March 5, 2007

Are You Ready for a Healthcare Revolution?
By Tony Chen
For The Record
Vol. 19 No. 5 P. 10

A healthcare revolution has been quietly brewing behind the scenes for the last few years and at least for one company, that revolution has just begun. Revolution Health, a company started by former AOL cofounder and chairman Steve Case, unveiled its “preview” site—www.revolutionhealth.com—for everyday healthcare consumers.

As a healthcare blogger, I was offered a sneak peek at the beta site and was pleasantly surprised by the offerings already in place. As I logged in, I quickly realized I was getting a glimpse of a new healthcare paradigm—a one-stop shop for a majority of my healthcare needs.

Revolution Health is betting on prevention. This is not healthcare the way we know it whereby we are treated when we get sick. This is consumer-centric healthcare that puts everyday folks in the driver’s seat. The Revolution Health Web portal I previewed appears to provide many of the tools to accomplish this goal. On the site, you can:

• rate doctors based on bedside manner, convenience, skill, outcomes, and the likelihood to recommend (and see how others rated them);

• rate hospitals based on medical care, efficiency, environment, outcomes, and the likelihood to recommend;

• take online health risk assessments, surveys, and calculators (You can find out about your personal health—everything from your body mass index to your 10-year risk of a stroke.);

• find other healthcare consumers like you (I joined a discussion group of folks committed to exercise three times per week. I read through other people’s questions and responses and even posted my own question, which received a quick response.);

• read and comment on health-related stories from others—folks share personal stories about struggling with diabetes, being bipolar, caring for sick relatives, and losing weight then gaining it back;

• populate your health history (This could potentially be a centralized place to keep track of your health. I found it a bit hard to use simply because I’m too lazy to input my previous information.);

• learn about conditions and treatments (As of today, there were 1,566 treatments and more than 50,000 ratings for these treatments.);

• create a health-related blog (A lot of folks [2,300 posts so far] have used this arena to share their daily musings about trying to stay healthy or their good/bad experiences with hospitals and insurance companies.); and

• try out a free trial of their health expense manager. (Since this is bundled in with everything else on the site, you can input and track bills and claims information.)

Implications for Physicians
As of today, there were 2,400-plus ratings (compared with RateMDs’ approximately 70,000 ratings). If this site becomes as popular as some believe, physicians would be wise to track ratings. Also, maybe this will be the final straw for physicians—is it time to finally start a blog? It’s never been easier, and now you can open one within the Revolution Health community.

Another potential impact is something that many have been discussing—information therapy. Patients can research their conditions, talk to others with the same condition, and call the 24/7 nurse coach. Welcome to the age of the educated patient. Increasingly, patients will know their options and have biased opinions (for better or for worse) about those options. What happens when the advice they get isn’t accurate?

Implications for Hospitals
Sooner or later, hospitals will have to figure out how to grow without hoping more people get sick. What if Revolution Health sparks a change in our culture in which people actually do start taking better care of themselves and avoid costly procedures and conditions?

Also, I’ve always wondered when hospital comparison sites would one day be like Vehix (the car comparison site). Because of Revolution Health, that day is now imminent. Obviously, the validity, usefulness, and objectivity of the data is still questionable. Nonetheless, consumers will shape their opinions based on this data.

Implications for Consumers
Revolution Health provides two components I never had before: one-stop shopping and management of my health; and focused community with others like me. In combination, these two features could positively impact my lifestyle. For example, I posted a weight loss story yesterday and already got my first comment—more validation and motivation for me to keep at it.

The one-stop shopping has the value of simplifying my life. I can manage my medical history and medical bills, and learn about conditions from a trusted source. All in all, I see this site as a WebMD plus Rate MDs plus QuickenMoney plus Blogger plus Google Health plus Vehix-for-hospitals-and-insurance-plans put together. In other words, I believe this site has the goods to stick.

Conclusion
I’d be curious to see what they come up with next. Skype Webcasts on health topics? Health conferences or retreats? Revolution Health magazine? Virtual and/or live life/health coaching? Could they sell some sort of employee health management package to large employers? Someone from Revolution Health posted a comment on my blog promising that they will pleasantly surprise us with the next wave of announcements.

The ultimate value of this Web portal is the richness of the community and content. These are proportional to the number of people who join. So will tens of thousands join ... or millions? If Revolution Health gets a critical mass, the sky is the limit. And for $10 per month for individual memberships, we are talking about billions of dollars in market potential. I’m guessing that membership revenue will be the smaller revenue stream compared with advertising.

Google, RateMDs, WebMD, UnitedHealth, Aetna, U.S. Preventive Medicine, WeightWatchers.com, and primary care physicians, get ready for a good battle. For healthcare consumers, that dogfight will only translate into better, more sophisticated services and products for us to manage our health.

— Tony Chen is the founder and lead blogger at Hospital Impact (www.hospitalimpact.org), one of the top healthcare blogs with more than 7,000 monthly visits.