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50 million consumers per month in the USA log on to the net for health information (and this is increasing at 15 - 20% per year).
They are:
- the largest single use group
- highly motivated, the majority are logging on for serious health reasons (not info-tainment or just background information)
- bitterly disappointed with consumer net sites as they need information that enables them to make real decisions. They end up trying to get it often directly from the research journals and search engines like Medline and chat rooms - it is extremely difficult and frustrating for them.
There are only a small number of professional sites devoted to different levels of professional information resources. The quality of some of them is quite high in that the information is accurate though very often unusable. The second problem is that these sites only address a segment of the necessary information resource base.
Doctors however don’t use them. Simplistic explanations usually given are - ‘doctors are conservative and don’t use computers’ and so on.
The actual explanation is twofold.
Many doctors know how far they are behind the leading edge of medicine and are acutely uncomfortable about it. The existing sites simply bring various levels of professional information more or less efficiently to the doctor’s door - by the truckload.
The task is even more difficult now than ten years ago in spite of the internet and there is no pressure from consumers to spend many hours at this difficult task. (The volume of information doubles every two and a half years - 1600 new articles daily).
Following are WisDoc’s assumptions about its proposed service
Assumption one
A net site that provides a consumer version of a complete up to the minute multi-specialty account of all the big health topics providing consumers with even more than they realize they need will be supremely valued by consumers. Within a month of launch, any consumer on the net in need of serious health information will know about WisDoc. It is highly likely it will be their first and probably only port of call - particularly if they have any experience with the alternatives out there.
Assumption two
Consumers going to their doctors with this level of understanding of assured quality information will be taken seriously by their doctor for the first time. It will be apparent to both consumers and doctor that the consumer is in a position to make simple broad judgements about the quality of medical care he/she is receiving.
Assumption three
Even if the availability of professional WisDoc had no initial impact on doctors’ net usage habits, serial contact with patients who have this level of information and the capacity to make simple judgements about the medical care they will receive, will be a strong inducer for doctors to use the professional text and research article service.
Assumption four
Medical Insurance, HMO and Medical Indemnity Insurance companies are already committing themselves to minor versions of the WisDoc model and to the assumptions and logical direction of the model as spelt out in the WIM report. It is a chance to make very serious inroads into their medical costs and to show their often-vaunted commitment to quality medicine. WisDoc will immediately be seen as the premier service that any insurance company should provide to its doctors and consumers. The Wisdoc revenue model is detailed in a separate document but the initial revenue resource will be through licensing to HMOs, Health insurance companies and Medical indemnity insurance companies.
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