I’m not, by nature, a germophobe. I am perhaps irrationally understanding of the number of creepy crawly germy nasties out there, and in general believe that my exposure to these germs makes me stronger, not weaker.
The exception to this rule is the doctor’s office or hospital. It doesn’t matter why I’m there, I leave feeling like I need a shower. In 2008, the BBC reported that keyboards were often dirtier than a toilet. Now contemplate how many hands touch that keyboard in the doctor’s office or at the nurse’s station, and what they might have touched before. You couldn’t get me near that thing with prosthetic fingers.
Weeks ago, I stumbled across this article, from the New York Times, talking about disruptive innovation in healthcare. Among the suggestions that they highlight is a laser keyboard. Imagine if you could finish entering patient data on a virtual keyboard, then wipe the surface clean. The medical germophobe in me just loves this idea.
Of course, the article tackles larger themes of promoting wellness rather than exclusively treating illness. The healthcare system is based on the concept of sick people = more traffic = more revenue. The system is structured not to keep people away, but to bring them in. And because the incentives lie with sickness, technologies that promote health are fundamentally disruptive to the entire system. Whether it’s the reduction of hospital-acquired infections through technologies like that cool laser keyboard, or telemedicine technologies, like the Health Buddy System from Bosch, technologies that prevent acute events and reduce the rate of hospitalizations present a fundamental shift in healthcare thinking.
The Obama administration, so eager to tackle the skyrocketing costs of the modern healthcare system, not only needs to consider areas for improvement, but also needs to take into account the dramatic shift in thinking and healthcare business models that will have to occur in order to implement this kind of large-scale change.