YHA offers web-based video answers to frequently asked patient questions. When patients visit their physicians, they often accurately remember only a fraction of what their physicians said. After an office visit, patients frequently have more questions -- typically when they get home. Later, at the end of the day, patients often forget the original fraction of what their physician advised -- or, worse, remember the advice incorrectly. Finally, their loved ones may have additional questions about what the doctor said. This tenuous transfer of medical guidance from the doctor to the patient is a source of poorer patient outcomes (from an incomplete understanding by patients of their condition(s) and how best to manage them); increased health resource utilization (from poor outcomes); doctor frustration (from having to repeat herself multiple times to individual patients -- and also having to repeat the same advice over and over to patients with similar conditions); patient dissatisfaction (from not fully understanding why the doctor has advised a particular treatment); and lower doctor productivity (from having to spend the time answering the same questions multiple times). By video recording answers to commonly and frequently asked patient questions, and by having these answers to FAQs available 24/7 on the web, health care becomes more widely available and highly accessible. YHA offers better communication, which is a pillar of better care, and patients benefit. Doctors benefit from improved productivity from not having to spend as much time repeating themselves. This benefit is critical because many IT initiatives in health care have failed precisely because they provide little financial upside to physicians.

There is nothing on the web like this.

One of YHA's core values is that it saves physicians time. By answering patient FAQs, physicians can be more productive. Physicians will refer patients to YHA content (video answers to FAQs) in order to be more productive. Patients will go to YHA because their doctor has referred them.

We are partnering with hospital systems to generate credible video content. Hospital systems market their services to consumers; for any hospital system, those services are based on the physicians who perform those services. The hospital systems showcase their physicians answering frequently asked patient questions on YHA; patients connect a human face to the service offered by the hospital (a cardiac surgeon, for example, answers the top 60 questions about bypass surgery). This bonds patients to the doctor in the video affiliated with the hospital and attracts more patients. Also, hospitals' business development strategies revolve around winning the hearts and minds of referring physicians. Referring physicians are given brochures (branded by hospitals) that direct patients to YHA so that they, the physicians, can be more productive. We are currently implementing this strategy for a hospital system in New Jersey; we are in similar discussions with two academic medical centers and with a national blood testing laboratory company (to have FAQs answered about blood tests). Entities that provide patient services will each create video content to market and brand their services (patient care services for hospitals, blood testing services for laboratories); this will simultaneously build YHA content and disseminate awareness of YHA.

Metrics for adoption are to be tracked with registration codes. Our current implementation was a proof of concept with a cardiology practice in New Jersey. Of patients referred to YHA, 70% have registered. The average age of the sample is 57

We have found that patients and providers of direct patient care services -- doctors, hospitals, ancillary service entities (such as laboratories) -- immediately understand and see value in the YHA innovation; pharma and payors, however, don't immediately see value. What is considered valuable by patients and providers is not considered so by the entities with large amounts of capital in the health care system in the US. There appears to be little alignment between the interests of pharma and payors and those of patients and providers. The YHA innovation appears to highlight this disconnect. This incongruity may be a synecdoche of the larger problem of rapidly increasing health costs without better quality of care or increased insurance coverage in the US.

The improvement in physician productivity, made feasible by the YHA innovation of detailed information transfer from the provider to the patient, is unique and should drive adoption and sustain the innovation. Subsequent improvements in disease management metrics -- from better patient education and understanding and from greater patient attention to her health using automated reminders -- will drive the business model.

Of the patients referred (n=110), we have a 70% registration rate; the high registration rate is expected, given that patients are referred on the advice of their doctor. Patient feedback is highly positive, as this is perceived as an additional service that the doctor's office provides. They enjoy the videos, and they feel that they learn a great deal about their condition.

Atlantic Health Systems (AHS) has evaluated YHA, and we are in the initial stages of implementation for AHS in the disease verticals of cardiology (hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, bypass surgery, arrhythmias, heart failure) and diabetes.

We are also attempting to partner with other health services providers such as laboratories, home care services, visiting nurse services, nursing homes and long-term care companies, hospice companies, rehabilitation institutions, and imaging facilities. Each of these entities can offer video content to YHA to help educate patients (and physicians) about the wide spectrum of health services provided in the US. As an example, having video answers to FAQs about terminal care is important and can educate patients, family, and physicians (many physicians have antiquated ideas of hospice care) about this growing and important service.

My 10-year old son said that he wished he had a YHA-like solution for his assignments in reading comprehension. He dislikes reading 3-paragraph topics followed by three or four questions, testing his comprehension of those paragraphs. Patients are currently faced with the same task of comprehending reams of health information on the web in order to have their questions answered. YHA provides the answer key. >