Patients expect convenient, consumer-style healthcare now, panelists said at MedCity's INVEST Digital Health Conference, per MedCity News.
I agree, but patients didn't suddenly get pickier. The rules finally caught up. Cross-state licensing, prescribing, and pharmacy shipping sat in a kind of 1996 freeze for years, with 50 different systems in 50 states.
When that loosened, convenience showed up. So did specialization.
A nationwide team of dermatologists can now treat patients who'd never have reached one. They can use higher dosing and off-label medicine, and adjust the plan over time.
That's why I think convenience is the entry fee. If it's all you offer, you're one more online prescriber.
The better question is what the convenience lets you do that the old system couldn't. For us, it's putting a hair specialist in front of the patient.
Responding to What’s Driving the Consumerization of Healthcare?, MedCity News