What Savvy Consumers Need to Know about Healthcare

(StatePoint) A record number of Americans are now enrolled in high deductible and consumer-driven health plans, giving patients more control and financial responsibility for their healthcare choices. But experts say there are lingering barriers preventing patients from reaping the benefits of this control.

“Patients need more guidance at the point-of-care to make smart health decisions,” says David Widmann, President and CEO at Konica Minolta Medical Imaging, which makes Primary Imaging Solutions (X-ray, Ultrasound, Healthcare IT and Services).

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Widmann attributes limited quality data at the point-of-care and a siloed system that sends patients from one specialist and facility to another as intrinsic parts of the problem. And when healthcare professionals don’t share their findings with one another, this can affect the quality of diagnoses and subsequent care.

Luckily, new technologies are giving patients and healthcare provider teams the ability to share real-time diagnostic information, such as imaging at the clinic, hospital or home, fostering physician-to-physician collaboration and patient-to-physician communication, and saving time and money.

When making healthcare decisions, savvy patients should consider asking their doctors about whether their practices use the type of diagnostic data-sharing technology that can help facilitate the delivery of quality care.

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What Savvy Consumers Need to Know about Healthcare