I applaud tech companies for trying to address healthcare challenges that have become existential over the decades. Most of these initiatives fail, however, because they expect people to change behaviors learned over decades by engaging with apps, reliably using gadgets, caring about nudges, and dutifully reporting their moods and feelings - sustainably day after day for the rest of their lives. While this can work for the most motivated and disciplined among us, it is difficult for those of us who are creatures of habit, need the most help, and/or consume the most healthcare.
Most of us don’t wake up every morning bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to deal with our health conditions, enthralled by the ingenuity of digital health tools, eager to earn the next badge and rise to the next level. We wake up to do what we’ve always done - live the lives we’ve grown accustomed to and, if we’re lucky, comfortable with. And when we invariably develop chronic illnesses, especially as we age, we are even less likely to engage with tech that wants us to change who we are.
I hope OpenAI will learn from history so they don’t also run away when the red ink grows, stakeholders get restless, progress feels elusive, and “healthcare is horribly broken” becomes the only way to explain their failure.
We can bring “outside the box” thinking to healthcare by first understanding it and then focusing our investment on solving real issues with impact. Let's use our capital to redesign the hard stuff - rather than play at the edges. And be humble and smart to learn from those who have tried before us. Let’s first understand the user's needs, and then develop the technology - rather than hammers looking for nails. My bias is to let the technology be as invisible as possible, doing the monitoring work in the background so that we can make the most of care providers’ limited time and resources - and help people without requiring them to change how they live. We’re cracking that nut, and I’d welcome any technology partner who’d like to join us.
Kaveh Safavi Sachin H. Jain, MD, MBA Cris Ross Bob Ghafouri Asheesh Saksena Steve Wretling Blain Newton Charlotte Yeh Lainie Muller
https://lnkd.in/epCU-yMX
