— By Rachel Phillips Terry, Corporate Vice President, Sales, BioIQ —
Looking back on the AHIP Institute 2015 conference in Nashville, it’s not just the fabulous blues, rock and roll, and soul music that is ringing in my words. I’ve been thinking about some of the insights shared by Elizabeth Holmes, CEO and Founder of Theranos. Like many thought-leaders at the conference, Holmes emphasized the importance of making actionable health information available when it matters, thereby enabling early detection of chronic diseases. Along with BioIQ, she believes it is time to build a healthcare system that meets the needs of individuals. That means making early detection and prevention a reality, with appropriate hand-offs to provide access to targeted healthcare services.
According to Holmes, lab data from biometric screening drives 70 percent of clinical decisions, yet there are too many impediments to accessing that data, both for patients and providers. Millions of people in the U.S. don’t know that they have diabetes, pre-diabetes, heart disease, or early-stage colorectal cancer. Even more shocking, 40 to 60 percent of patients don’t take the tests their physicians order for them, even when they are symptomatic. She argued that consumers need greater visibility into the diagnostic process and more quality choices for biometric testing—a position that BioIQ has held and promoted avidly since it’s founding ten years ago.
When it comes to wellness screening, member screening, and corporate health screening, there is a desperate need for real-time data that “follows the patient,” so that when people with chronic conditions are identified they can be directed to appropriate interventions. “Ultimately,” she said, “the individual can play a transformative role in changing our healthcare system.”
BioIQ puts individuals at the forefront, making it easy to get screened and view results in a manner most suited to each person’s needs. But it doesn’t stop with health screening. We also help people understand their risks and close gaps in care. We make biometric data actionable by directing people to the appropriate “next steps” for improving their health.
I’ll be counting the days until the next AHIP conference, and counting the number of lives that we impact in the interim, as we all rise to the challenge of increasing access to consumer-friendly health screening services. Knowing your numbers is one of the linchpins of wellness, and a fundamental tenet of improving population health.