Two day’s journey on train, the whole night’s waiting in line, and then ONE minute’ interview with the doctor……
when Mr. Stephen N. Oesterle, the senior vice president of medicine and technology department in Medtronic Inc., mentioned the great difficulty that a common patient from rural area in China is supposed to experience in his way to see a doctor of the big hospital in provincial capital, I was reminded the overcrowded hospitals that I had visited again and again when I was in Beijing and Shanghai.
Yes, it’s true that one billion patients in China needs better healthcare and high quality medicine. However, the shortage of medical resources in China has not change very quickly after Chinese Government had started the medical system reform for years.
Will the next healthcare provider make sense? Mr. Stephen descripted his vision of the next generation healthcare in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
As far as I understand, the next healthcare provider could have at least 3 functions:
– The decline of patients’ expenditure
– Remote technology instead of tough journey
– The data storage and super computer will help busy doctors
According to the estimation of IDC, smart phone customers will beyond 500 million by the end of 2013. Good news?
I strongly suspect there are many rural patients who use smart phone. It is most likely that they are a very small proportion of the 500 million smart phone customers.
So it could be great challenge for the poor, uneducated people to enjoy the semi-self-healthcare. The vision is beautiful but it does take time.
