In announcing its deal to acquire Aetna, CVS Health President and CEO Larry J. Merlo promised that they will “remake the consumer health experience” by merging the analytics of Aetna with the human touch of CVS. The resulting business promises to “provide consumers with a better experience, reduced costs, and improved access to health care experts.”

This past week, I’ve been at America’s Health Insurance Plan’s (AHIP) National Conferences on Medicare and Medicaid in Washington, DC. It’s been jam-packed with speakers representing health plans from across the country, software vendors, service providers, lobbyists, and government relations.

 With access to more healthcare data than ever before, medicine is at a pivotal moment in its history. Redox is fortunate to have a front row seat to watch as innovative solutions redefine technology’s role in healthcare, and with us, our network is on the forefront of this new wave of digital technology adoption, too.

It’s a simple concept with powerful implications: give patients access to their clinical notes. Let patients review their caregiver’s analysis and give them an opportunity to add additional information or correct mistakes. Make summaries and instructions available so patients can review responsibilities and take ownership of their health. Pull back the curtain and provide patients total transparency into their health. Embrace the guiding principle of, “nothing about me without me”.

Digital Health Done Right is a Redox Blog Series that shines a light on a member of our interoperable network. We believe in what our partners are doing and want to share their stories and outcomes with you.

If there’s been one common thread throughout the companies featured thus far in Digital Health Done Right, it’s the thought that elevated and improved healthcare extends beyond the four walls of the doctor’s office. We’ve seen this with Glooko, Docent, and Tytocare, and each one does a fantastic job integrating different aspects of a patient’s life into one seamless and cohesive healthcare experience.  

Last week, the House voted to pass the American Healthcare Act. The bill, finalized 24 hours before the vote was taken, bucked many congressional norms like waiting for a CBO score or, you know, giving representatives time to read and analyze the legislation in its entirety.

Do you ever feel like the Big Tech companies overstep their boundaries?

Like Amazon trying their hand at fashion, Wikipedia launching a news site, or Google getting into healthcare?

There’s a common notion that inspiration can strike while people are thinking in the shower. Or, that ideas can occur when people are deep in thought and have dedicated countless hours to thinking up something novel.

It’s the halfway mark of the first day of Health Datapalooza 2017 in Washington, DC. This morning was full of intelligent discussions about how to best utilize the emerging goldmine of data in healthcare. There were also plenty of speakers, from the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price, who gave the opening keynote speech, to Casey Quinlan, an incredibly passionate patient advocate who has a QR code of her health records tattooed on her chest.

A lot of what we do here at Redox is driven by a simple sentence:

We are all patients.