The convergence of different trends in health care reform occurs at different points depending on which trends you include.

My take on health care is that a comprehensive convergence occurs at the nexus of three basic trends under which all else falls:

The increasing customization of health services. As health care comes to operate more and more in a retail marketplace, the supply/demand dynamics will normalize and the demand side will exert greater and greater influence on what the supply side produces.

The increasing personalization of the business and operational environment. As more has become understood of what goes into individual health care costs and as those costs have continued to spiral essentially out of control, health coverage must become increasingly personalized. Individual underwriting, rewards platforms for health improvement, comprehensive wellness programs--all are product trends that speak to this personalization.

The increasing ownership of information. The fragmented and badly managed information content of health care is demonstrably part of the uncontrolled costs, and has been clearly identified as a source of unnecessary morbidity and mortality. The current thrust of electronic management of personal health information (PHI) is heavily dependent on the legacy delivery side of health care. When consumers begin to understand the importance of personal management of their PHI, the system is going to end up with distributed responsibility for this data.

Open Health Media is a personal platform for a number of different ideas, products, and perspectives on health care, health care reform, and consumerism.

My perspective is one of 'a healer's take' on the toxic and often dangerous dynamics of the US health system--at once the system capable of handling the world's worst illnesses with high-tech wonders, while at the same arguably the developed world's poorest at achieving fundamental health policy goals. With 46 million or more uninsured Americans, the Emperor's closet is missing a few articles of clothing.

My background is in health care services (over twenty years as a doctor of chiropractic), government affairs (legislative affairs for state-level professional associations and non-profit organizations), non-profit institutional leadership (vice president for Institutional Advancement at Northwestern Health Sciences University in Minnesota), commercial product development (project lead for a web-based consumer health and wellness product for UnitedHealth Group Inc.), and now consultant on consumer and corporate health and wellness products.

Contact Infomation:

Stephen Bolles
Open Health Media
POB 44340
Eden Prairie, MN 55344
sbolles@openhealthmedia.com