It was about 10 years ago when Jeff Kozloff, a healthcare market researcher, was reading an article on a consumer packaged goods company that was using technology to conduct ethnographic market research.
The company put tiny cameras on ballcaps worn by mothers to show how they interact with children and other moms. Kozloff thought to himself that healthcare didn’t utilize observational research enough, mostly because there was usually a human in the way.
Kozloff’s company, Verilogue, uses digital recordings and patient charts to collect data that is even more valuable as healthcare reform takes center stage.
“Everything comes back to the physician-patient relationship,” says Kozloff, whose company has grown rapidly in just two and a half years and now employs 35. “If our collective goal is to enhance care, reduce cost, create efficiency and ultimately improve patient outcomes, I think we need to better understand the communication between doctors and patients.
“We will play a very important role in the future of health care and the role of the consumer, or patient, being at the forefront of his or own care.”
Verilogue has signed up nearly 600 physician practices nationally. At those practices, patients are given a brochure about Verilogue and they can choose to participate. Because it’s completely an opt-in situation, Verilogue eliminates privacy concerns and complies with HIPPA requirements.
The company’s database of 30,000 doctor-patient conversations is the largest known collection of its kind. Verilogue covers 14 physician specialties and 50 therapeutic categories. The company compiles research into studies that are released monthly.
“Our larger goal is to help identify some of the communications gaps that exist and propose strategies to improve the doctor-patient dialogue,” says Kozloff.
Source: Jeff Kozloff, Verilogue
Writer: Joe Petrucci