DOCtalk by Dr. Gregg 3/10/13

Imagine (Healthcare’s Future Rendition)

Imagine there’s no “healthcare”
It’s easy if you try
No offices to call on
At most, maybe by Skype

Imagine all the patients
Healing their own way
Ay-hay

Imagine no insurance
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to bill or cry for
And no copayments too

Imagine all the patients
Healing ills with ease

You-hoo-ooh
You may say it’s not easy
And you’re not the only one
Tech one day’ll make it simple
And the world will heal as one

Imagine self-diagnoses
I wonder if you can
No e-patient anger
A healinghood of man

Imagine direct admissions
Access in your hand
Hospitals stays and surg’ries
App-arranged and planned

Imagine all the patients
Directing their own care

You-hoo-ooh
You may say it’s not real now
But tomorrow soon will come
Tech one day’ll make it easy
And the world will heal as one

Imagine health’s best practice
In everybody’s hands
Personal genomics
By tricorder scans

Imagine all the patients
Engaged in their own health

You-hoo-ooh
You may say it can’t happen
Outpatient care won’t go ‘way
But med’cine as we know it
May just have seen its day

Imagine taking healthcare
To new heights unseen
People and their health-ness
With nothing in between

Imagine all the patients
Providers of their own

You-hoo-ooh
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope some day tech will help us
And the world will heal as one

From the trenches (and with full props – or, perhaps, apologies – to J. Lennon)…

“It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.” – John Lennon

Dr. Gregg Alexander, a grunt in the trenches pediatrician at Madison Pediatrics, is Chief Medical Officer for Health Nuts Media, an HIT and marketing consultant, and sits on the board of directors of the Ohio Health Information Partnership (OHIP).