I’ll Have a SOPrDiMoCa

SOPrDiMoCa is not a popular travel destination in Italy, nor is it a seasonal coffee from Starbucks. It is an acronym for Self- Oriented Prevention, Diagnosis, Monitoring, and Care.

SOPrDiMoCa tools help people assess their own risk factors; sort out symptoms and learn what to do next; monitor a wide variety of signs, symptoms, and life events; and adjust their own care. All of these tasks can be done effectively and safely in real time and in one’s own home, and they can save time and cost less than going to a doctor’s office. According to Christensen, Grossman, and Hwang in their book, The Innovator’s Prescription:  A Disruptive Solution for Health Care, “Following the diagnosis and treatment by physicians, in many instances physicians can’t add much additional value beyond teaching patients broad categories of do’s and don’ts. Patients and their families typically must distill from their own experience algorithms of diet and activity that minimize the severity of their symptoms. Patients with these behavior–intensive diseases can generally formulate better algorithms of care through trial and error than their physicians can.”

The trend away from professionalism and centralization and toward simplicity, convenience, and a consumer-focused market is, according to Christensen et al, a natural progression during the “second and third waves of growth” of all industries.  For example, people are questioning why some of the things done in doctors’ offices have to be done there. Alternatively, they go to box stores like Walmart and health stores like CVS Health to receive “retail” clinic care for common ailments. In most cases, it is equivalent, quicker, more convenient, and cheaper. And while they are in these stores, they see a growing list of high-quality products that they can use to test and take care of themselves in aisle 7, SOPrDiMoCa.

The availability of home testing tools is expanding quickly. For example, OPTUM, a subsidiary of UnitedHealthcare, provides an At-Home Kit for members for biometrics. “This easy, self-administered test offers remote employees, spouses and new hires a private way to ‘self-screen, leveraging step-by-step instructions and a screening kit delivered directly to their doorstep.”  The Public Health Foundation of India deploys an android-based mobile system called the Swasthya Slate, which can perform 33 tests, including blood pressure, glucose, hemoglobin, and ECG. It can also test for pregnancy, dengue, and malaria. It retails for Rs 25,000 (or about $400) and has been tested and approved for use by community health workers.  A proponent says, “When we get sick, we won’t need to go—in high temperature and in severe pain—to our doctors’ offices, only to wait in line with patients who have other diseases that we may catch. Our doctors will come to us over the Internet.”  SimulConsult is a diagnostic tool that ingests the complete body of research literature for certain disorders.  The tool prompts doctors to enter information about the patient’s condition. It then generates hypotheses with associated probabilities about what the patient may have.  With a little more translation and technology to make it simpler, it could become a tool for people to use.

People have already adopted a more self-reliant role in other aspects of their lives. They use data and tools, make their own decisions, and prefer to “do-it-yourself” instead of relying on professionals to do their finances (e.g., online banking, electronic tax preparation and filing), travel (e.g., navigating directions, using online travel services), education (e.g., online coursework and degrees), shopping (e.g., buying online), and more. In these areas, technological advances have equipped and enabled people to take on these functions and have “changed cultural expectations regarding what people can learn, know, and do.”  The notion that people will not use data and tools to take a more active and decisive role in their lives has been debunked.