WebMD CEO Wayne Gattinella on health information
Many dot-com businesses had their day but quickly faded from memory as anything but a lesson in how not to do business. WebMD is a dot com that has survived and prospered, with revenue up 48 percent from a year ago. CEO Wayne Gattinella spoke with U.S. News about how WebMD went from an online money-loser to a profitable leader in healthcare information.
How did WebMD survive the dot-com bust?
I think building a successful business model was important, but it began with the audience. One thing that we've done well even during the tougher times of 2000 and 2001 is really hold true to the editorial side of what our brand needed to stand for, and that is a very credible source for health information. During that same period, a lot of companies were struggling to follow the money and in that process lost sight of what they really stood for. We never really lost our compass in terms of what we are ultimately trying to achieve—helping people make more-informed health decisions. So the quality of the information, the relevance of the content, the timeliness of it, and, of course, the means to get to it are really important.
What first drew you to healthcare information?
Information is the driver of all health decisions, whether it be cost, quality, or treatment options. It's an information-rich industry that traditionally has made it very difficult for people to actually get at the information. It used to be that you'd go to the doctor and just sort of sat back and said, "Please share your wisdom, and I'll go from there." Now the majority of physician visits start with an online session where you're able to do a little bit of research and go into the doctor's office with knowledge about your situation and really be a much more empowered patient. And our view is that an empowered patient creates a much more productive session with your physician and ultimately creates better outcomes. And on the physician side, it's the same point. Doctors coming out of med school are very informed, and then everything sort of gets old after that. What the Web has done, and what WebMD is doing, is keeping physicians abreast and up to date on emerging diseases, conditions, new treatments to take care of them, and just better ways to interact with the patients. And again, that's the same goal: better outcomes from that interaction.
What is WebMD's role in the movement to consumer-directed healthcare?
Consumers themselves are going to become far more responsible for the health decisions they make, both financially and even clinically to some extent. Overall, our goal is to take our relationship with consumers, healthcare professionals, employees, and health plan members to the next level that creates a much more personalized experience with the health information that they're ultimately looking at.
You're also going to be hosting medical records online for specific companies?
Our delivery of the WebMD personal health record is actually at the core of many of the services that we are delivering, particularly in the employer markets. So what we do there is collect personal information on you, starting with self-reported stuff like your family history, then augment that with actual claims experience that you might have as time goes on, to create what becomes your personal health profile. So what you are looking at is very personalized for your health situation. It could be as simple as your age, your sex, your family status, or it could be as deep as any particular underlying conditions you have or conditions over time. The other value of the personal health record is that you can share it with healthcare professionals, your doctors, or other people over time, and it starts to really create a perfect record of your health history, not just for yourself but for the healthcare professionals. That is the future of the WebMD strategic mission, which is to be able to securely communicate with the people you choose to about your personal health information so that the decisions they make are equally informed and everyone has kind of a common view of your health profile at the time that they need it. You can build this on WebMD irrespective of who your employer is, who your health plan is. Just like the Internet was designed for anyone to be able to access it, we believe that your personal health history should be just as easy for you to get at as well.
Does control stay with the consumer?
The consumer is in control of it. The goal is an easy way for your physician to access your record with your permission or, in the case of an emergency, in the hospital with your permission. That information has been built for you, sitting in WebMD's secure sites, and can be accessed or downloaded securely at the time that you need it.
What is your biggest challenge in developing personal healthcare records?
The challenge is in the secure channels that provide the access points. In general, healthcare has been a little bit of a cottage industry. Doctors haven't typically been electronically wired where information can be easily transported back and forth. Physicians were used to and comfortable with the file-folder approach to health history. Of course, it's only got one doctor's view of your health. The challenge is to get the behavior changed, where the practitioner is comfortable electronically downloading this view of your health history and sharing it back out. It's starting to happen. It's happening with newer-generation docs who are coming out of med school literally learning on their laptops, not from books. They're perfectly comfortable with Web-enabled and Web-based information technology. The change is going to in large part happen because the consumer is going to pull it through. Now you're going to be more in control of that care and have higher expectations because you're going to be paying for a bigger chunk of it. So you're going to demand or expect more from the physician you choose. And perhaps if they are not able or willing to give you that interactive health record, you might go somewhere else. The patient and consumer will have a tremendous impact.
Do you have personal health records for your own employees?
Yes. We built a pilot several years ago using the WebMD employee base.
How is WebMD continuing to be a leader in the dot-com world?
The new word on the Web today is engagement. It used to be visitors. Now no one really cares how many visitors you've got if they're not doing a lot once they get to your site. The real question is, once they're there, what are they doing? What are they engaging in? How much time are they spending inside of that information? It's important because involvement is a proxy for satisfaction. The more involved I am, presumably the more satisfied I am with the experience I'm getting. It's a measure of people's likelihood of coming back again. And from a business standpoint, that's really what we sell. WebMD is far more powerful than putting your promotional dollars in a magazine or television or radio because of that involvement factor. There's no greater category that people get involved in than healthcare, if given the right set of tools and information. If we can get people who are seeking information about a particular condition or topic, get them more deeply involved, and then at the same time present some promotional information disclosed as advertising around it, there's no better time to have your message presented to that particular person, because they're going to be most apt and open to learning about your product information at that time.
How does your magazine tie into that?
The magazine is about getting the brand out there in the physical world. As strong as WebMD is as an online brand, it also plays pretty well in a more traditional format. The magazine is delivered free to physicians' offices because it's really focused on the patient as opposed to a sort of general newsstand subscription, which gives us the ability to deliver health information content at one of its most powerful points in time—when you're waiting to see the doctor. Wow! What a great time to be provided with the 10 questions to ask about a particular condition or situation. And from a business standpoint, certainly it's a great time for healthcare advertisers to get their message across. It works for the brand, it works for the consumers, and it works for the advertisers.