8-2: Best Practices

The blog I chose for this assignment is located at the following address:  http://georgevanantwerp.com/.

The purpose of the blog, “Enabling Healthy Decisions” as stated is:  “This blog (formerly The Patient Advocate) contains my thoughts about healthcare. It is generally focused on marketing related issues from a patient perspective. After working in healthcare, my opinion is that most companies today think of patients as claims. I advocate that healthcare needs to be more like consumer products and think differently about how they interact...both for their own personal benefits and for the patients”.   It is written by George Van Antwerp, Vice President of Product Development at inVentiv Medical Management.  As detailed in the "About" section of the blog, Mr. Van Antwerp has extensive experience in the business and product development functions of both healthcare and non-healthcare related companies, and offers his insight on numerous healthcare related topics.  

I find the information Mr. Van Antwerp provides to be of great interest, especially as it pertains to my work within the prescription benefit management field.  As implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) moves forward, healthcare companies are quickly moving to change the way they operate on a day to day basis in order to ensure compliance with the mandates and offer their clients and members the most optimal care.  Van Antwerp’s experience and knowledge in the field provides analysis and offers best practice solutions for those within the healthcare field to help best operationalize new technology to engage patients and in the long run, achieve better health outcomes.  

As far as best practices, I believe the Van Antwerp’s blog offers a number of them:

-Given the overwhelming amount of political talk and opinion regarding the ACA and healthcare in general, and the wealth of disinformation on the web, finding sources that simply break down the facts in a way that is easy to understand and to digest is invaluable.  Van Antwerp’s analyses of subjects ranging from drug trends to the rise in specialty pharmacy utilization to the use of new media to communicate with patients and providers, is thorough and well thought out.  

-As mentioned, Van Antwerp writes about a variety of subjects related to healthcare, providing a broad picture of the “holistic” approach that is becoming more prevalent among healthcare companies and service providers, offering an all-encompassing look at the many different aspects of healthcare.  From the issue of legalized marijuana versus drug abuse prevention, to how best to address the obesity epidemic that is proving to place more and more of a burden on our healthcare system, Van Antwerp provides measured, logical analyses that are positioned to engage and encourage discussion.  

-Van Antwerp also posts on a regular basis, an aspect that is very important especially given the changing nature of healthcare and services as new innovations are discovered and implemented.  

Overall, I believe that the information Mr. Van Antwerp provides is useful, and not just for those who are working in the healthcare environment.  As new innovations and strategies regarding the best way to deliver optimal healthcare services are devised and implemented, anyone can benefit from having access to the knowledge that Van Antwerp provides, because one of the best ways to help bring healthcare costs down is to have an informed and empowered customer/patient base who are engaged in their care for now and for the future.