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You can only hang out among the booths gathering tchotchkas for so long. Check out Eric Brown's speech on "Organic IT: What it Means to Hospitals"
at HIMSS in Orlando, Fla. on Tuesday, February 24 at 2:15 p.m. to learn how hospitals can drastically lower their IT costs. If you can't make his session, contact Eric directly at ebrown@forrester.com to meet while you're at HIMSS.
If you missed our December predictions issue or want a second chance at any others that did not get past your email filter, browse back issues of Healthcare First Look archived on the Forrester site.
"During 2003, the usage of the drug comparison information has increased approximately 700%." - Guy Jacobs, Express Scripts' Director of Web Offerings, discussing rising consumer interest in side-by-side drug comparison tools.
Sixty-one percent of online drug purchasers want to compare drugs more easily online.
Nearly a third of consumers profess healthcare cost-consciousness, making them candidates for consumer-directed health plans.
Thirteen percent of Rx takers have purchased prescriptions from online US pharmacies.
Only 66% of online Rx purchasers are satisfied with the transactional capabilities of their favorite Rx site.
Wired seniors are 40% more likely than their non-elderly counterparts to have bought an Rx online.
Healthcare: How Right Were We In 2003? by Liz Boehm
Who Wants Consumer-Directed Health Plans by Brad Holmes
Forrester's Top 10 Healthcare Predictions For 2004 by Eric Brown
Rx Purchasers Support Drug Reimportation by Liz Boehm
Online Pharmacies: Prepare For Medicare by Liz Boehm
Elderly Consumers Lead Online Drug Buying by Brad Holmes
We are looking for your input on topics for our 2004 healthcare surveys. Contact Sam Bishop lbishop@forrester.com with your ideas and suggestions.
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Healthcare First Look Back At 2003
This time last year we stuck out our necks and made 10 informed predictions on the impact of technology on healthcare. In the name of accountability, we looked back at our calls to see where we nailed it and where we didn't. Here is how we did:
Hospitals and home health agencies do extend human capital with IT. We predicted that providers would turn to technology to improve productivity. One of many examples is nurses using robots to conduct virtual patient exams -- eliminating travel time and increasing nurse productivity.
As we thought, the privacy outcry never materialized. We were prepared to be outraged by willful acts of bad faith like JetBlue Airways' sharing its customer itineraries with a Pentagon contractor. But April's HIPAA privacy communication did not unleash a wave of consumer outrage over healthcare privacy breaches.
Bill Frist came through for EMRs but snubbed ePrescribing. Senate Majority Leader Frist pulled off the legislative coup of 2003, engineering the slim passage of the Medicare Reform Act. We said that, given Frist's MD worldview, clinical IT would get a boost. For ePrescribing, the bill backed away from a mandate. Electronic medical records got a more meaningful stimulus, as the bill trades quality reporting for a freeze on further fee reductions to hospitals.
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Online pharmacies must prepare for Medicare
As a whole, online pharmacies do a better job of meeting users' needs than both health plan and financial services sites do. But the sites are far from perfect. Even leaders like Medco, Walgreens, and CVS should address user-frustrating shortcomings now. To win business from this high-volume segment, it is particularly important to remedy the glitches that keep seniors --who will soon be Rx-card-carrying Medicare recipients -- from completing their goals. Where should pharmacies start? By attacking usability flaws in navigation and search and making font sizes larger.
Consumer-directed plans find their mark
Consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) are a logical choice for the 32% of US consumers who are willing to pay for control over their healthcare use and/or use their benefits more carefully for a share of the savings. But for the 36% who reject either or both of these behaviors, a CDHP won't be an attractive option. Health plans must refine their target marketing skills to land the consumers inclined toward these new products.
Elderly consumers lead online drug buying
A quarter of seniors has both Net access and a need to buy prescriptions regularly. These wired seniors are doing more online Rx buying than their more junior counterparts. A strong degree of cost consciousness is behind seniors' increased use of online self-service tools.
We are very interested in your feedback on our research. Do you have topics to recommend, data you would like to have, or technologies you want assessed? Drop me a line with your input at bradholmes@forrester.com.
Brad Holmes
Healthcare Research Director
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