What If Your Next Article Asked "What If?"

What If Your Next Article Asked "What If?"

One of the best ways to engage readers or audience members is to speculate about the future of a profession, issue, trend, industry or group.   Consider using your next article, blog, issue brief or white paper to ask the question, “What if?”   

Just think about how you might apply “what if” to an industry like healthcare.  Opinion leaders have already covered topics like the following:   

• What If We Could Rethink Digital Healthcare?
• What If America Had Canada’s Health System?
• What If Airlines Worked Like the U.S. Healthcare System?
• What If Our Healthcare System Kept Us Healthy?
• What If Healthcare’s Holy Grail Is a Paper Cup?

Begin a what if scenario by describing the underlying problem or current situation.  Among the questions to ask are the following:    

• Snapshot: What’s healthcare like today?   Or, more specifically, what’s it like to visit a doctor’s office, experience surgery or manage a chronic disease at home?  
• Status Quo: How, where and when is care delivered and by whom? Stated another way, what’s the typical healthcare consumer or patient journey or experience?     
• Impact: What are the results or consequences for healthcare consumers, patients, providers and others? How does the status quo influence  healthcare quality, access, efficiency, cost, outcomes and satisfaction?

Once you’ve described the challenge or problem, you’re ready to play what if.   What would healthcare be like if it were structured like the airline or auto industry?   Or, as an alternative, how would the airline or financial services industry operate if it were modeled after the healthcare industry?   Be sure to provide details on the following:

• How would the service experience change?
• What would improve? What might worsen?
• How would these changes influence consumers and those who deliver the service?

Another approach is to develop a series of what if scenarios.   For example, what would happen if Americans were covered by single payer system?  What if consumers had routine access to mobile and video technologies?    How much money would the country save if healthcare found a way to prevent a chronic disease like cancer, congestive heart failure or asthma?    Be sure to provide readers with statistics, examples and expert quotes that document the impact of the change.   

By asking your readers to consider all available possibilities and think in terms of what could be, you can ease them into a discussion of how they might develop strategies to orchestrate change.      

Joyce Flory is a Chicago-based independent writer, editor, content developer and marketer for healthcare and business.