Health and Tech, what are we waiting for?

Health is the one area in tech everyone is shit-scared to touch and can you blame them? Nobody wants to deal with it; far too much sensitivity and responsibility. Instead we’re all too concerned with creating the next social photo sharing app. Fuck me, a dog could have put that $41 million to better use. Why not do something meaningful yeah? Let’s not forget how lucky we are.

It can costs me anywhere between €60 – €80 to get a piece of paper from my doctor that says I’ve had the shits for a week; and all because I’ve told her so. For her luck, she doesn’t need nor want visual evidence of this fact, she just takes my word for it, prints off a piece of a paper and signs it. In fact, when you consider how similar we all are, I’d wager a large percentage of visits to the doctor are roughly the same. The doctor listens, asks a few questions, listens some more then recommends a few meds and plenty of rest.

This has me thinking, surely — call me insane if you like — it is possible to conduct these kind of minor discussions via a webcam and microphone; followed by an emailed prescription from the doctor.

Let’s get a few things clear, I’m not talking about replacing visits to specialist consultants, breast checks, baby issues and other more immediately serious matters. I’m talking about reordering the politics of minor (common) doctor visits by generally healthy people; it’s these visits which no doubt amount to a large proportion of all visits.

Whoever has the balls to undercut the traditional model is going to make a sick — pun definitely intended — amount of money by saving people a similarly large quantity of money. Not to mention what affect this would have on lowering the price of healthcare while hopefully improving the health of people.