We’re working on a consumer focus at Outpatient. Our goal is to simplify the Outpatient Health experience for Patients and Families.
We’ve been working on it for many months – first with months of research and now building a product.
Our backgrounds are not in healthcare. We each have personal experience dealing with the bureaucracy of healthcare. We’ve each gone through very difficult family health experiences and had to manage situations without knowing how or where to get answers. But the truth is we lack previous working experience in this industry. We have deep consumer, mobile experience and a belief that the process can and should be MUCH better for just about everyone. We’ve worked hard over the past many months researching, interviewing, reading, and preparing to tackle this mission.
In April, I met Denny. He was introduced by a mutual friend and he’s the kind of person who could be really helpful. He is a successful entrepreneur within Healthcare and was part of the founding team at Wellpoint Health (now Anthem). He’s founded or led several other successful ventures and is currently CEO of a new company working to make employee benefits more accessible.
Our mutual friend had told Denny a little about Outpatient, so he had some familiarity. He started asking questions right away. In a friendly manner, but rapid fire and very pointed. And it seemed to be going ‘ok’ … until he got to the Question …
He looked at me and smiled,
“Peter – Is Outpatient more for the Patient or for the Family of the Patient?”
Now I’m nervous! We’ve just completed weeks working on a simpler, tighter and more focused product design. And the associated messaging to keep it easy to understand. We’re excited, but this is the first time I’ve been asked about it.
I know the answer … This is a spot-on question. Maybe the most intelligent question I’ve been asked during our young history. What answer would you give?
“It’s mostly for the family … we obviously want to help the Patients, but we are not Doctors nor are we delivering medical services. However, we can significantly help with communications, answers and information. And the people most in the dark are the Family. We want to help them”
My heart is pounding. Denny smiles,
