The future of healthcare systems: from responsive to preventive
After the lessons learned providing support to different healthcare organizations in the management of COVID-19, we at everis are firmly committed to a more human-centered, flexible and resilient digital health model that includes the citizen as a key agent in the management of individual and collective health.
The time has come to shift from a system based primarily on reacting to illness to one that is proactive by default. Public healthcare organizations must adopt a new paradigm where digital health is the lever for the provision of services and, at the same time, helps ensure the sustainability of the universal coverage model, while moving towards 6P healthcare, meaning a healthcare model that is Preventive, Proactive, Participative, Personalized, Precision and Population
Digital Transformation in Healthcare in 2020
We are in the middle of a golden era for digital transformation in healthcare. Thanks to technology, patients get better treatment with wearable medical devices, telehealth, and remote monitoring. On the doctor’s side, they can now streamline their workflows using artificial intelligence-powered systems and improve the ability to make decisions based on evidence from the data in real time.
Advanced analytics and data driven models are one of the most important advancements for healthcare and resources management. Knowing in detail based on the analysis of the medical conditions linked to certain pathologies allows to predict exacerbations and anticipate interventions or facilitate personalized treatments according to the individual evolution of each person. For the management of health resources it is essential to have reliable and treatable information that allows anticipating peaks in demand, in this sense predictive analytics can help hospitals and clinics to predict, for example, future rates of admission, which is essential to be able to calculate the appropriate personnel to attend to the patients. In this way, healthcare spending can be made more efficient or waiting times can be reduced.
A second important technological advancement in healthcare is using AI and machine learning to accelerate the development of therapies, facilitate decision-making and information management, and explore new prevention and care tools. In fact, recent studies show that AI can reduce drug discovery times by four years, compared to the industry average, and generate 60% cost savings.
COVID-19 has also taught us that digital solutions such as integrating telemedicine, help to guarantee the continuum of care and guarantee the continuous relationship between users and professionals.
How other countries are integrating digital technologies in their healthcare agendas
Countries such as the Netherlands have already begun integrating digital healthcare solutions in their strategy since 2019. As part of the plan, the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport set up a legal framework for the mandatory exchange of medical data between all care providers with the goal to improve sharing health related information. The Dutch government is also using blockchain for communications between the country’s health institutions, including hospitals and government agencies. Such an example is Mijn Zorg Log, the blockchain application used by Zorginstituut, the Dutch government agency in charge of communications between the country’s health institutions.
In the UK, the NHS together with other government organisations such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), have been successfully including digital solutions in the UK’s healthcare agenda. Innovative apps such as Push Doctor, which enables thousands of people to have remote video consultations with health professionals without leaving their home, have been very successful. Skin Analytics is another such digital solution that has been building digital histories of patients’ skin through a smartphone app with the goal to improve the diagnosis of melanoma.
Digital health & new models of healthcare
As we see a change towards a preventive health care model where digital solutions are the key, at everis we have developed the strategic vision document “Digital health and new models of healthcare” where we describe the keys to raising health care to a new level:
- Digital experience, placing the citizens at the core of the healthcare system and focusing on proactive communication, activities for health education, preventive medicine as well as creating hybrid visits where physical explorations are complemented by video conferences.
- Clinical improvement, applying advanced technologies throughout the healthcare value chain (disease prevention, health promotion, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up)
- Productive efficiency, which is aimed at a digitalization and automation of management and healthcare processes.
- Data driven health, based on using data in both short and long term decision making processes
- Digital talent, fitting the professional digital talent with the digital health needs. In situations like the one caused by COVID-19, when professional staff is close to a burn out, including new techs like AI, can help introduce new ways of working.
Recent events have proven the importance of integrating digital solutions in the healthcare strategy of any governments. Thanks to technology, the opportunity of migrating from a reactive system to a more proactive one has become easier than ever.