Thought Leaders in Healthcare IT: Torben Nielsen, Co-Founder of HealthSparq (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: Tell me what you think about industry movements, trends, and open problems.

Torben Nielsen: One of the things that I see as a major opportunity is that we, as a company, work very closely with health plans in providing that shopping experience. You can see treatment cost. You can see your benefit levels and out-of-pocket cost. One of the most fundamental things of an e-commerce site is that there’s a transaction. There’s instant gratification. We are just starting to move into that direction where you can actually purchase and say, “Based on these prices, I want this treatment at this hospital.”

If there’s a way to actually purchase that service at that price point and then embed the hospital delivery system into that overall experience, then you become much more e-commerce like and you start rounding out the overall shopping experience. It actually becomes a transactional experience as well. You can really operate as a consumer like in any other industry. I think that’s a big opportunity—going that last mile from shopping and browsing to actually transacting. Now, it’s embedded into the overall work flow of the hospital system and built into EMRs. Does that make sense?

Sramana Mitra: Yes, it’s interesting.

Torben Nielsen: That’s a big opportunity. Today, I know there has been a lot of effort working on this but being able to take your personal health records with you regardless of where you live, where you move, what plans you’re with, or what hospital systems you’ve seen is something that I think is a big opportunity. I think a lot of people are talking about tele-health. That’s another one that we are actually building into our solutions today; so when you shop, you can decide if you want to really see a tele-health doctor. You can actually call for $38 versus going to an office visit across town that will cost you $150. Maybe I just want to pick up the phone and take a call with a tele-health doctor. We try to leave it up to the individual as to what they want to do. You can also have a videoconference.

I think some of the initiatives happening on the tele-health front where you do more and more of the diagnosis at home by using your smartphone or devices attached to the smartphone that then provides biometrics is also a great opportunity. You use the camera to have conversations or send pictures. I think it’s going to come together over the next five years. That’s a more exciting time in healthcare than now.

Sramana Mitra: Terrific. Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 6 in the series : Thought Leaders in Healthcare IT: Torben Nielsen, Co-Founder of HealthSparq
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