Three hospitals will soon let 30,000 patients read the notes their doctors write about them and the state of their health during an exam. The idea makes some docs uncomfortable; they’re worried about how patients will react to seeing blunt observations like “morbidly obese” in black and white.
Another healthcare provider is testing avatars to prod patients who don’t follow doctors’ orders – combining Internet-connected, at-home diagnostics with an automated rules engine so that the avatar knows whether to nag about laying off the salt shaker, or ask if the patient took her pills.
Pushing the limits of Web-enabled customer relationships? That’s the whole point. IT teams over the past year have spent a lot of their time looking inward, focusing on cost cutting and infrastructure improvements, which tend to take a back seat in high-growth times.
But the best also keep improving their customer experience no matter the economy, and increasingly that means delivering a better Web experience, because the Web’s where people want to do business.
That’s why we looked at three industries that every one of us touches – healthcare, banking, and government – to find examples of organizations testing the power of the Web to connect with customers. The technologies themselves aren’t always cutting-edge, but their application is focused on specific problems or goals or new products – and, ultimately, on helping customers remain happy customers.
— By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee, Andrew Conry-Murray, and John Foley, with J. Nicholas Hoover
Before the current recession which were the two biggest and fastest growing employers in America?
Banks/Financial Services And Healtcare providers.Now its the Government which has joined them.The need for them will never cease.And all this talk of taking everything online will take forever.In fact,its beyond me why Obama is even trying this ,considering the kind of trouble he already has on his plate.
Let sleeping dogs lie,atleast temporarily till we fix the other things that are plaguing over economy.Healthcare can wait Messers Obama and Pelosi.
Until I can legally print money at home, or scan my money in for a deposit, then I need one of those banks.
Either that or we alter our monetary system to be 100% electronic, but that's not practical or even possible for a very long time to come due to the digital divide in the US as well as the world.
I also think the old adage of "out of sight, out of mind" has a lot to do with it, banks need to be seen so you know where to put your money, take out a car loan, get a mortgage, or any other number of things.
I know I will never go back to an online company for a mortgage ever again, I spent 8 months in hell trying to buy a home several years ago after going through an online portal for a mortgage. After 7.5 months of that hell I gave up and walked into a branch of a bank, and 2 weeks later was signing the final paperwork on my home.
In terms of the original post, that first paragraphs bothers me when it mentions a concern of the doctors with a patient not being able to handle seeing something like "morbidly obese" in the notes. I would question why that doctor wouldn't have told the patient they were morbidly obese in the first place.
Medical records are long overdue to be made electronically so that they can be accessed by multiple hospitals, doctors, and the patients themselves.
While I am 100% for the digitizing of our medical records, it also needs to be done with caution in order to assure longevity, cross compatibility by making sure that it's not stored in a proprietary format. Yet it also needs to be secure to make sure that no un-authorized access to a patients records occurs, while also allow for the ability of generating a report for the patient about who has accessed their records, when they accessed their records, and under what authority they accessed their records.
Good point, Lawrence. One thing that comes to mind is the ongoing risk of banking online from home -- a risk that seems to put the onus on the customer. Until there's a universally solid way to bank from home, there will always be a place for brick-and-mortal banks.
With all the advantages of electronic banking, why is all the construction in my neighborhood for bank branches? What is there a bank in every supermarket? In fact, the banks are converting former fast food restaurants to branches. Why do half the doors on a Manhattan street open into a bank?
Frankly, with all my opinions, I can not find one that fits this situation
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