Revolutionizing Healthcare through ICT

Revolution Healthcare is trying to do exactly that.

Browsing through the site and watching the clips of Steve Case, the founder of the site and co-founder and former CEO of AOL, illustrate the potential of ICT to create more informed healthcare consumers. However, I can't help but think that most people aren't ready for such an innovative site. Although people (especially those of my generation and younger) are used to consulting the internet for consumer-related needs and inquiries , healthcare has been shown to differ greatly from other industries. Take the case of public reporting of healthcare quality indicators, for example, how many people have actually consulted a website publishing hospital and physician score cards? Probably very few of us even realize that such sites exist. On the other hand, how many of us have used sites like CitySearch and Yelp to discover new restaurants, bars, etc.?

For now, I believe people are more likely to use sites that assist them in 'self-diagnosing' injuries/illness (for better or for worse) such as WebMD than they would be to use a site such as Revolution Healthcare. Nontheless, the prospects for such services I believe are great, especially in an age of the demonstrated benefits and proliferation of electronic medical records (EMR) and technology's influential role in improved efficiency and quality of healthcare.

Although this post does not directly relate to ICT for development, this class has been really useful for me to learn more about ICT in various disciplines. I'm definitely not the most technologically saavy person, and I think this class has really forced me to catch up on the latest trends and innovations in ICT and 'ICT for D.'