Healthcare is rapidly changing and this typically means that innovation is at work, however, affordability and value in the healthcare space remain key issues across geographies. The overall aim remains to maximize health for everyone, however, this is usually easier said than done.
It is a common observation that healthcare financing is also changing, and although the key focus of everyone involved remains the reduction of rising public healthcare costs, increasing out-of-pocket payment approaches will lead to tiering among individuals of different purchasing power. Add to that the increasing aging population size and it becomes evident that new models of financing and delivery of healthcare are needed.
Shifting to value-based models of operation appears to be a key approach in optimizing point-of-care offerings for patients (especially in this digital era) who are demanding in terms of quality and prefer to make decisions around the way their treatments are being delivered. This shift, however, is still challenging as it requires large-scale behaviour changes, both from healthcare organizations but also from employers, physicians and the patients themselves.
And this is where technology / Digital can help, particularly by enabling clinicians to analyze large numbers of data points and improving their decision-making process, towards a healthcare delivery approach that satisfies patients and does not come with high costs. Smart use of Digital also appears to be a critical approach toward eliminating inequalities in healthcare delivery across patient groups of different economic status and even location. Furthermore, the use of Digital by both physicians and patients will eventually bring the per patient out-of-pocket cost down.
Ultimately, by employing the use of Digital and large-scale collaboration between healthcare firms, physicians and patients, we should expect to see improvements in several key areas of healthcare delivery
- Home care, especially for patients with chronic conditions and the elderly will improve, as decisions will be made faster and in most cases directly by the hospitals and GP centres, rather than going down the way of referrals to home care firms (a common situation in the US)
- Progress toward truly integrated healthcare, whereby patients can interact with multiple relevant stakeholders much faster / easier and avoid high insurance fees (from repeat visits or separate visits to various stakeholders); this will also result in increased choice for the patient in terms of services accessible to them within an existing budget
- Patient-carer and patient-patient direct communication will improve, especially through increased use of telehealth, smartphone app-based interactions and generally increased use of digital applications
- Patients / physicians will be increasingly more able to make treatment decisions away from the doctor’s office / hospitals
- Overall at-home healthcare delivery will improve, especially as a merging of primary, secondary, tertiary and acute care will start to develop, driven by the use of digital tools and new point-of-care approaches which will enable healthcare providers to collaborate more closely and exchange information much easier, thereby making more efficient treatment choices for their patients away from the clinic
Overall, empowered by Digital, healthcare delivery will continue to change toward a lean integrated offering which will support the patients by delivering treatment at the right time, right place (increasingly away from the hospital) and at right value (affordable treatment costs). Digital remains the great enabler of this process; however, friction and resistance are to be expected. Early adopters of this new thinking, who are able to translate it into valuable processes for their patients, will have a great head-start in this new healthcare delivery era.