Adoption of Health 2.0 Platforms by Physicians on Main Street

Moderator Ron Dixon, Virtual Practice Project, Partners Healthcare. Internist.

Panel is three physicians:

1. Will Sellman, family medicine.

2. Amy Berlin, psychiatrist.

3. Stephan Sigal, cardiologist.

The panelists evaluated some of the tools we’re seeing at this conference. Dixon didn’t know what 2.0 was; asked his colleagues in Boston. Some said it was a new EMR, some said it was a new technology, and others didn’t know. Health 2.0 is participatory healthcare characterized by the ability to rapidly share, classify, and summarize individual health info between stakeholders in partnership with the patient to improve the HC system, experiences, and outcomes. “All technology change is cultural change.”

Amy Berlin - Bulk of the practice is psychotherapy. 1-3 times a week, 50-minute sessions is when she sees patients. Culture of her practice is very different than other physicians. Strong advocate for health IT, has a completely paperless practice. No technology out there that can replace the interaction of two people in a room, esp. in psychotherapy. Needs to get a read on what’s happening. Increased access to information will change patient behavior; we need to reconsider that notion. The culture of her practice inherently changes patient behavior! Technology cannot distract us from the human interaction...

Stephan Sigal - Practices in a very small community; cardiologists are early adopters of health IT, but we need to put the rubber to the road and how can we use these technologies. Common disease states are helped the most with the technology. The excitement around the technology is that it’s user-generated. Merely making information available doesn’t solve the problem. Patients need to be able to act upon the information; it’s easier to invite the patient in with these systems. Solutions need to fit our own individual practices.

Will Sellman - Family physician, also works as a hospitalist. Experienced with health IT through GE’s products. Spends a lot of face-to-face time, but where will the time come from to engage with patients in telemedicine? Third-party products have become cumbersome for his practice, but it is exciting.