Want to get pregnant? There’s an app for that. Looking for a new physician? The information is just a click away. Want to improve your health with the input of your doctor? Pretty soon, you’ll be able to do that from your phone, tablet or computer. Meet Kindara, Healthgrades and Datu, three of many Colorado companies revolutionizing the way patients make healthcare decisions.
These companies are part of a seismic shift that is breaking the old information asymmetry – where doctors had all the information and patients had very little – and using data to give patients an easy way to access key facts and gain knowledge for decisions about health. For these tech-savvy, data-heavy companies, it’s more than just eating kale and wearing a Fitbit. They are transforming three of the most important parts about health: getting the right doctor, making better decisions after a medical diagnosis and gaining control over fertility decisions.
Finding the right match
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Before starting Denver-based Healthgrades, CEO Roger Holstein saw something disturbing. Not only did Americans spend more time researching a new cell phone than they did picking out a doctor or hospital, but finding reliable and impartial information on a doctor’s performance was almost impossible. And in some cases, choosing the right doctor and hospital could be the difference between life and death. This isn’t just hyperbole; according to Holstein, chance of death can vary as much as ten-fold between a one and five star hospital located within five miles of each other. With insurance companies dictating whom we can see (and with little incentive for them to publically rate their own doctors), Holstein saw an opportunity to provide easy access to vital information.
For Healthgrades, success is matching a patient with the right doctor. With one billion patient-doctor appointments a year, Healthgrades wants to make sure patients see the doctor that’s right for them. Their free site allows individuals to input their location and specific health concerns to find qualified doctors in their area. The site can help filter out doctors and hospitals that have above average complications for a particular procedure. Holstein gave a very personal example; when his 88-year-old grandmother needed a second hip replacement – a much more complicated procedure than the first hip replacement – out of 1,000 orthopedic surgeons in her home state, only 200 were located in her city. Of that, only 100 had done the surgery with just three that were at hospitals with less than average complication rates. That’s not information a patient would be able to find easily without Healthgrade's website, but it could be the difference between a successful or disastrous procedure.
Healthgrades saw its audience grow from less than 15 million users four years ago to over 30 million users and the site has 1 million visitors a day. The 675-person company will add another 100 positions this year as it plans for at least 20 percent growth in 2014. And as more Americans pay for their insurance, Holstein expects to see greater demand for information on doctors and hospitals. The site is seeing buy-in from doctors too, with 40 million doctors updating their profiles to better advertise their skills and specialties to new patients.
