayed at these lower levels, who knows what would've happen to me 10 years from now?
Alexander McCaig (10:47):
Yeah. What are the long-term effects? But thing is you're taking...
Jason Rigby (10:49):
But I'm purchasing product and paying her money now, where if I wouldn't have paid her any money and I would have waited until I got sick at 60.
Alexander McCaig (10:56):
And then you're like, "I got to get fixed right now."
Jason Rigby (10:57):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (10:58):
And then everything becomes wildly expensive.
Jason Rigby (11:00):
Because there's abundance in it all.
Alexander McCaig (11:02):
Of course. Yeah.
Jason Rigby (11:03):
We're not taking away because we're eliminating disease.
Alexander McCaig (11:06):
No, we're not. Again, it's just, frankly, it's sad that that report in their six year projection, none of it talked about the benefit of human life. All of it talked about how do we improve services that we already have? Okay. I'm glad you have all these big key players, I'm like, "That's fantastic." But I want people to live longer and live happier for that length of time.
Jason Rigby (11:28):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (11:28):
And disease free.
Jason Rigby (11:30):
And we want people to sign up for tartle.co.
Alexander McCaig (11:32):
Yeah. We want them to sign up to tartle.co and I want people to worry about themselves, their children and their children's children, and that's about coming together, sharing that data and using that collective power to increase that quality of life.
Jason Rigby (11:42):
Yes, because that's what we're about. Quality of life.
Alexander McCaig (11:44):
Quality of life.
Jason Rigby (11:46):
Tartle.co.
Alexander McCaig (11:47):
Thank you very much. Please sign up.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Thank you for listening to TARTLE Cast with your hosts, Alexander McCain and Jason Rigby, where humanity steps into the future and the source data defines the path. What's your data worth?
