For U.S. residents – 

I spoke last month at a health price transparency conference in Washington, sponsored in part by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In a side session we saw presentations by the winners of the Health 2.0 Developer Challenge for shopping tools. Consumer Reports won first place for shopping apps for their Hospital Advisor: Hip & Knee app. (The link has their demo video.) It’s a fabulous tool for comparing prices and quality for hip and knee replacements.

Now they’re expanding the data behind the app, so they want information from us. Team member Chris Baily sent this request – feel free to share widely:
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Consumer Reports is working on a tool to help Hip and Knee replacement patients find the right hospital and doctor. We need study participants to help us better understand patient needs in order to incorporate them into the product we’re developing.

If you’d like to participate, the first step is to answer a few screening questions (age, surgery status, good times to talk, etc). Click here: http://bit.ly/1fuC5Dt to determine your eligibility.

Interviews will be held by telephone or online via a Google Hangout. If you’re selected, we’ll be in touch directly to discuss details and set your appointment time.

Details of the study:

• The duration of the interview is 30 minutes
• Participants will receive a complimentary month of a ConsumerReports.org subscription

To participate you will need to:

• Be at least 18 years old
• Allow us to video or audio record the session

Thank you for your time!

Patricia Ju, Shane Shelley, and Chris Baily
Technology Innovation Center
Consumer Reports
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I note of my own – when you start studying what we’ll need for shopping tools, you quickly realize that it’s going to take a long, long time to gather data on all procedures in all locations.  This underscores that healthcare is a big, big industry. But you get a grip on it by starting, and continuing. This tool, and this study, are part of the process.

It’s a huge business opportunity for developers, and it’s going to take trustworthy data. One thing I love about this project is that the app is really, really user-friendly. Another is that it’s clearly designed from the consumer-patient point of view.

The next thing to make it world-changing is data. That’s what this step is about.