A thoughtful article from futurist Ian Morrison on
Reinventing Rural Health Care.
Among Morrison's excellent recommendations is
a high-tech approach to rural health care:
"Rural communities have as much right to high-quality health care as the rest of us. But the answer can't simply be providing sufficient cost-based reimbursement to keep all systems doing what they are doing, especially if they are under scale for true quality care. In my view, the solutions will come through a reinvention of rural health care delivery, including:
- imaginative use of contemporary information and communications technology;
- regionalized quality improvement initiatives;
- rationalized deployment of clinical technology and human resources."
I'm struck by the many innovative, simple, low-cost models and mobile technologies already at work in rural areas. The problem is they're in central
Africa, not central
Iowa. We're stuck with a Hill-Burton driven, cost-reimbursement-fueled edifice complex where it's easier to spend $20 million on a fancy new building than $20 thousand on mobile technology to help diabetics better manage their disease.
"These aren't your typical loos. One uses microwave energy to transform human waste into electricity. Another captures urine and uses it for flushing. And still another turns excrement into charcoal."
