Q & A for Using Technology in Healthcare

"Do you have any questions? I've got all the answers ...as long as you ask the right questions."

I often used that one-liner to open many a dialogue about managing medications, when I was working as a retail pharmacist. I was always readily accessible to my pharmacy patients. That comes with the territory.

But it's interesting that very few people ask questions on their own about their prescriptions - or about much of anything when it comes to their own health care. Wonder why that is? Maybe they don't really understand why the drug was ordered and don't want to look stupid or foolish? Possibly, but pharmacists are a rich resource of information and most of us love the opportunity to answer real patient questions. ;D

Now that I'm an entrepreneur/software developer, my "territory" is literally the world, but I'm trying to use new online technology to achieve that same level of accessibility for my software customers (and I still consider them my "patients").

Through a Twitter friend or some other blog contact, (not really sure now), I learned about LivePerson.com and decided to check it out. It's an online informational service that matches people who have questions about a particular topic with a list of potential experts in that field.

I was impressed with what I saw and decided to give it a try. You can check out my LivePerson profile or simply click on the OnlineConsult button on this website to learn more.

This new venture is pretty exciting because I think it will enable me to reach - and help - more patients who have been silently struggling with their drug regimen issues.

I truly hope so anyway.