Healthcare is and should always be about the patient.
ICT in Healthcare — a plethora of disasters waiting to happen?
In 2010, I worked on a project which conducted an analysis of the condition of ICT (Information & Communications Technology) systems within six hospitals in Slovenia. The report itself was never published due to the terrible condition of the systems found within the hospitals. In my opinion, ICT in healthcare is a disaster or at least a plethora of disasters waiting to happen. In a country of just over two million people, there’s an overabundance of providers offering the same or similar healthcare information systems, all trying to serve the same market. In some cases, one hospital could have different IT solutions in different departments that didn’t communicate with one another. There was a limited or in some cases no exchange of patient data. Routine tests were most often repeated. Costs piled up. As it turned out, these problems are not unique to Slovenia, they have always existed on a global scale.
The National eHealth platform. A solution or a source of new problems?
I’ve spent many years gathering data and feedback in emergency departments around Slovenia. I spent quite some time speaking with triage nurses about the usage and effectiveness of the ICT supported triage algorithm. The use of this algorithm within our eHealth was something new in our healthcare system. Five years later from starting my journey in healthcare IT, things seemed to have started changing for the worse. Slovenia implemented a national eHealth platform nationwide that was funded by the E.U (European Union). The decision had been made to not develop a single hospital information system, but rather to integrate with the current one with all the existing platforms. This brought about many challenges but mostly, supported the status quo. The integrations were executed very poorly, with very little governance. In the end, the doctors and nurses ended up paying the final price in terms of having to deal with the system’s poor usability. In spite of the addition of new features and improvements to the system, the platform lacked important aspects that could have ultimately improved its functionality. The national eHealth platform, in theory, should have been able to connect the providers into a unified network.
A little boy is rushed to the emergency room…
While gathering data in a triage room, an emergency unfolded before us. A small boy was rushed to the E.R. The boy was unconscious and was having trouble breathing. As the father to a boy myself, I couldn’t imagine what his family was going through at the time. We immediately left the room and began hoping for the best. Fortunately, the nurse was well trained and knew exactly what to do. Events like this help to reinforce the notion that in the end, healthcare is and should always be about the patient.
The healthcare system is not there for the sake of the doctors or nurses, it is not there for the politicians or the elite. The healthcare system should ultimately be designed for the wellbeing of the patient.
It’s all about the right information at the right time.
Imagine that the young boy had a preexisting condition, like an allergy to a specific kind of medication that could have been used to save his life. Vital pieces of information, can be the difference between life and death in emergency situations. Fortunately for the patient, the vital parameters of the boy were aligned for the nurse to successfully resuscitate him.
In an ideal world, nurses and doctors would have access to all the necessary pieces of information that they would need to help make those kinds of important decisions in real-time. This vision of the future is currently possible through the proper application of technology.
Healthcare transformation is about institutional culture and the adoption of best practices — effective architecture vs. bureaucracy.
As an engineer who tries to design effective solutions from the top down. Transforming healthcare has to be approached through a different lens. It is about the culture within the institutions and about the adoption of best practices by the people that will ultimately use them. For change to occur, a continuous set of incentives that encourage positive change and encourage the adoption of best practices must be put in place. By providing just a few initial services that are comprised of the right technology, change can begin to occur. In my opinion, Iryo will be a catalyst that will drive such change!
The IRYO approach
Iryo goes beyond solving the interoperability problem. It goes beyond decentralization within the healthcare industry. Iryo is first and foremost focused on putting the patient in charge. It’s doing this by giving the patient the necessary toolkit to be in control of their own medical data which could ultimately end up saving their life one day.
Through the use of their technology stack and the creation of new standards, Iryo seems to be focusing on the cultural transformation of the patient and how that patient approaches the management of their own medical records. Iryo could fundamentally change the underlying culture in healthcare for the better. It will ultimately give a greater amount of control to the patients while enabling doctors, nurses and researchers to improve and excel in their respective fields. Iryo reimagines healthcare and focuses on supporting healthcare as it should be, a better system for everyone.
My background is primarily in software development and backend architecture. Additionally, I specialize in behavioral sciences. Creating ICT solutions that aim to promote positive change in human behavior is a special interest of mine. I currently work in a leadership position on the national eHealth board of Slovenia. I’m directly involved in creating the overall architecture and implementation of the national eHealth platform, as well as maintaining and improving the national EHR database. I’m also in charge of fostering relationships with representatives of different IT and healthcare networks within Slovenia in order to improve collaboration and improve research. I’m currently leading the group in charge of the latest national Cancer prevention program.
I have a B.Sc in Computer science and currently working towards a Ph.D, primarily focusing on medical interoperability, architecture, and the design of artificial intelligence systems within healthcare.
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