Health 2.0 2019 Takeaway: Digital Health & the Doctor

While Health 2.0 offered a plethora of updates and unique insights from industry leaders on topics ranging from the direction of health technology, sentiments around the latest IPOs, discussions on privacy, consumer engagement, and new product introductions, my most pivotal takeaway did not come from the main stage. Instead, it came from an informal conversation I had with an urgent care physician I met during a networking lunch break.

Many times, we look to the main stage to gauge overall industry direction from various leaders, believing they will steer future direction, and that by looking to them, we can catch the same wave. But when we step back and gain a broader perspective, we remember that actual human beings are utilizing the technologies we promote. We can then conclude that we are not building products and creating services, but rather, we are building impactful solutions to real problems individuals are facing.

We have all heard the phrase “physician burnout,” and this industry conversation only reinforces the fact that our physicians are being bombarded with new technologies made up of features and products, but not necessarily solutions to how they deliver better care, and in turn, immerse themselves into a new digital health ecosystem.

Today physicians spend hours filling out paperwork and entering data into their EMRs. As this physician with whom I conversed at Health 2.0 put it, “It takes me away from actually caring for the patient and doing what I went to school for, which was to help the patient.” When I heard this, my capitalist hat came on and I asked “What if you got paid more for doing that work?” To this question she responded, “I have no more time left to give and the money is not even worth it. I have no life after I see patients, I enter data, and on the weekend I enter more data.”

Technology found its way into healthcare many years ago, but it has stopped short at closing the loop of being a full-fledged solution. It led me to ask the question, “Is a part of the reason that patients are not getting better because the doctor cannot fully care for the patient and is burnt out?” Interesting notion.

HealthSnap offers the first device-agnostic Lifestyle Analytics and Remote Monitoring Platform, which transforms patient-generated lifestyle data from wearables, sensors, apps and questionnaires into a concise, easily understandable and actionable Lifestyle Profile.™ We are bridging the gap between lifestyle and medicine, and we do this by leveraging lifestyle data so that patients and physicians can work together to reverse and prevent chronic diseases. Our platform makes this possible not only by collecting and aggregating lifestyle data, but by analyzing it in a way that allows both patients AND clinicians to anticipate and prevent debilitating, costly chronic conditions.

Yours in good health,

Yenvy Truong
CEO and Co-Founder of HealthSnap