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We’re challenged, as clinicians, by global and local disparities in health care

Economic prosperity is based, in part, on global economic trade. In turn, the process of globalization—in which communities of diverse people are brought closer together—has made starkly evident the gulf in the quality of medical care available to women from one country to the next. Why, for example, is the maternal death rate in developed countries in the range of 1 of every 8,500 births while, in some impoverished countries, it is 1 in 100?

Making a contribution to solving health disparities is an important part of modern medical practice, and such efforts are likely to grow in importance over the next decades. For example, this month, the home page of www.obgmanagment.com features a Web-exclusive article about how two US ObGyns are using volunteer labor and charitable support to improve the health of women in two countries where resources and caregivers are in short supply.

Recognition of marked differences in health care across the globe resonates back to our nation, where many of your ObGyn colleagues play an important role in reducing the disparity in clinical outcomes between wealthy and poor Americans.

Electronic processes are reshaping health care

Twenty years ago, the Internet hung out an “Open for business” sign, and the Web has grown to be the backbone of most modern financial, retail, educational, and medical operations. Availability of a global web of electronic connections, along with development of personal computing technology, has set the stage for a complete transition of medical care from a paper basis to an electronic platform.

During the past 20 years, you and your peers have become adept—some, more so than others, admittedly—at a myriad of electronic applications. These include electronic billing and scheduling systems, electronic medical records, electronic physician order entry, computerized prescription practices, and computerized decision-support software. The use of these electronic systems in health care will continue to grow and the use of paper will end.

Now, the question that follows this assertion is an intriguing one: Will electronic systems stimulate formation of virtual regional networks of clinicians and patients?

I think that the answer is “Yes.” The Internet and the availability of massive computing capacity, taken together, set the stage for integration of all patient medical information and clinical processes into large, regional networks of physicians and patients that continuously acquire and share patient information—the goal being not to just warehouse data but to improve health. And once patients, clinicians, and hospitals are all participants in a regional electronic network, they will use it to increase the frequency and intensity of their communications.

Imagine—a Twitter service for health care! You log in and send a short health message to your patients: “Did you take your medicines today?”

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Reader, the editorial and design staffs at OBG Management, and the members of its Board of Editors, are honored to serve you. We’re committed to being a trusted part of your continuing professional development—in our printed pages, on your computer (and your mobile device), and at our live meetings. And we hope that we contribute to better care for all women—through our efforts to explain how research translates to care; track the arrival of new technology in your office; and describe how advances in computing can transform practice.

Here’s looking ahead to what comes next—in medicine, in ObGyn practice, and in astonishing changes in the delivery of information. See you soon, in your future!