The web as a healthcare setting

I recently had the privilege of being in a teleconference with Mike Alverson, the CEO of Kaiser Permenante, one of the biggest integrated providers of health care in the States.

One of the interesting things he said was that Kaiser now divided health care into 4 settings:

• - Staffed beds. This includes hospitals and residential settings
• - Ambulatory care by which they mean clinics, out patients, pharmacies etc
• - Domiciliary settings where the patient is looked after in their own beds
• - The web – email and skype consultations, telemedicine, appointment booking, shared decision making and other information aids and your own personal EPR

This made me stop for lots of reasons. Of course! The web *is* a major setting for health care. And one that is rapidly evolving and effecting the other three. And - just like PO - the web is an intrinsically egalitarian place to do health business.

All this is not just happening in California where Kaiser is based. Whether it is giving feedback about what happened to you via Patient Opinion, booking your own appointment on Choose and Book, using your own EPR via Patients Know Best, or exploring patient-founded sites like MoodScope, the web is already becoming a major place for patients across the UK.