Healthcare Software

The Commoditization of Healthcare

The future of healthcare is as a commodity-based service. What this translates into is a fee-for-service model where each element of the healthcare process becomes an individual product a person can buy. For example, each of these items would be a separate service:

• Have a diagnostic test
• Need someone to interpret the results of a diagnostic test
• Have some surgery done

These can be handled by different doctors or the same; it is up to the patient/customer. It is no different from buying something like legal services. It offers the benefits of choice and more control over the course of treatment the patient receives.

As the components of care get broken down into their smallest points, each becomes a simpler process that interfaces with others. In its most abstract form, the process for healthcare delivery can be described as follows:

It is this process that allows medicine to be commoditized because each element of it can be performed anywhere, with data being fetched and saved from and to wherever it is being managed.

If this is the future, then how will software adjust to accommodate it?

Current PHR solutions like Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault are helping to empower the patient to manage his healthcare data. In the future, hospitals will push their data to these locations or others and so their software capabilities need to be upgraded. Ultimately, it offers a solution where healthcare providers will have access to all the information about a patient in order to offer a better product to the customer.