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"The next ˜big thing" in healthcare . . . . is IT, which will dramatically change the way health professionals interact with patients. Every step of a patient's care will be determined by protocols on a hand-held device. This will make healthcare safer and shift many hospital activities into the home," says Dr Devi Shetty, world-renowned heart surgeon, founder and chairman of Narayana Health, India's largest multi-purpose hospital group and the person said to have, "the biggest impact on healthcare on the 21st century".

Shetty also warns that, "Despite the advantages of such technologies, the medical community is reluctant to accept them."

Although doctors and patients have iPads and smartphones and use social networks, the healthcare community, "fights like mad to resist change", and fails to embrace life-saving technologies, which would improve patient care and reduce costs. ld improve patient care and reduce costs.

 

Open systems
In 2012 UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt issued a Mandate that by 2015, modern communications technology would play a substantially bigger role in the UK's healthcare system. The NHS remains a near bankrupt, inward looking public monopoly driven by proprietary systems rather than customer needs.

Saving lives didn't invoke change
Healthcare professionals invariably refer to privacy and security issues to protect the status quo, but these are equally applicable to other sectors, such financial services, which have embraced change and open standards.
 
An explanation why healthcare systems resist change is in a 1970 BBC Reith Lecture by Donald Schon, formerly Professor of Philosophy, University of California.
 
Schon borrowed a story from Elting Morison's 1968 book, Men, Machines and Modern Times, to describe entrenched social systems' resistance to change. 
 
During wartime, a young Naval officer named Sims invented a device that improved the accuracy of guns on ships by 300%, but the US Navy rejected it.
 
The device, "continuous-aim firing" used a simplified gearing mechanism that took advantage of the inertial movement of a ship. What previously a whole troupe of well-trained men had done, now one person, keeping his eye on the sight and his hands on the gears - could do.

HealthPad
HealthPad was started by doctors and launched in June 2013. It has accrued a growing exclusive healthcare content library of over 4,000 videos that provide patients with premium, reliable answers to their FAQs across 32 therapeutic pathways. 

This unique health content library with embedded search facilities, has been contributed by leading health providers from premier North American, European and South Asian medical institutions. 

Enhanced communications
HealthPad serves the needs of patients by enabling doctors to capture, organize and distribute their medical knowledge more effectively. Doctors can drag-and-drop any type of content into a publishing template: scans, pdf files, ppt. presentations, videos, diagrams, photos, commentaries etc. These data are instantly and automatically re-formatted into attractive rich-media publications. By a click of a mouse, doctors then can choose how they wish to share their publications, ranging from private and secure to public and open.
 
In addition to publishing health knowledge, doctors can use HealthPad to create, develop and manage any number of bespoke online patient groups. 

What doctors say about HealthPad
"My HealthPad videos personalize medicine and have positive psycho-social effects. Because of HealthPad patients feel that they know me before we have even met and are less inclined to be swayed by discordant and often incorrect medical information they encounter on the internet that can create misperceptions and fear". Dr. Whitfield Growdon, Onco-surgeon, Harvard University Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Drivers of change
The overwhelming majority of UK doctors provide medical information in pamphlet form, while the overwhelming majority of their patients have smartphones and broadband connections and use online services to find jobs, receive their salaries, pay bills and taxes, learn, conduct business and interact socially.
 
Technological change combined with the escalation of chronic non-communicable diseases, especially among the over 55s, is expected to increase Internet searches for premium and reliable medical knowledge and this will force health providers to change the way they communicate with patients.  
According to a recent Deloitte's report, in 2014 UK citizens over 55 will experience the fastest year-on-year rises in smartphone penetration. By the end of 2014, UK smartphone ownership is expected to surpass 50%, and the difference in smartphone penetration by age will disappear.     
This mirrors the rest of the world.
 
Takeaways
If you're a health provider, HealthPad can significantly improve your online communications, enhance the quality of your services and save you money.
 
If you're a patient, HealthPad provides you with free and easy access to exclusive, premium and reliable healthcare knowledge in video formats you prefer, at anytime, anywhere, anyhow.