Studies show that people’s behaviors have a great impact on the economy. The health system is an important part of the country economy; if managed properly the country will flourish. However, if there is a failure on how it is managed and the budget allocation is done wrongly then the citizens are bound to suffer. In America, it is estimated that the health system is one of the departments that take most of the countries resource and budgetary allocation. Surprisingly, it is reported that the human behaviors among the patients and health care providers are what is making the healthcare to be costly and almost unmanageable. This essay strives to show how behavioral economics and big data can be used change patient behavior in improve healthcare.
Research indicates that the human behavior is largely impacting the delivery and provision of care. According to Sviokla, Schroeder, & Weakland (2010), noncompliance with medical advice is one reason the US health is so costly. Additionally, medical researchers have indicated that there is a massive failure in the health sector because the patient fails to follow the advice given by the medical professionals (Sviokla, Schroeder, & Weakland, 2010). Three of every four Americans don’t take drugs as directed. Almost half of the people receiving medications forget to take drugs as expected. Additionally, 30 percent of the patients stop taking pills before the drugs run out (Sviokla, Schroeder, & Weakland, 2010). Consequently, such behaviors are costing a lot and making the provision of healthcare to be an expensive affair. It is estimated that it cost the US $290 billion per year to maintain its health system and provide care.
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Unfavorable human behavior is leading to waste and thus making healthcare expensive. The issue of missing appointments is described as a waste and it is on the rise. Failed appointments are on the increase and run as high as 20 to 30 percent. A missed appointment costs an average of $700 to the health care system. In 2006 there were 900 million appointments in America the annual cost of such appointments amounts to an annual cost of over $150 billion (Matjasko, et al., 2016). Therefore human behaviors need to be analyzed and strategies put in place using the behavioral economics in an effort to improve the healthcare.
Behavioral economics is that has been utilized in various fields to change the way people think. This knowledge involves some science that combines insights from psychology, judgment, and decision making to and economics to transform and influence people’s behavior (Wilkinson, & Klaes, 2017). Prior to the utilization of this science, it was believed that people relied on the assumption that their preferences are well defined and stable across time and is rational. The science proves that there are observable anomalies in people’s behavior that could interfere with their capabilities in decisions making; this could be the anomalies that are making patients to miss our ton appointment and taking prescribed medications as directed.
The science of behavioral economics is well applicable in changing patient’s behavior and consequently improving healthcare. One of its benefits is that it has nudge units. These units create opportunities to nudge people behavior by making subtle changes to the context in which they are making decisions. In one of the experiments, an organization was trying to test the applicability of the nudge units. In the experiment, the organization wanted to use incentives to transform the smokers’ behavior. The employees were offered $250 if they stopped their smoking habits for six months. Those who were able to completely stop smoking for a year would receive $400 (Khullar et al., 2015). The results showed that the organization achieved three times success rate of controlling the smoker’s behavior. Even when the incentives we continued for over twelve months the people were persistent in their newly adopted behaviors. Therefore, behavioral economics and the nudge units can be utilized to control and influence peoples behaviors.
Khullar et al (2015) confirm that nudges can be applied to change the healthcare and achieve positive outcomes in health. The article reports that behavioral economics is more effective in medical care that all the factors that people have relied on in the past. The article mentions that “the way I care for patients has nothing to do with medical science I’ve spent in my career absorbing than with habits, environmental cures and other subtle nudges that I think little about” (Khullar et al., 2015).
The behavioral economics differs from other economics in that it has to influence decision making. This modern economics shows that human decision making departs frequently, significantly and predictably from what would be expected if people acted in a purely rational way. The economics further shows that people don’t make decision-based on the careful calculations of risks and benefits (Wilkinson, & Klaes, 2017). People behavior and decisions are mostly influenced by emotions, identity, and environment. The way options are presented to the decision makers will influence the decisions they make. This is the reason why a doctor will prescribe a particular brand of medication not because it is better than the others but because it is the default option in the hospitals ordering system (Wilkinson, & Klaes, 2017).
Big data and behavioral economics can be used to collect and present data that is used in major decision making in the hospitals. It is apparent that people overwhelmingly tend to stick with default options when given a choice (Wilkinson, & Klaes, 2017). A good example to prove this would be a trend in which organ donation rates are over 90 percent in countries where citizens need to override a default and opt out of donation compared with 4 to 27 percent where they much choose to opt-in (Sent, 2004). So when people are used to a certain doctor and he or she is transferred they will stop seeking the services in such a hospital. People will have a difficult time trusting a new doctor in providing them with healthcare. The patients might show noncompliance to what he directs them to do or even fail to come for appointments.
Behavioral economics uses psychology to show that patients and physicians can be predictably irrational in their decision making because they are vulnerable to human anomalies. The rational economics had a misconception that humans are rational and that they can consistently choose options that are logical and bound for self-development. The good example on this is when people indulge in drugs to manage stress or physicians think that they can work for long hours without having some impacts. Failing to have time to rest is a big contributor to medical errors in hospitals.
Typically the behavioral economics can be used to improve health through various means. Firstly it has been proposed for simplifying design making in Medicare and guiding the employers on the importance of enrolling workers into health insurance (Matjasko et al., 2016). When the health insurance is made compulsory for all workers in a company it will act as a nudge to make them pay for Medicare. When the employees are enrolled they will find it hard to opt out of the system and therefore there will be minimal defaults in paying for the health insurance.
Nudges can be used to improve health care in influencing patient’s decisions. A study showed that when nudges were used to push people into making a plan, it increased the possibility of improving healthcare outcomes (Matjasko et al., 2016). Such behaviors can be seen in immunization, healthy eating and cancer screening. For instance, in one study it was found out that emailing patient’s appointment times and locations for their next influenza vaccination helped to increase the influenza rates by 36 percent. In an alternative study, people were emailed a card and required to fill the time and date when they would be available for vaccination and were also informed of a free influenza clinic. Those who were prompted to write down the day and time of hey planned to get the influenza vaccine were more than those who just got the information on the day of vaccination (Matjasko et al., 2016). Therefore the control of their behavior made them be more engaged in the vaccination exercise.
Behavioral economics might also be used to show consensus. For instance, if an advert reports that 90 percent of doctors agree that a certain medicine is safe the prescription will be trusted by the patient. This economics provides an opportunity to influence the framing in public health domain. Framing can occur in blood transfusion, smoking cessation sunscreen use among other healthcare activities. Framed messages emphasize the health gains of such medical care. This framing influences the attitudes towards the activities. The loss based activities can also be very effective in pushing for people to stick to healthcare. For instance, if the patients are informed of the rates at which people die because of failing to undertake mammography screening can influence them to consider undertaking such medications. The reason behind this ideology is that people are more sensitive to losses than they are to consumerate gains (Khullar, et al., 2015).
Big data and big data analytics can be used in various systems in the healthcare settings. Some of the fields that would benefit directly from this technology include payment systems providers’ information and pharmaceutical organization. Big data can be used to manage information and reduce waste in health systems (Hostetter & Klein, 2013). First, it can be done by digitizing health activities this would allow for an opportunity to handle vast amounts of data and to analyze it as it comes in. Through data analytics, the process can be sequenced and used to decide on important issues like the production of tailored decisions (Raghupathi & Raghupathi, 2014). For instance, if data analytics shows that people prefer injection rather than tablets then there might be a decision to work with the option of injections.
Data analytics might be used to plan for personalized medicines and treatments. Through sequencing it is possible to analyze human genomes DNA and produce medicines as per the biological needs of the patients sequencing will also provide doctors with information about patient’s health (Raghupathi & Raghupathi, 2014). The reaction to medicines can be shown through data analysis. It is also possible to come out with analytics showing the probability of people getting certain diseases. This data could be used for the provision of care and making prevention plans (Hostetter & Klein, 2013). Suppose the data shows that people in certain regions are prone to some chronic diseases, then the medical professionals can use community education to help them prevent the disease.
Big data can be used to combine patient information and help in showing the best approaches to use in providing care. The big data can be used to create tailor-made medicine to the human genome of a patient and therefore achieve the best results for certain treatment. It can also be used to combine the patient’s health records, diet information, and social factors to show the best approaches that can be sued to provide treatment (Raghupathi & Raghupathi, 2014).
Big data and data analytics can be used to provide real-time analytics. For instance, it would be possible to monitor the behavior of doctors or nurses. For instance, if the conversation that doctors or nurses have with the patients have can be remotely monitored using data analytics; then the rude and unkind medics can be discovered and disciplinary measure taken against them. Additionally, it would be possible to stream data from the bedside monitors and this could be used to monitor the subtle changes that the patients are making. In case there are rapid changes the doctors will be able to attend to the patient swiftly.
Moreover, big data can be used to design and produce applications that can remotely monitor the patient’s heath. An-out of home healthcare can have information technology experts design for them qualifies self-applications and medical applications that can be installed and monitored in a Smartphone (Hostetter & Klein, 2013). The applications and the gadgets can also be integrated in-body sensors to help track for the patients are faring. This can be used on patients with diseases such as kidney failure, boodle pressure or diabetes. When this information is collected and analyzed it will be possible to prepare on how to care for a patient and the best time that they can visit the hospital. The doctors will readily access the records that show how the patient is responding to previous treatment.
In conclusion, behavioral economics, big data, and data analytics are resourceful in the improvement of healthcare systems. This essay has proved that the provision of care is being negatively impacted by people’s behaviors. Behavioral economics can be utilized to bring a nudging effect and behavioral control that will make people be more compliant with the health care. Data analytics, on the other hand, can be used to provide real-time analysis of the patient health and help in planning the best treatment approaches. In future, this will enable in producing personalized medicines and provide specifically tailored care.
References
Hostetter, M., & Klein, S. (2013). In Focus: Using Behavioral Economics to Advance Population Health and Improve the Quality of Health Care Services. The Commonwealth Fund .
Khullar, D., Chokshi, D. A., Kocher, R., Reddy, A., Basu, K., Conway, P. H., & Rajkumar, R. (2015). Behavioral economics and physician compensation—promise and challenges. New England Journal of Medicine , 372 (24), 2281-2283.
Sviokla, J., Schroeder, B., & Weakland, T. (2010). How behavioral economics can help cure the health care crisis. Harvard Business Review .
Matjasko, J. L., Cawley, J. H., Baker-Goering, M. M., & Yokum, D. V. (2016). Applying behavioral economics to public health policy. American journal of preventive medicine , 50 (5), S13-S19.
Raghupathi, W., & Raghupathi, V. (2014). Big data analytics in healthcare: promise and potential. Health information science and systems , 2 (1), 3.
Sent, E. M. (2004). Behavioral economics: how psychology made its (limited) way back into economics. History of Political Economy , 36 (4), 735-760.
Wilkinson, N., & Klaes, M. (2017). An introduction to behavioral economics . Macmillan International Higher Education.
