HEALTH WARNING: Innovating without empathy can be lethal
It’s an exciting time to be in healthcare. Many traditional scientific, medical and pharmaceutical companies are broadening and redefining what they do, for health. What it takes to be a successful healthcare company is now beyond scientific, manufacturing and discovery capabilities. It is being able to address human needs creatively. For example, last year CVS signalled a change by becoming CVS Health; their commitment has been reflected through action, for instance by banning tobacco products across all their stores. Having spent a lifetime in a medicine making family I’m compelled to say, these kinds of companies intuitively know their customers (patients) and how they can impact them. They’ve been tapping into unconventional resources and new technologies to expand and introduce new innovative products and services.
More and more tech companies are plugging themselves into this world or even starting fresh. This cross-pollination is rapidly fuelling innovation. With the announcement of the OS 2 for Apple Watch and ResearchKit, it’s evident that health is becoming increasingly important to Apple. And if Apple is doing it, certainly it must world dominating. Other examples are emerging among start-ups such as ZocDoc, 23andMe, Doctor On Demand, Fitbit,Oscar and many more.
While many companies are on the cusp of cutting edge technology, not all of them are successful in healthcare. Innovation is essential but innovating with empathy is unbeatable.
Understanding your patient
Data and data analytics have evolved significantly enabling a depth of knowledge about patients, encouraging the bridge between health and technology even more. The number of people who are living with disease is higher than ever before. The World Health Organization reported the global burden of chronic disease as 46% in 2001 and is predicting that it might increase to 60% by 2020. It’s important to understand what these kind of patients want.
As Atul Gawande, a surgeon, writer and health researcher says in his book — Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End,
“A few conclusions become clear when we understand this: that our most cruel failure in how we treat the sick and the aged is the failure to recognize that they have priorities beyond merely being safe and living longer; that the chance to shape one’s story is essential to sustaining meaning in life; that we have the opportunity to refashion our institutions, our culture, and our conversations in ways that transform the possibilities for the last chapters of everyone’s lives.”
Creating an experience of care
Experience plays a crucial role in healthcare, especially in hospitals. Many people avoid visiting a hospital unless they have no other choice; I certainly do. As obvious as it sounds, primary care shouldn’t be neglected and there are so many opportunities for hospitals to create welcoming experiences.
A constant example of unparalleled patient care is from Ward 5B at the San Francisco General Hospital. It started as the only one of its kind and a model unit for the treatment for AIDS patients in the United States. John Lere, an early patient at the ward said, “I’d stay home and die if I couldn’t come here” about his hospital care.
Several other US hospitals such as Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente have increasingly made efforts to ensure experience is prioritised equally with cutting edge technology and equipment. They have innovation arms designated to constantly improve their standards of care. Mayo employs a diverse group of creative thinkers ranging from researchers and educators to experience and product designers. Kaiser has a center to prototype all their ideas including technologies, simulations and product evaluations.
Even non-conventional healthcare companies such as NXT Health, a design and innovation studio, are making experience in healthcare their priority. Along with Dupont, they are designing and prototyping what is anticipated to be the ideal hospital of the future: patient room 2020. They are incorporating screens within the architecture, casework to automatically sterilize equipment after use, patient engagement platforms among many more design and tech interventions. The western world is undoubtedly taking on ambitious projects and building spearheading technology.
Adapting for affordability
Unfortunately, much of this innovation has very limited access. While technology is inspiring great inventions such as fully functional 3D printed organs and neurally controlled prosthetic limbs it will still be a long time until these become a reality and a viable option for patients. An interesting challenge in the development of health products is to also have a vision and a sense of urgency to make them affordable.
When a group of Silicon Valley divas were asked what we need the next Uber for, the most popular answer was — healthcare. With companies like Apple, Microsoft, Google and Samsung all showing eagerness to break into the healthcare sector footprints will shrink and affordability will come to the forefront; in fact this has already begun.
Theranos was setup as a company that understands many patients don’t actively engage in their own health and by the time they show symptoms it’s often too late. They manufacture blood-testing products requiring only a drop of blood via finger-prick making theexperience convenient and as painless as possible. They cost a fraction of any other lab testing starting at $3 (based on what the test is for) making lab testing accessible and as affordable as possible. Theranos was able to tell a great story about the change they want to make in the world of health and serve as a call to action in being better informed about individual health. In the past couple of weeks however, Theranos has been under tremendous scrutiny for their technology and how they use it.
In the future technology and expertise will become more universal. What will truly make a healthcare organisation distinctive is the level of care they provide to their patients along with game changing technology.
