Miscellaneous
CEO and founder of iRemedy, Tony Paquin welcomes his brother and business partner, Gary Paquin. The discussion focuses on the massive retail giant, Amazon, and the role that it is currently playing and may be playing in future health care. Can the current Amazon business model work in healthcare? Listen in as some of the challenges of providing health care services are discussed. HIPAA, personal medical records, protected health information, relationships and reps expertise are all discussed in today's episode. Amazon is a trusted retailer for many consumer healthcare needs, such as latex gloves, bandages, and lotions. But, will Amazon ever be able to meet our trusted, confidential health care needs? Key Takeaways: [1:25] Tony and Gary brainstorm what the health care industry might look like if purchased on Amazon. [2:23] Learn the differences between the commonly used e-commerce terms B2B versus B2C and store versus marketplace? Could Amazon be a trusted, reliable partner to produce health care services? Can a marketplace provide products that you are willing to use for your health care needs? [5:16] Gary shares a personal experience about the startup of an e-commerce Catholic health care system and some unforeseen bumps in the road. It proves challenging to police such a large amount of products in the e-commerce store to make sure that the products align with your health care mission. [8:40] Sometimes the most successful businesses sell only one product. Amazon may be too big to succeed in the health care arena. Could they merchandise key products in a specified, trusted source? Could they control and manage the supply chain? What role would HIPAA play in the transaction? Would electronic medical records (EMR) and protected health information (PHI) be shared with unprotected third party vendors? [12:24] Relationships are important in the healthcare relationship. Expertise that representatives provide is a big part of the equation for a successful experience in the hospital and surgical center services. [14:49] Find out which group of professionals ranks the highest in honesty and ethics in a recent gallup poll. [17:00] How does the data track back to patient outcome/efficacy? What is the treatment plan/outcome? The products we as consumers are purchasing need to come from a trusted source, but the information also needs to be part of the plan. The link back to the EMR needs to be protected. For this to happen, you must be fully integrated with trusted partners. Mentioned in This Episode: The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More, by Chris Anderson Gallup Poll: Who do consumers trust?