Healthcare systems across the world are under pressure. For many developed countries, they are wrestling with the same complex challenges – aging populations, fiscal pressures and increasing patient expectations.

Health reform may expand the market for insurance by 30 million new customers. Insurers are racing to open stores to sell to them.

When I worked at a startup, we jokingly referred to our “HR department”—a cardboard box that held resumes, NDAs, tax forms, whatever. Perhaps not coincidentally, we also played beer pong and Texas Hold ‘Em in the office. Mostly that was part of the fun of working there, but when one of our developers lifted my Facebook (FB) log-in to post some jokey stuff on our site under my name, that cardboard box suddenly felt like a woefully inadequate advocate.

The U.S. healthcare system is going to have to gain control over unnecessary spending said Don Berwick and Rosemary Gibson during their respective keynotes at a conference last week for healthcare stakeholders in Maine.---Berwick, Gibson address healthcare spending during conference

The role of the consumer is dramatically changing as the health care system evolves at a faster pace than ever before. As cost and risk shift from employers and health plans to providers and consumers, the notion of an accountable consumer is taking shape. Never before has an individual had as many choices – and as much responsibility.