Disruptive innovations create new markets and value systems that replace the existing structures and market framework. Disruptive innovations make processes that were previously long and difficult become easy and shorter (“The Explainer: Disruptive Innovation,” 2013) . While such innovations are frequent in the business world, there are way fewer in healthcare. This scarcity in healthcare is informed by a multiplicity of factors that must be keenly considered when coming up with health solutions. This paper highlights patient portals as a disruptive innovation that continues to redefine how patients relate to their physicians and health information.
Patient health records for centuries had been treated as secretive information exchanged among staff and hardly understood by the patients. This resulted in patients being clueless and unengaged in their healing journey as they had little understanding of their conditions. Laboratory results and scans needed one to travel to the facilities to receive the results and understand their implications. A lot has changed in the recent past as a result of the patient portals. These are web-based platforms that allow a patient through guarded credentials access their health data. Besides accessing their data, the portals enable the patient to book and schedule appointments with their physicians. Certain portals, besides access to patient information, provide information enabling patients to be more aware of their conditions (Jung & Padman, 2015) .
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Time and travel costs for the patient have been significantly reduced through the working of patient portals. One does not have to travel physically to a facility to schedule an appointment. On its advent, one of the biggest concerns around the innovation was patient data privacy, with stakeholders fearing the possibility that these portals would create multiple potential points for security breaches ( Herzlinger, 2014) . While this fear has come to be true, there is increasing strengthening of the system that continues to safeguard the privileges afforded by this innovation.
Patients, due to access, have gained more interest in their health, with many seeking to know more concerning their conditions. Health information is no longer the guarded matter that it has always been. The ownership of the healing journey has created a unique connection between patients and health facilities. Several portals can hold online clarifications and consultations for the patients, which are gradually being converted into a revenue stream ( Herzlinger, 2014) . Overall, patient health portals have enabled patients access their own health information, empowering their participation in their healing and decision making. Facilities that stuck to the old tradition in the fear of what would be if patient data was freely available have either had to rethink or lose clientele.
Breakthrough innovations do not always succeed ( Herzlinger, 2014) . The market has a myriad of factors that affect the success and continuity of any innovation. One key component that informs the success or failure of an innovation is cost. The Osborne computer is a classic example of breakthrough technologies that hardly attained market success. Discovered in a time when computers were bulky and barely moved, the Osborne computer came as a solution as it was the only portable device in the market. Nonetheless, the device was too expensive for the end-user and the company; a few years later filed for bankruptcy. In health, it is even harder for breakthrough technologies (Adi Gaskell, 2016) . Multiple factors are involved that an organization must overcome to offer a feasible disruptive innovations. Healthcare, as an industry, is fragmented, with multiple players that must be coordinated to rally successfully behind any innovation (Herzlinger, 2014) . There is a continuous clamor for the human touch in healthcare that innovations threaten to disrupt which is unfavorable (Prewitt, 2014)
Patient portals have redefined how patients interact with their physicians and health information. Multiple challenges, nonetheless, continue to exist within the whole matrix that each innovator must think through to offer long-lasting solutions.
References
Adi Gaskell. (2016, November 17). Building A Culture Of Innovation In Healthcare. Forbes . Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/adigaskell/2016/11/08/building-a-culture-of-innovation-in-healthcare/#3dea084344a7
Herzlinger, R. (2014, August). Why Innovation in Health Care Is So Hard. Retrieved from Harvard Business Review website: https://hbr.org/2006/05/why-innovation-in-health-care-is-so-hard
Jung, C., & Padman, R. (2015). Disruptive Digital Innovation in Healthcare Delivery: The Case for Patient Portals and Online Clinical Consultations. The Handbook of Service Innovation , 297–318. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6590-3_15
Prewitt, T. (2014, August 18). Healthcare Data Should Help, Not Hinder, the Human Endeavor. Retrieved November 28, 2019, from Health Catalyst website: https://www.healthcatalyst.com/healthcare-data-help-not-hinder-human-endeavor-has-2014
The Explainer: Disruptive Innovation. (2013, October 23). Retrieved November 28, 2019, from Hbr.org website: https://hbr.org/video/2688242135001/the-explainer-disruptive-innovation
