As part of the human condition, and as a basic need, humans need constant care to survive and thrive physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. We need healthcare, and we are always patients from the time we are born until the time of our death. It is called healthcare because we need to care for the health of humans.

We have learned from organizations such as Amazon, Costco, Salesforce.com, Disney, and Ritz-Carlton to apply best of practice principles and technologies, information and data management platforms, as well as analytics, to enable us to be truly patient-centric as an organization.

Even though patient centricity is often talked about, written about, and vocally expressed by leaders of different healthcare organizations, it is extremely rare to find. The reason for this is that it is counterintuitive, challenging, and a difficult proposition to execute effectively and easily. However, once your organization learns that the customer is not buying better mouse traps but fulfilling his need of getting rid of mice, then your organization is on its way to patient centricity.

In the healthcare industry, many organizations are disease-centered or specialty-centered. In other words, everything that the organization does is centered around either that specialty or the disease they manage, so they then measure their success in terms of the organ system and the disease, which is their product. Therefore, the center of gravity for many healthcare organizations and providers is not the patient; it's often the disease, the technology, or some other focal point instead of the patient. Consequently, the organization is then organized around the management of that focal point rather than the patient.

This is natural for the organization and these providers because diseases and organ systems are very complex. In fact, healthcare organizations will develop a reputation based on a highly developed procedure or technology or the type of procedure. However, disease and organ systems, technologies, or other non-patient-centric elements are limited because, ultimately, what the human being (the patient) wants is not a fancy procedure or technology; he wants to be free of disease and live a good, normal, healthy life to the best of his potential.

Non-patient centricity—whether it's a disease, procedure, treatment, technology, or another focal point—leads to myopia (e.g. a vascular specialist focuses on the leg, but the leg is attached to the body and the human being with feelings and the entire complexity of the human condition). This then leads to language such as, "The surgery was successful, but the patient died," which shouldn't be the case. Instead, treatment/procedures should be thought of as the means to an end. The patient value and good patient outcomes are what we are seeking.

In contrast, patient centricity is the belief that the success of the organization lies in the following:

1. Superior understanding of the patient — Patient 360 view. Obtain powerful insights about the patient or the population.

   1. Inbound aspect.

      • Bring insight about the patient into the organization.

      • Macro (community, population) and micro (individual patient)

2. Insights to create superior value proposition and treatment offerings regarding how patients can lead a healthy, disease-free life.

   1. Intra-organizational aspect.

   2. Use these insights to create better value proposition at the macro level and personalize individual care at the micro level.

   3. Create superior treatments or care models.

3. Superior health care with superior patient experience.

   1. Outbound patient care delivery, which delights and excites customers.

Ingraining this thinking and acting on the central premise that the patient is the center of our universe is what patient-centricity is all about.

We, at MIMIT Health, have learned from organizations such as Amazon, Costco, salesforce.com, Disney, Ritz-Carlton and applied best of practice principles and technologies, information and data management platforms, and analytics to enable us as an organization to be truly patient-centric.

We strive to fulfill the three important aspects of being patient-centric

1. Gain superior patient insights,

2. Create Superior value propositions in care delivery

3. deliver a superior patient experience

In a patient Centric organization, the leadership truly believes and lives by these principles and creates a culture within which the entire organization lives breeds and thinks around patient centricity.

Because ultimately each one of us is also a patient.