Preventing severe complications by rethinking our healthcare education

If the status quo remains, we’ll have bigger things to worry about than a healthcare provider shortage.

The new academic year has kicked off this week, with thousands of new students in pursuit of a future in the healthcare sector. With almost 35.000 current bachelor degree students, and another 9.000 master degree students, healthcare education is a popular choice in Flanders. Fortunately so, considering it’s estimated that Flanders will need an additional 60.000 care providers by 2022 to cope with our ageing population. But I’m not so sure whether this shortage is the biggest problem we face.

As the healthcare industry is rapidly changing across all disciplines, these students aren’t being prepared for our future healthcare system. They are being prepared for the healthcare disciplines of today.

Dealing with a different breed of patients

Digital transformation has punched several industries in the face. And if you’re not sure what I’m talking about, think about how you’re currently buying your books, consuming your media or booking your taxi. Well, healthcare is about to receive a powerful punch in the face too, and care professionals better brace for impact. Except, many of them have no clue how to deal with what’s coming their way.

Several digital dynamics are taking the industry by storm:

1. We’re moving from the reactive patient we know today towards a dedicated, engaged and digital health consumer. It’s time to break the old definition of a patient, and realize that tomorrows’ patients have the ability to empower their own health by being hyperconnected, much more demanding and much more engaged.
2. We’re moving from volume health towards value-based health, from response towards prevention and from episodic check-ups towards continuous monitoring. Consequently, healthcare services are moving from reactive to proactive, all the way to predictive and prescriptive.
3. We’re moving from a siloed health infrastructure towards interconnected intelligence, fueled by solid intergrations and the secure flow of data.
4. We’re moving from general medicine based on an individual’s expertise towards personalized medicine based on endless sets of data, providing robust insights on a global scale.
5. We’re moving from a health system in which the data is owned by the respective healthcare providers, insurance funds, hospitals and care organisations, towards a health system in which the patient is the one taking control over his/her own data.

All these trends will have the following result: the patient becomes the point-of-care. And this is a scenario not many care professionals are used to. The power dynamic is shifting towards the patient, and this requires a whole new role for care providers. One where the interaction between the patient and the care provider occurs through channels that are almost non-existent in healthcare today.

So now what?

A quick Google search reveals that education is defined as the process of facilitating learning, resulting in the acquisition of knowledge and skills. It should in any way prepare students for their future role as a care professional. But it’s clear that tomorrow’s care professional’s skillset will vastly differ from the one they’re taught today. Neglecting this in our current curricula is, at the very least, a missed opportunity. Besides, healthcare systems are — as much as educational systems — by definition high-inertia systems, which is why it’s particularly important to stop wasting precious time as these systems already have a hard time keeping up with the pace of the tech sector. Fortunately, Ghent University is showing some initial progress in the right direction:

• The H-impact program starts this weekend, where students, researchers and even professionals will be taught innovation and entrepreneurship skills by tackling some of society’s biggest problems.
• BlueHealth Innovation Center works closely with DO! UGent — the Ghent University student entrepreneurship center — and the Ghent University Technology Transfer Office, to organise inspirational events and hackathons such as RETHINK HEALTH and Healthcare Innovation Station in order for a diverse range of students and researchers to get a feel for innovation in the healthcare industry.
• Earlier this month, Ghent University Hospital has opened their Smart Space, with the ambition to build a hospital-wide platform for innovative technologies that will play a crucial role in getting students familiar with many of the future technological possbilities.
• Earlier this week, Kristof De Mey — who is the Sports Technology Business Developer for Ghent University — announced that he has been able to get a brand new course called ‘Sports Technology & Innovation’ integrated into the regular curriculum of the Movement and Sports Sciences Master degree, which is a great achievement that hopefully pushes other faculty departments to do the same.

Even though we’re still far from the educational programs that cater for our future healthcare workforce, these first steps will likely trigger a very interesting dynamic in the years to come.

The evolution of the care professional

Image adapted from: © Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

The fear for digital change among today’s healthcare professionals is ironic in a way. Because fundamentally, healthcare professionals could be considered true drivers of change. Whether they’re replacing one’s hip, trying to alter one’s unhealthy habbits or prescribing a specific drug treatment, it all comes down to instilling progress. And progress is essentially change.

If care professionals stay reluctant for the digital transformation, patients will be the ones behind the steering wheel as the driving force of change. And that might end up being a tricky scenario. I believe that care professionals will only fully grasp the importance of digital innovation when they realize that they’ll play a fundamental role in the actual development of it. And what better moment is there to instill this mindset than during their education.

In tomorrow’s world, care professionals won’t just collaborate closely with other care professionals, but they’ll work alongside engineers, designers and computer scientists to explore, build and manage our future healthcare system and all of its possibilities.

And as we’ll be dealing with a different breed of patients, the care professional of the future won’t be a care provider. The care professional of the future will be a care collaborator. And as much as both of these roles will change, so will the relationship between them. Tomorrow’s patient will be armed with ample information and in-depth knowledge on their conditions, which requires an omnichannel relationship where bilateral accountability, mutual engagement, transparancy and connectivity act as central pillars. Patient expectations on ease-of-use and quality experience will rise to unprecedented hights, which could only be accomodated for when the online and offline world interact seamlessly.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll happily repeat it: Healthcare professionals that are embracing and using new digital tools and technologies will replace the ones that aren’t. It’s the answer to the question on how to stay relevant in a rapidly changing industry.

Closing the shortage gap is one thing, but ensuring the sustainability and longevity of our healthcare workforce is of much bigger importance. The future of healthcare is not just a technological transformation. The future of healthcare is about a cultural transformation. And it all starts with education.

I think it’s time to really prepare our future healthcare workforce.

Read my previous blog posts here, or let’s connect if you’re interested in a chat.

As a disclaimer, the views or opinions expressed in my blog articles are personal and do not reflect upon those of the people or organisations I’m associated with.