The world is changing. Inventions previously confined to the pages of sci-fi novels are now a reality, and entire industries have either sprung up or are developing at an incredible pace. Take healthcare, for example, and it’s clear that the only way it can continue to serve — and save — people is to make the most of today’s technological developments. To continually adapt in order to respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by tomorrow.
Dionne McKenzie, a participant of the Siemens Graduate Program (SGP), is hoping to do just that. “What makes working in this industry really fun is that it will be around forever. We just need to ensure it can evolve.”
She believes that even though many people are becoming increasingly interested in looking after themselves, modern living can make it hard to be healthy. “I really want a healthy lifestyle to be the more convenient option and right now in today’s society, that’s not the way it is. We develop unhealthy habits before we’re even able to understand what they are,” she says.
Turning healthcare on its head
Dionne, who will soon move from the UK to New York for her third and final rotation of the SGP, believes healthcare needs to be shaken up. After all, why is it that we wait until we’re sick before we go to the doctors? Why does something need to be seriously wrong before most of us even consider taking a trip to the hospital?
“Preventative healthcare is so important,” she says. “It’s the lowest cost form of healthcare we have, but it’s underutilized. No one sees a doctor until they feel something’s wrong. The reason we do that is that it feels like a task, it is annoying to have to go to the doctor and get a simple test done and find out if everything’s okay.” As a result, she believes people are putting themselves at risk. Even when they do attend appointments, they often have to wait to get their test results. “There are so many little elements that make the process seem so inefficient and inconvenient,” she says.
She’s not the only person who thinks a seismic shift in the way we approach healthcare is essential. Research estimates that a greater use of preventative services in the US alone could avert the loss of more than two million life-years annually. From a financial point of view, it’s thought the US could save $3.7 billion a year if measures were taken to try and prevent people from getting ill in the first place.
To kickstart this change, Dionne believes more control should be put into the hands of the patient. Quick tests should be made available so people can regularly check themselves at home for any underlying conditions and make an appointment with a healthcare professional if there are any concerning results.
“Bedside products could give patients a result within 30 seconds to a minute,” she says. “And that’s the sort of stuff that’s going to make people take their health more seriously. This could transform patients into consumers, as they’ll be closer to their treatment.”
New approaches to old problems
Radical changes to the healthcare industry aren’t going to happen overnight, but medicine can’t stagnate and the way we approach health and wellbeing in the future will require all the pieces to be in place. That’s exactly what Dionne is trying to do.
Picking hematology as the focus of her final rotation, Dionne has the potential to bring an entirely new product to market. Currently in development, it’s a new method for analyzing a blood sample that allows medical professionals to confirm a complete blood count with differential at a fraction of the time and money as compared to today’s method. This product will give quicker results to patients that might suffer from cancers, anemias, and other illnesses or infections.
“With a lot of the hematology products out there on the market right now, the technology hasn’t been developed since the 1970s or 1980s. It’s so outdated,” she says. Now there is the opportunity to really do something about it and employ the latest thinking to revamp this area of medicine. “We will always need simple blood tests, but now it’s a matter of making things more efficient and convenient as certain technologies we take for granted can still be improved,” she says.
Saving time and lives
It doesn’t stop there. Finding new approaches to old problems is also on Dionne’s radar when it comes to emergency situations. In her second rotation on the SGP, she was involved in plans to increase the uptake of handheld blood-gas analyzers carried by ambulances — equipment that means a patient’s blood can be rigorously tested before they even reach the hospital.
“It would mean that, when a technician picks up a patient, they’re able to take their blood-gas readings quickly with this handheld device, it’s then communicated to the physician in the emergency department ready for when the patient arrives,” she says. The equipment would take readings, including potassium, sodium, carbon dioxide, and oxygen, to rapidly establish treatment routes.
Ultimately it means personalized health decisions can be taken more quickly. “It gives physicians the information they would otherwise not have and this information cannot just make things more efficient but it can also improve the clinical outcomes,” she says. The plan is to increase the use in Denmark originally, and, if successful, the devices could be rolled out more widely. When it comes to healthcare, time is clearly pivotal so an improvement like this could have a huge impact within emergency situations.
The future is closer than you think
If cutting-edge innovations within the medical industry continue to develop at the current pace, Dionne believes preventative healthcare will be increasingly routine over the next few years. “All the products we have in development right now are going to start hitting the market in the next two to five years, as well as ones that are coming in the next 10 years,” she says. “They’re pieces of the solution that will push us towards the goal of being able to deliver preventative healthcare efficiently and conveniently.”
And how long will it take until we really can visit a doctor when we’re fit and healthy? “In my vision, technology would advance to the point that it sparks a societal shift in how patients monitor their own health to prevent common illnesses like diabetes and heart disease. Much of the technology exists today, but I think it will be at least another 10 years before these technologies are incorporated into products that are widely accepted and used by both patients and physicians inside and outside of the doctor’s office.”
Dionne McKenzie’s role during her two-year course is Siemens Graduate Program — Tech. In her first rotation, she worked in research and development in Massachusetts, USA. Next, she worked in marketing and sales operations in Frimley, UK. Her final rotation is in New York. Find out more about working at Siemens.
Illustration: John Hitcchox
