Moving the Needle: A digital-first approach to healthcare
What is Digital-first
Digital-first is an approach used in healthcare that emphasizes digital technology and solutions as the primary means of accessing and delivering care. Its objective is to harness technology in ways that increase access, improve outcomes, reduce fragmentation, and promote collaboration for greater efficiency, enhanced value, and optimal patient experiences.
Digital-first brings together automation, analytics, AI/ML and NLP technologies to create an end-to-end framework for the patient journey. It also improves organizational communication and collaboration through the digitalization of analog processes and workflows. Additionally, a digital-first approach to healthcare promotes interoperability across health systems thereby improving global care coordination and facilitating the implementation of impactful solutions that lead to more effective governance within the industry.
The Importance of a Digital-First Approach in Healthcare
Advances in technology have increased access to healthcare services and improved patient outcomes. Here is an example of how digital-first can drive improvements in healthcare access and delivery.
Advancements in technology
The emergence of digital healthcare technologies such artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), analytics, and automation over the past decade has revolutionized how patients receive care. The moments these technologies were introduced became fundamental turning points in the way we deliver healthcare services.
A key contributor to the transformation of healthcare has been the ubiquitous presence and use of cloud computing technology which enables seamless interoperability across various operating systems while also expanding access to data-driven insights. These emerging technologies have increased the efficiency, effectiveness, and accuracy of diagnosis and interventions resulting in superior outcomes for patients.
Increased access to healthcare services
The various digital technologies comprising the approach have proven to be allies in addressing health equity. Barriers to access are continuing to be dismantled as virtual consultations, remote monitoring, and wearable devices extend care beyond the walls of clinical settings. The digital-first approach can also facilitate better care coordination, giving patients access to personalized care with higher quality diagnoses and treatment recommendations. Furthermore, automation of processes such as lab testing can help to significantly reduce human error, result wait times, as well as promote precision in specimen interpretation all of which improves the overall efficiency of an operation.
These emerging technologies help increase healthcare accessibility in ways that would otherwise be limited or impossible to obtain due to time and cost constraints, or geographical location.
Improved patient outcomes
Another benefit of implementing a digital-first approach is the impact on patient outcomes. For example, AI-powered algorithms enable clinicians to quickly, and more accurately detect illness. It also enables clinicians to customize treatments for both the individual patient as well as wider, target populations.
Moreover, the introduction of electronic health records (EHR’s) continues to facilitate data sharing and collaboration within health systems, and with parties external to an organization creating a highly effective tracking system which supports prompt and clinically sound decision-making while eliminating silos, redundancy, reducing human errors, or delays caused by manual processes. Additionally, the ability to rapidly analyze enormous amounts of data in real-time can be used to support the patient journey by increasing efficiencies in non-patient facing areas such as scheduling, bed coordination, biomed, and the supply chain.
Finally, the analysis of large data sets from diverse sources, including medical literature and clinical trials, allows clinicians and researchers alike to gain insight into which effective treatment approaches are producing superior results. This permits the tailoring of care plans that are based on the best available evidence-based practices, leading toward enhanced clinical decision support tools and workflows based on observed analyses.
Overcoming Barriers to Implementing a Digital-First Approach
To successfully leverage digital technologies, healthcare organizations must tackle issues such as low digital literacy rates, upskilling the healthcare workforce, and overcoming resistance to change.
Limited digital literacy
In the digital age, limited digital literacy is a major barrier that negatively impacts patients attempting to access online health resources and services. Patients who are unable to navigate, understand, or effectively engage with e-health tools miss the information they need to make timely, well-informed decisions about their healthcare.
To help counter this problem, it is essential that healthcare organizations prioritize the planning and resource allocation necessary to improve patient’s capacity for making better use of digital spaces.
Upskilling the healthcare workforce
Upskilling the healthcare workforce is a critical component of successful organizational achievement of digital transformation. Investing in the skills of current and future medical professionals is crucial for transitioning from analogue tools and processes to modern digital ones. Notwithstanding the fact that organizations which invest into the digital upskilling of their staff also create a rippling effect of value creation through their communities and the wider economy. Most importantly, doing so has been shown to increase access to services, improve patient outcomes, drive efficiency, and provide more reliable data insights across the board.
Governments must also develop strategies that are comprehensive in scope, and which address the short-term upskilling needs of its citizens as well as long term capacity requirements when it comes to equipping the healthcare workforce with necessary digital competencies.
Effectively training healthcare professionals requires interventions that are accessible, interactive and which provide a significant return on investment. An example would be incorporating virtual reality (VR) and or augmented reality (AR) modalities into the educational platforms or leveraging AI tools for repetitive administrative tasks taking place behind-the-scenes.
Resistance to change
One of the most significant barriers to implementing a digital-first approach in healthcare is resistance from personnel. Introduction of new technologies, processes, and systems can often be intimidating or overwhelming for those who are not comfortable with change.
Resistance to change is a natural reaction among individuals and organizations. Some struggle to adapt to unfamiliar systems, fail to understand the reasons for change, or feel that their knowledge and skills are being undervalued due to automation or simplification. Change is inherently difficult for most people because it involves leaving behind established ways of working and thinking. Yet it is a necessary process to become more agile and to keep pace with innovation but must be done in a way that does not sacrifice quality or safety. By proactively addressing resistance individuals and organizations can embrace change as a catalyst for growth and development.
Success Stories and Case Studies of Digital-First Healthcare
From telemedicine and virtual consultations to digital health records and data analytics, explore the amazing impacts of implementing a digital-first approach in healthcare.
Telemedicine and virtual consultations
Telemedicine and virtual consultations offer a safe, convenient, and cost-effective way for patients to access healthcare. By using telehealth technology, medical professionals can provide real-time interactions including exams, diagnoses, treatments, and even therapy. Telemedicine has enabled care providers to offer e-visits with appointments that can often be made in as little as two hours. Along with allowing expanded treatment options from physical therapy sessions to mental health counseling over the computer or phone.
Not only does this greater flexibility of services mean that those who face physical obstacles to getting to provider offices do not miss out on necessary treatments but also helps alleviate strain on resources consumed by simple issues such as prescription renewals or follow up questions about lab results which can be handled more efficiently through virtual visits instead of having patients come into an office environment. Additionally, it reduces operational costs and increases efficiency related to bottlenecks in clinical processes and workflows. To utilize these new technologies many organizations have increased their digital literacy capabilities by training staff on the use of digital equipment, handling video appointments, and understanding CMS compliance and reimbursement for these digital modalities.
Digital health records and data analytics
Digital health records (EHRs) and data analytics have, arguably, been the greatest revolutionizing tools of healthcare since the founding of epidemiology by John Snow. By providing a single, unified source of patient data, digital health records facilitate easy access to patient history for diagnosis, treatment planning and follow-up care from anywhere in the world. The main benefit of digital records is that they put the focus on authentication and accuracy instead of paper files and human memory. Moreover, automated document storage reduces chances of errors due to misfiling, lost or damaged documents.
For its part, data analytics-based technologies, such as predictive modeling enable healthcare providers to better understand their patients’ needs based on historical treatments and outcomes; improving the clinician’s ability to prevent, diagnose, and select therapies while simultaneously reducing the amount of time spent per visit as a result of improved workflows.
Data gathered from wearable IoT devices can also be used with existing EHRs to generate innovative insights into trends in disease prevalence at the population level as well as identify best practices for disease management that is inclusive of ancillary departments such as laboratories and or radiology– thus changing traditional models for managing care delivery across a diverse ecosystem.
Remote monitoring and wearable devices
Remote monitoring and wearable devices represent an increasingly important component of the digital-first approach to healthcare, enabling providers to monitor patients outside traditional care settings and collect real-time data about their health.
Wearable technology such as smartwatches allow users to track heart rate, residual activity, sleep patterns and other biometric parameters over extended periods. Most importantly remote monitoring can allow practitioners access to the data collected by the patient’s internet-connected device even when he/she is not physically present in a clinical setting.
This makes it easier for them to stay connected with their caregivers while engaging in daily activities; all without having to visit a clinician’s office or medical facility.
Using remote monitoring technologies, clinicians can give more focus to patients living with chronic conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, that if left unmonitored have a high degree of morbidity and mortality.
Future Trends and Innovations in Digital-First Healthcare
AI, ML, and the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) are set to revolutionize healthcare, driving radical improvements in patient care outcomes.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning
AI and machine learning are transforming the healthcare industry by enabling connected care while helping to achieve the quadruple aim of improving patient experiences, patient outcomes, healthcare costs, and clinician experiences.
AI technologies are helping healthcare organizations be more cost effective, efficient, and personalized for patients. They have already begun providing support in diagnosing diseases accurately as well as predicting patient outcomes with greater accuracy than humans can alone.
With the assistance of ML algorithms millions of data sets can be analyzed, and trends recognized with actionable insights leveraged such that life-changing decisions about care can be rendered within minutes.
Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) in healthcare
IoMT leverages internet technology to bring together patients, their connected medical devices and wearables, and healthcare providers into a seamless system. This interconnectedness drives improvements in patient outcomes, data accessibility and processes automation across a given medical institution. By autonomously collecting and transmitting medical data over a network, IoMT becomes the mechanism by which visibility into up-to-date analytics drives efficiency while ensuring that accurate information is available at any time.
Personalized medicine and precision healthcare
Personalized medicine uses AI and a patient’s genetic and or clinical information to shape an individualized approach to interventions and treatments. By taking advantage of patient specific data providers can offer more effective, tailored care to an individual.
AI algorithms can quickly learn from millions of data points faster than human scientists ever could, allowing researchers access to powerful insights that push the boundaries of revolutionary therapies aimed at vastly improving outcomes for patients suffering from conditions ranging from obesity to cancer.
For example, the use of AI-intensive analysis methods in studies on metastatic breast cancer have allowed physicians unprecedented insight into how treatments vary between patients depending on their unique antibody profiles thus enabling targeted therapies that effectively improves the lives of patient and significantly boost remission rates.
The point
The digital first approach presumes the solution to any problem or opportunity should be digital oriented. It recognizes that humanity has progressed past the paternalistic era of healthcare and has firmly stepped into the technology age. Today remaining relevant and competitive requires innovation anchored in a digital-first approach. By embracing innovative technologies such as AI, ML, and IoMT and effectively accounting for the human element in change, systems can be made more efficient with superior outcomes for patients.
This focus on data-driven decision-making needs to consider not only existing technology but also human-centered designs that incorporate patient journey insights in tandem with impactful solutions. The emphasis of governance should be navigating the challenges of fragmentation amidst frequently changing regulations while facilitating collaboration between stakeholders at all levels. Ultimately, health systems should aim to create an end-to-end experience, underpinned by evidence found from data collections.
In this manner not only will they emerge stalwarts of progress, efficiency, and optimization; teams will be empowered with insight to create profound improvements in the delivery of care using personalized medicines and precision decisions that equitably benefit all members of a society.
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