Law Students

Gov 2.0 & Health 2.0

White House 2.0 is indicative that there is a new sheriff in town and what may have been partly missed in all the discussion regarding race and history is the fact the Obama is clearly looking forward to engage with a new generation of Americans as he attempts to alter the thinking of the greatest generation.

The Health 2.0 consumer led healthcare "movement" is also looking forward to a radically more engaged patient population than has EVER existed. These are patients that will not be reticent challenging the status quo, nor stand idly by as the healthcare industry inevitably attempts to assert control, albeit a different/modified kind of control.

In short, there is going to be a push from the top to alter old industrial healthcare thinking (no small feat), but in fact there may be an even stronger push from the bottom as more and more patients become "sickened" (literally) by our current system.

The old tired arguments of "free market" versus "socialism" are simply non-starters. For the most part, there is no "free market" in healthcare. A market that functions well AND manages to provide some protection for all, is what we need. In order to achieve that we are going to have to think differently about the problem.

All of this will take a multi-disciplinary approach, because the insular healthcare appears incapable of going it alone. This is true despite the fact that there is no shortage of smart people within its ranks. The problem is too complex and mission critical/proven ideas and process methodologies need to be borrowed from elsewhere.

Full post as published by LawTechTV on January 21, 2009 (boomark / email).