Digital health addressing Europe’s biggest health problems

Healthcare providers suggest that the adoption of digital health will enable real-time analysis and better patient health monitoring

The global digital health market is tipped to generate revenue of US$536.6 bn. by the end of 2025, according to Transparency Market Research. While the US is still the market leader, Europe is closing the gap. In 2016, the market earned just US$179.6 bn.

At the core of this growth is the use of smartphones and new technology, which are enabling patients and doctors to monitor their health more efficiently. Healthcare providers suggest that the adoption of digital health will enable real-time analysis and better patient health monitoring. Eight out of 10 healthcare professionals believe digital health will radically impact clinical practice (ESC survey.)

The growing prevalence of mhealth (mobile health), wearable devices, health information technology, telehealth / telemedicine, and personalised medicine is also boosting growth in the digital health market. And, none of that would be possible without harnessing big data.

The healthcare industry is accelerating the digitalisation of medical records, like pharmaceutical companies, clinical research organisations and stakeholders condense years of research and development data into electronic databases and cloud solution systems. Governments in Europe and other public stakeholders are rapidly moving toward transparency by making decades of stored data usable, searchable, and actionable by the entire healthcare sector. We are at a tipping point for the digital health market, as data becomes a rich source of information, which will, ultimately, be an invaluable asset for the prevention and treatment of diseases.

As Gordon Gekko said in the movie Wall Street “the most valuable commodity in the world is information.”

With big data transformed into relevant data, digital health technology can help solve some of Europe’s biggest health problems. One such problem remains cardiovascular disease (CVD.) 10,000 patients in Europe die every day from CVD, a report from the European Commission confirmed. So how can digital health reduce the prevalence of heart disease among Europeans? Treating any disease is cheaper and more effective if the illness is identified at an early stage. But what illness should we screen for and does this open up a Pandora’s box of ethical considerations? Dr. Sven Jungmann addresses how digital innovators can navigate this innovation roadmap. The central idea of early disease detection is far from simple, though it may appear to be deceptively easy. A new canvas by Sven Jungmann can help digital health innovators navigate the road through complex product development.

Data, if used efficiently, can help doctors notice early warning signs of serious illnesses before they reach an advanced stage in the patient. Healthcare analytics will empower doctors to build a clearer overall picture of a patient’s health. The following 6 advances in digital health technology are radically improving both the screening and treatment of patients.

1. Wearable technologies — recording cardiac function and machine learning algorithms can assess compensated and decompensated heart failure states by analysing cardiac response to submaximal exercise.
2. Heart sensors — The most common heartbeat irregularity is atrial fibrillation (AFib.) AFib happens when the two upper chambers of the heart don’t beat in sync with the two lower chambers and can increase the risk of heart attack. Apps like Zio patch and LifeWatch allow patients to monitor their heartbeat with ease.
3. SMS messaging — A recently published review of mobile text messaging interventions (TMIs) in health concluded that “…the majority of published TMIs were effective at addressing, weight loss, physical activity, smoking cessation, and medication adherence for antiretroviral therapy…”
4. Healthcare providers suggest that the adoption of digital health will enable real-time analysis and better patient health monitoring digital tracking tools — Consumer-facing tools like Fitbit, Jawbone, smartwatches, and others have the potential to add value to the traditional healthcare market. Increasing physical activity and tracking food intake have implications with regards to obesity and thus downstream diseases of hypertension, diabetes, and CVD.
5. Redefining points of care — The use of health technology at home and in day-to-day living will ultimately make an impact on prevention and management of CVD and its risk factors, particularly for older patients living with CVD.
6. Remote monitoring — The impact of CVD on the utilisation of human and financial resources demands innovation in patient monitoring at home. Remote patient monitoring sounds easy, however, it is a very complex process. The ideal remote monitoring system needs to be unobtrusive and deliver useful and only actionable data (that will result in a change in treatment plan). Remote monitoring has been demonstrated to reduce hospital readmissions of patients with congestive heart failure and reduced mortality in patients with implanted cardiac rhythm devices.

Healthcare providers have a big opportunity to use their powerful assets like their relationship with customers to integrate digital technology and scale rapidly, at a speed that startups would kill for.