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Lunch Keynote Address: Wayne Gattinella, CEO, President of WebMD
Wayne Gattinella, Chief Executive Officer, President and Director of WebMD, presented as the Wharton Healthcare Conference’s lunch keynote address. Mr. Gattinella spoke about information technology trends within the United States healthcare system as he pointed out that historical trends provide hints of rapidly changing IT future of healthcare.
Mr. Gattinella explained that as health information has become more mainstream, with health topics appearing on one third of weekly magazine covers in the last two years, the way that the American public seeks health information has shifted towards the use of the internet. He pointed out that 86% of American adults who have internet access use computers for health information.
He commented that the use of the web for health information is not exclusive to the American public, as 99% of physicians are online and three quarters of them use the internet daily for medical content. Moreover, information provided online often supersedes traditional sources of physician information such as medical journals and specialty conferences. According to Mr. Gattinella, 75% of physicians recommend internet websites to patients with WebMD being the most frequent source followed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website.
He explained that “WebMD” is the most commonly searched online health term and that the site currently has approximately 54 million users per month. Gattinella commented on the great responsibility and trustworthiness inherent in such a substantial user base. He consistently emphasized the maintenance of a trusted relationship with WebMD’s clients as an essential element of the company’s success.
Gattinella gave an overview of several of WebMD’s products as examples of the way that healthcare information is increasingly engaging individuals in an interactive manner. He described WebMD’s “symptom checker” that functions as an interactive symptom and clinical diagnosis tool, WebMD’s search feature that has been refined by symptom, diagnosis, and treatment to provide more accurate and relevant results than traditional search engines, and WebMD’s moderated peer to peer health communities.
Gattinella commented that the digitization of health care has already started and will inevitably continue. He explained that individuals have historically used technology more as they become increasingly comfortable with a technology’s features. For instance, cellular telephones have changed from basic communication devices to the text messaging, picture taking, web surfing, music listening machines that they are today. He expects that similar trends will continue within health care information systems. However, Gattinella explained that information alone is not inherently valuable. Rather, the transformation of this information into personalized content to employers, payers, and patients leads to value creation.
Gattinella concluded with five take-away points that he feels will shape the future of healthcare. These were:
- Consumers are demanding more control over information to make important everyday decisions – a trend that is not exclusive to healthcare.
- Consumers increasingly depend on the internet for health information, although the healthcare industry still works within an “offline world” – a trend that creates a huge opportunity for innovation.
- Physicians increasingly depend on the internet for medical information, although the benefits are often questioned with difficult return on investment calculations – a trend that he hopes will be positively affected by recent government incentives.
- The internet is exposing fundamental weaknesses in traditional marketing channels.
- 21st century solutions cannot be delivered on 20th century platforms – just as the ACELA train can only go as fast as the traditional train track it sits upon, health information can only be optimized by interfacing with modernized information systems for maximal value.
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