Pain in the Neck: Old-school health communication

Interacting with the health-care system can be pretty annoying. Long waits, endless tests, big bills – these things can rattle your nerves and raise your blood pressure  while you’re trying to take care of your health. Our health and science team is discussing these issue in an occasional series called “Pain in the Neck”.

For this segment, we ask our audience: “What’s most annoying about our healthcare system- and is anybody trying to fix it?” This week’s submission for “Pain in the Neck” comes from Philadelphian Cathy Weiss, who says endless voicemail loops are her biggest annoyance. She reports that when she tries to call doctor’s offices, there are countless options, but never a human. She says you can be on the phone for half an hour and be no closer to resolving her problem or question.

Vijay Kanna and Vince Barrett of Koncierge MD are trying to propel doctors into the age of modern communication. At their Newtown Square start-up, they are creating an online patient engagement platform, which will allow patients to book appointments online, speak to their doctor via video conference and much more. 

If you have a submission for our “Pain in the Neck” segment – email us at thepulse@whyy.org. Or tweet using hashtag “#whyypulse”