Healthcare
Overview
One Minute Read
Healthcare has shifted away from its post-World War II focus on contagious disease and workplace accidents towards a primary goal of preventing and effectively managing chronic conditions. However, whilst the COVID-19 pandemic has stretched the system to its limits, it has also unleashed rapid innovation that has shown the benefits of digital technology in delivering healthcare.
As hope that end of the pandemic is in sight, the industry is under pressure to transform to a digital integrated health ecosystem that shifts from healthcare to healthy ageing.
Industry Description
Health care, health-care, or healthcare is the maintenance or improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, recovery, or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. A health & care, or healthcare provider is an institution that provides preventive, diagnostic, curative, or rehabilitative health care services in a systematic way.
The definition goes beyond General Practitioner (GP) or hospital services to include community & social care, mental health, dentistry, opticians, podiatry and increasingly pharmacies. Depending on the country the Health & Care ecosystem spans public and private entities. For private entities the healthcare insurance (payer) market is a close adjacency.
Drivers
Shaped by the global megatrends and now the pandemic, the industry is being shaped by five major drivers:
Demand - Long-term demand is growing due to an aging population. Those suffering from chronic conditions use healthcare more than twice as much as those without. The COVID-19 pandemic caused the suspension of many routine treatments which has created huge waiting lists.
Improved Outcomes – People are now living far longer, but the extra years of life are not always spent in good health. They are more likely to live with multiple long-term conditions, or live into old age with frailty or dementia, so needing ‘substantial’ care.
Skilled Workforce – Health care is a people business, and quality of care depends on having the right professionals. However, an aging workforce and staff burnout are driving shortages. Even before COVID a third of European clinicians were thinking of leaving.
Innovation – Industry inefficiencies are leading to affordability, outcome, and quality challenges, and poor consumer experience. Care is being redesigned around the person not the place and from healthcare to wellness. COVID-19 has further shifted expectations of health and how and where it should be delivered.
Financial Stability – Private health care profits have been eroding over time and, in parallel, new entrants (e.g. HealthTech and BigTech) are threatening to redefine the health care business. Shrinking margins and rising costs (65-70% of costs are staff) are driving public and private health systems to use technology innovations and partnering to improve operational efficiencies and reduce expenses.
Transformation
Transforming to a digital integrated health ecosystem will help increase awareness of personal wellness, drive a shift to virtual care which exploits digital technology and personalised medicine to enable a ‘near home’ & integrated patient-centric experience with better efficiency and efficacy, exploit smart diagnostics and treatment medical technology to improve decision-making and better outcomes, and better utilise and share health data for individual benefit, more efficient treatment pathways and improve public health insight.
Personal Wellness
Virtual Care
Smart Diagnosis & Treatment
Follow-me Data Exchange
Integrated Ecosystem.
COVID-19 has accelerated the shift to digital.
Digital Technology
Digital transformation will drive needs for Business Applications to help deliver virtual patient engagement, healthcare system and departmental management, content & image management and electronic health record (EHR) management.
Data Management will be required to enable the capture, curation, management, storage, and interoperability of health data. Artificial Intelligence will help drive diagnostic decision-making, automation, research and personalisation.
Cloud computing will support innovation, flexibility and customer experience, and a Digital Workplace will enable an agile workforce, whether at the medical facility, at the patient’s home, in offices or when remotely working and rely on Networking & Communications to deliver a consistent and reliable experience.
Security, Compliance & Data Privacy is also critical as healthcare organisations are one of the most targeted and patients expect their data to be kept private and secure. Remote working, cloud and APIs all open up new attack surfaces and potential for security breaches. Finally, IT Governance & Management will be essential to manage the change and ensure value for money.