In 2020, multi sided platforms connect buyers and sellers in nearly every industry including retail (Alibaba, Amazon Marketplace), transportation (Uber, Lyft), hospitality (AirBnb, VRBO), energy, etc. These platforms capitalize on the devices we carry everywhere connected by networks that cover everywhere. They create enormous market value without producing or consuming the products they exchange.
As always it seems, healthcare lags this trend with a fragmented provider market (globally) providing access intermediated by payers (in the US and others). This disconnected approach keeps us from the kinds of amazing experiences we have in other industries, and prevents us from getting and staying as healthy as we might be. It’s also super expensive.
What could be?
Imagine for a moment your ideal healthcare experience. For me, when I’m relatively healthy, it would be an assistant to help me access services and the benefits I’ve purchased. It might look like:
A chatbot to discuss my initial concerns and give me advice.
A marketplace to make me aware of my options for treatment and services, one that knows my situation: my health issues, my location, my insurance, etc. and uses that knowledge to help me make the best decisions for me.
Appointment tools that help me find convenient times and book services online (bonus points: without repeating what I’ve already told the chatbot!)
Health records so connected and portable that I can get my labs done at the pharmacy, an MRI at the imaging center, and get a second opinion across the country seamlessly.
A care team made up of human professionals and an AI assistant to help me always know what next best step I can take in my health.
What could be for professionals
For health professionals, the concept of Zhong Tai fits well here. This platform provides a turnkey solution for building a health business without making assumptions about the business itself. The barriers to entry: the administrative overhead, the market presence, the care coordination; these are handled by the platform allowing the professional to focus on their skills and clients.
In this world I imagine, technology has made it possible for a much richer market of professionals to practice independently. Doctors, therapists, home health workers, nutritionists, trainers, and many others can all offer services effectively without needing to be part of massive health systems. This is the marketplace I as an individual can access both when I’m healthy and when I’m not.
What to watch for…
I’m going to resist the temptation to diagnose what’s preventing this vision from appearing. There’s lots of barriers, and as always, incentives aren’t well aligned. But I see some hopeful signs.
In the US, both insurers and health networks have begun to see the benefits of platforms. There’s a recognition that coordinating care is good for us all. There’s an acknowledgement that costs can’t continue to increase, because the solutions to that might decimate their businesses. And there’s an eagerness to get patients engaged in the process knowing that we’re the key to improving our own health.
I’m hopeful when I see advancement in any of the areas from above. I’m hopeful that the ONC, a US regulator, has made open APIs an EHR requirement. I love this slide from an HL7 keynote by United Health because it means payers are thinking about a connected world:
And I’m hopeful that companies like Babylon Health with whom, full disclosure, I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating are bringing machines into the mix to provide on demand experiences not possible with humans alone.
So there’s signs of progress all around. Soon, someone will pull them together, begin to gather the trust (the most critical commodity) needed from you and I, and open a new world of positive health experiences.
Where are the Healthcare Platforms?
I work for a multi-sided marketplace that works another angle, essentially helping reduce friction in getting nurses who need short-term work (think: a single shift) connected with hospitals that need a single shift filled. Not exactly what you are talking about, of course, but a step in the right direction. Would talk more about it at ben.denny@clipboardhealth.com if that was something that was interesting to you.
"A marketplace to make me aware of my options for treatment and services, one that knows ... my insurance, etc" "... because the solutions to that might decimate their businesses." these are the real problems with American healthcare: the insistence that it's a profit-centre rather than a service.