What's Healthcare 3.0? Why you need to get ready for it ... - Lifestyle Medicine Works

Don’t you miss the good old days of medicine?

A world where physicians had autonomy and thrived because of the sacred doctor-patient relationships they built. Medicine was art with a touch of humanity and compassion.

Doctors ran their own (small) private practices and were highly regarded by society as modern healers.

Well, that was Healthcare 1.0 – and it’s long gone.

With Healthcare 2.0 a new paradigm emerged.

The era of Big Medicine as a business.

We saw the rise of big business, large clinics, hospitals, and the exponential increase in healthcare costs because of advanced technology, diagnostics, and … yes, bureaucracy.

It’s profitable to be in the disease management healthcare business 2.0.

Managers run healthcare and are focused on big data, evidence-based medicine often financed by big pocket pharma and industry leaders usher in technological progress at the cost of a loss of humanity and the connection with patients.

The time to listen is minimized in exchange for using standardized protocols of care (with a one size fits all approach).

Large corporate groups swallowed small practices, hospital systems became HUGE and are run by managers like a business and have to deal with excessive regulations like HIPAA, MIPS, Lean, Six-Sigma, PQRS, HCAHPS, …

Healthcare 2.0 often looks like an assembly line with fixed, non-personal protocols for every disease (disease A = medication A). Don’t think, don’t ask questions …

A friend told me that at his last clinic visit the computer seemed more important than personal interactions or completing a thorough diagnosis (or having an actual heartfelt conversation).

There have also been many positive developments in healthcare 2.0 but after talking to thousands of healthcare providers and clients/patients it seems nobody is really happy with healthcare 2.0.

So should we return to Healthcare 1.0?

No.

We have to evolve towards Healthcare 3.0.

If you talk to experts they all have somewhat different views of how that new paradigm might look.

Better technology and diagnostics, wearable devices allow us to monitor the disease on the go. Online consultations and platforms taking over and becoming more important. Big data is better organized and streamlines services. Stem cell therapy and new innovative super drugs or treatments cure all diseases?

That might be true …

But I believe it would be a huge mistake to miss the most important aspect which is that our lifestyle is causing the vast majority of chronic (non-communicable) diseases.

Without Lifestyle as Medicine and Health Coaching we are stuck in the old “fix-me-quick” disease management mindset that caused the healthcare 2.0 problems in the first place.

In next weeks HealthiWealthi™ podcast our guest Robert Pearl MD, Former Kaiser Permanente Medical Group CEO, Stanford University School of Medicine will share why and how we need to “Break the Rules of Healthcare” and how we can create Healthcare 3.0 that benefits all of us and not just a few.

Here’s my prediction:

Healthcare 3.0 will be decentralized, peer-to-peer, private, and personal combining advanced diagnostics (holistic) with personalized health outcomes addressing the root-causes of chronic diseases and focused on protocols that are evidence-inspired but not enslaving or limiting a provider’s choices.

Value-based treatments, quality of life, and health outcomes will matter again with clients & patients in the center of it all.

YOU will own your health data and primary physicians will be highly regarded because they will provide personalized options in care.

Healthcare providers will be trained in preventive Lifestyle Medicine and work with Health Coaches to address chronic diseases we know can be reversed.

Relationships and human connection will matter again.

Patients take responsibility for their actions and habits because doctors and healthcare providers educate and empower them knowing that with their support lifestyle improvements are possible.

People will matter more than profit.