-
by Gaurav Aggarwal - The healthcare organizations are ramping up their digital activities, however, the efforts remain disconnected and disparate, misguided, and misplaced. The leaders/management must focus on how to derive new value using data as an asset to drive transformation and optimization for more effectiveness.
The dynamics of the healthcare ecosystem are witnessing a robust wakening as the Covid 19 pandemic has cast unparalleled demands on the industry. While all other business is at a stall at the moment, the healthcare industry is continuously going through unprecedented adoption and innovation, demonstrating its resilience over time.
These innovations must stand the test of time and save human lives. An effective healthcare response during the pandemic commands catering to overall healthcare needs. The system is now overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases and should gear up for routine medical services that are being delayed or canceled.
The pandemic has proven to be the epitome of a multidimensional and multidisciplinary problem, which needs a concrete digital makeover integrating science and technology.
The application of digital technologies in pandemic management and response, highlighting ways in which successful countries have adopted and integrated digital technologies for pandemic planning, surveillance, testing, contact tracing, quarantine, and healthcare.
Digital health technology can facilitate pandemic strategy and response in ways that are difficult to achieve manually. However, due to the ongoing pandemic, healthcare and life sciences have accelerated their digital advancements. The players in this field would generally map and implement their digital strategy over one-to-years depending on the initiatives. However, these policies and regulations were being executed within a matter of days or weeks.
Advancement in the sciences and healthcare sector is constantly evolving. The results if packaged into a strategy and pushed into execution in a haste can have damaging effects. An article in Gartner stated, “Optimization and modernization are the foundation for digital advancement. Healthcare and life science CEOs and boards of directors want to digitally transform and innovate and have learned that they cannot achieve their business growth goals using outdated technology. Legacy technology, when not well-integrated with systems of record and innovative IT applications, is a constraint on digital progress.”
There has to be a balance and systems should be in place for healthcare staff to be able to deal with digitalization. How soon are the medical practitioners able to embrace the digital changes in their workflow is also a key reason for the slow assimilation of digital technologies in the healthcare regimen. This pushes the disengagement process between technology, healthcare staff and patients a bit further, leaving gaps still to be filled. Most of these changes are long lasting, so it has to be done eventually through training sessions, workshops of the medical staff and most importantly by monitoring the implementation system as it can have bearing effects on the healthcare system.
Significant strides are being made for merging the latest digital outcomes in the healthcare and life sciences field, but there surely is disconnectedness of data which can prove to be a major drag in the system. It can turn productive collaboration much tougher. There have been situations when hospital administration could not leverage data analytics to provide greater care to serious patients.
Another huge gap that is split wide open due to digitalization in the healthcare sphere, is adherence to privacy regulations. Though crores of rupees are being invested for rapid advancements for digitalization of medical organizations, interoperability is still not there today. This is critical as technology cannot enable communication between healthcare organizations, medical staff and the patients.
An article in Gartner expressed, “Value-based care is not just a payment mechanism — it is a fundamental systemwide shift from isolated health interventions to comprehensive population health. To succeed, CIOs must use technology to make care and population health management efforts person-centric. This includes, in some countries, bridging gaps between national health policy and funding models by taking cues from exemplar countries’ successes in personalizing services to address consumers’ social determinants of health.”
The article further said, “Life science CIOs operate in a challenging environment fraught with rising development costs, volatile regulations and rampant medical innovations. CIOs’ engagement with business leaders is critical to ensure that IT’s efforts are result-focused and deliver the value of digital technology across the enterprise. Life science CIOs must optimize the deployment of value-oriented solutions, while also remaining compliant.”
The value of digital technology is nothing but ‘disruptive technology’. This can complicate, rather than simplify, the fundamental patient care and medical treatment process. This needs to be addressed. For medical practitioners and healthcare providers managing multiple technologies, platforms and access credentials etc can prove to be a headache if it is not user friendly, if it does not have required data access and if it doesn’t exchange analysis. The very foundation of the healthcare system is the “wealth of data” that is produced daily in different regions and geographies. Implementation of technologies, digitization etc are all useless if this data is not harnessed, anaylzed and transformed into usable information eventually.
This sector needs practical technologies that help streamline communication between medical practitioners and patients, identify and provide information from its processes in the disparate health systems, and help channelize the volume of clinical data that is being captured at different platforms. These technologies should also accommodate the patients who need access easy-to-understand clinical records and access resources before engaging in self-care treatment programs.
The digital technologies will keep communication in the healthcare sector disconnected if it doesn’t allow reliable connectivity virtually anytime anywhere. This aspect is definitely lacking at the moment. According to a research survey by Accenture, “Healthcare organizations need to become more collaborative in creating new digital healthcare experiences to help customers feel engaged, important and informed.” About 45% of surveyors who were part of the Accenture survey said that rapid advancements in new technologies and scientific innovations are positioned to disrupt the industry. In other words it should be understood that digital technologies should make people feel comfortable that they feel safe and secure with their healthcare experience and data.
Gaurav Aggarwal, Vice President, Global Lead – Everything on Azure Solution Strategy & GTM at Avanade
(DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETHealthworld.com does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETHealthworld.com shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organisation directly or indirectly.)