“Drive safely,” “Don’t forget to take your vitamins,” “Don’t forget to turn off the lights when you leave the room…” As children, we all heard similar remarks from our parents as they coach us for life after we have left the nest. Sometimes it sticks – I do still take a multivitamin everyday– but sometimes, despite best intentions, their advice can fall to the wayside.

The same thing happens in the medical field. As physicians, we try to enforce the importance of medication adherence, of proper nutrition, physical activity and rest. We encourage our patients to be faithful monitoring their progress, and to log results and share them with us.  But the fact remains that – just as many of us failed to follow our parent’s advice— a majority of patients do not follow medical advice after they have been discharged. Hospital readmissions continue to be a challenge nationwide.

I’ve talked before about the need to drive from “just in case to “just in time” care. Remote patient monitoring can help patients’ manage their health and continue care from home.  One report estimates that, “by 2020 at least 160 million Americans will be monitored and treated remotely for a chronic condition.”  I  see useful applications of this technology for a variety of populations but Medicare patients stand out to me as potentially benefiting the most, with multiple chronic diseases and the desire to remain independent.

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The cost of healthcare seems to take over a greater percentage of our gross domestic product as each year passes. What is shocking, however, is that according to the CDC 75% of the money spent on healthcare is for treatment of chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. This number is staggering.

Benjamin Franklin said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” The same philosophy holds for the practice of medicine.

However, according to the U.S. Department of Human Services, in 2008 the U.S. “preventative” measures account for less than 5% of spending.

Many patients may end up an expensive intervention that may be avoided with proper prevention. For example, a patient that is counseled on proper diet, exercise, and who takes medicines faithfully, may be able to avoid a life-threatening bypass surgery for a heart attack.

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I recently had the privilege of attending my first TED MED conference as a delegate in Washington DC.  The conference and attendees were truly inspiring, and the questions posed were thought provoking.  The theme for TED MED 2012 was wrapped around innovation, technology and art.  Yes, art!  I think this is what struck me the most.  I had fully expected a “geeky” technically focused conference; instead, I was blown away by the beauty and art that was interwoven in technology.

In the medical field, we see birth and death, joy and sadness.  It’s an incredible journey through the human experience that surely isn’t as calculated or simplistic enough for one solution to really “cure.” At the heart of what many of the doctors and scientists presented at TED MED was the need to take risks in medicine, and medical education and training.

One of the speakers and a radiation oncologist, drove his point home—that medical students are bred to strive towards the perfect GPA, high scores on their MCAT, and to follow the rules placed in front of them. Medical school is breeding robots.

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