Digital Edge — DNA of Digital Health

By Suja Chandrasekaran, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Digital & Information Officer, CommonSpirit Health

Digital transformation is reshaping how the health care industry engages with patients and care providers. The first set of initiatives in Digital Health have been focused on developing point capabilities for specific use cases. These solutions shifted digital capabilities to the next level, provided online access points for patient interaction and addressed key issues in patient experience. However one key opportunity was that they only provided discrete patient experiences:

● From each point solution to the next point solution we dropped the patients

● It was up to the patient to find the next step or the next tool in their care journey

● These solutions were light on data-driven engagement

● Scalability of solutions by adoption as well as tech scalability was localized and not suited for consumer internet demands

Our next iteration encompasses capabilities that provide a seamless interconnected experience in health care. For patients, this means enjoying a smoother and more convenient experience across all facets of their journey: searching for provider information, scheduling consultations (physical or virtual), leveraging copay options and being able to access their health information. Care provider experience will also improve tremendously by leveraging the power of integrated systems and new technologies. For example, AI can analyze unstructured data from charts and reports to synthesize contextual insights that assist diagnosis.

Our approach to digital is grounded on an obsession of humans — patients, providers, care givers, and employees. As existing capabilities advance and new ones continue to emerge, we have framed a foundational framework of Digital Healthcare products and platforms into four themes.

Digital Health Framework

The framework emphasizes that all digital operations of an enterprise should align so they create improvements across one or more of these experiences:

Digital Patient Experience

Objective: Transform all segments of the patient’s digital (and human) experience

■ Discovery: Set up omni-channel integrated digital front doors to facilitate convenience and a homogeneous experience

■ Access: Create personalized experiences by leveraging data analytics and AI

■ Engagement: Enhance through improved care, administration and support

■ Promotion: Drive loyalty and feedback to create closed-loop systems

Care Provider Experience

Objective: Engage with care providers to enhance their care delivery experience

■ Learning: Deliver contextual insights by infusing AI at the point of care

■ Doing: Automate repetitive tasks to improve quality and efficiency

■ Engaging: Trigger patient engagement via cognitive nudges

■ Innovating: Co-innovate with care providers to bring in their clinical expertise

Digital Therapeutics Experience

Objective: Enable patients to live healthier via evidence-based, digitally-enabled therapies

■ Utilize data and insights from remote health monitoring devices and apps

■ Leverage wearables and embeddable devices that can track and transmit real-time, near-synchronous data

■ Enhance chronic condition management such as weight management

■ Personalize patient engagement and education that enable patient self service

Virtual Health Experience

Objective: Address the full continuum of the virtual health experience

■ Community Health: Create human-centric models to pair care navigators with patients

■ Ambulatory: Equip care providers to conduct virtual examinations on demand

■ Acute: Enable real-time care from specialist care providers and monitor patient safety

■ Post-acute: Enhance remote patient monitoring capabilities

The digital experience for all consumers needs to transform, especially after COVID-19 introduced new operating models. This provides unique opportunities for digital health care as digital empowers patients and providers with greater access and convenience. The next generation of digital health care i.e. Digital 2.0, will see an amplification of all components in the digital health framework. Delivering a successful Digital 2.0 program will require care providers to excel at several key factors; these will be covered in detail in the next edition of the Digital Edge.

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