How Can Your Healthcare System Become a Digital Health Leader?

By Dileep Gupta

5. min read

Last update on: October 10, 2021

On a holistic level, it might appear that the healthcare ecosystem and challenges are unique and local. But in actuality, there are more similarities than differences when you look into the problems that the healthcare industry faces on a global level.

Throughout the globe, the healthcare systems suffer from issues pertaining to inequitable health care access, affordability, uneven outcomes, and a growing demand for services coming in from remote populations.

A combination of easily accessible health information and incorporation of digital technologies can help in meeting these challenges while supporting senior care, population health goals, improving customer experience, and driving insights into bettering health conditions.

But, introducing new technology in healthcare is a lot easier said than done.

Although the talks around benefits of digital transformation in healthcare and healthcare consumerism revolve around all the healthcare forums, only a few institutions have been able to deliver high care quality, better patient outcomes, and greater efficiency.

The reason behind this is often because the IT support focus generally goes beyond the traditional mission of the e health management system, while facing constant struggles with the legacy systems which impede data integration.

While the health system leaders struggle with unlocking the full potential of new-gen in technology in healthcare, there are a few questions that they must answer in their healthcare application development practice:

How strong is the impact of technology on the healthcare systems?
How will the right data be secured?
What should be the guiding principles of a digital healthcare design system?

Questions That Would Prepare Your Healthcare System to Become Digital Health leader

Question 1: How strong is the impact of technology on the healthcare systems?

Every sustainable, high quality healthcare system is dependent on IT services and digital platforms. But the healthcare ecosystem is still widely unsure of which technology would offer the biggest benefit to their patients and would increase the returns on investments.

Having worked on the digital transformations of more than 50+ solutions, we have gotten insights into the technologies that can shape the future of the healthcare domain in a way that it becomes value imbibing. Here are some of the key technology and healthcare combinations defining how technology impacts home health and traditional healthcare.

Even though the technologies are varying and the list of emerging technology in healthcare is ever expanding, the modes through which they are being offered are more or less the same: one that has helped with the evolution of healthcare 1.0 to 3.0: Mobile Healthcare Applications.

The digital health mobile apps enable people to manage, track, and better their health while achieving their wellness goals and interacting with the health system. Majority of these applications, like the healthcare apps we have developed, are smartly designed for creating a compelling user experience. This is one of the ways the major players in healthcare industry are able to work on their digital prerogative.

Question 2: How will the right data be secured?

The fact that healthcare innovation is still at a nascent state, makes it a distant dream for healthcare applications to connect with electronic patient records. The best option that they have besides collecting the data themselves is linking the data with the claims data which the payors have. Although they contain a lot less information, the amount is enough to measure the healthcare mobile app development’s effectiveness along with the reimbursements.

The creation of this link, however, would require creation of a very secure IT platform that would run on restricted view access of the claim records. And even after that, the patients must give a go-ahead in terms of who can view and use their data.

Question 3: What should be the guiding principles of a digital healthcare design system?

When building an open innovation platform, the healthcare experts must focus on four core principles that bring together health and technology:

Records privacy

Securing patient records have to be a top priority. The platform should have a strong data-protection measure for minimizing the instances of data breach and must allow individuals to determine who can view records.

Regulatory changes

Although moving at almost the same speed as the adoption of technology in medical field, the current healthcare regulation systems have not yet caught up with the digital world. There are only a few countries that have laws in places for governing privacy and use of patient data. Governments are yet to address if the healthcare app developers should answer to the same compliances that would apply to a pharmaceutical company.

At Appinventiv, we follow all the compliances that are needed to be followed at a national level for healthcare software development.

Platform ownership

The platform owner should be one who understands the importance of healthcare delivery and knows the need of protecting sensitive information. We work with healthcare organizations that are trusted by their patients, who can collaborate with the regulators, and can take payment innovation forward. With our technical expertise and their recognition and trustability in the healthcare system, together we are able to combine technology in healthcare and make a platform that the world trusts.

The Four Pillars That Are Critical To Digital Health Transformation

People-centric health

For a very long time now, the healthcare systems have been described to be provider focused. In almost all the instances, it is the patients who reach out to the providers.

But with them becoming accustomed to a very responsive and personalized experience in all the other fields, they have now started expecting the same from the healthcare domain. An expectation which is known as healthcare consumerism.

In this new scenario, the providers or a healthcare app development company partner with patients to understand their health goals and then plan the care delivery according to the personal health goals and offer them the support needed for making informed health decisions.

Predictive analytics

The true digitalization of healthcare lies in predictive, proactive analytics which is focused on keeping the populations healthy in the longer run. With the analytical technologies and capabilities advancing by every passing minute, there are predictive analytic tools which can identify which patients are a greater risk and on the basis of that, they can take proactive decisions to mitigate risks.

Interoperability

It is the foundation of digital transformation strategy inside every effective health systems. An organization will never be able to create a people-based healthcare system which is concentrated on keeping people well until they have the necessary infrastructure for enabling interoperability.

Interoperability would ensure that consumers and patients are able to access their data and input them into records for reporting outcomes and tracking progress. It would also mean that the entire healthcare community must have the access to healthcare services, education tools, and healthcare navigation tools which are needed for supporting health decisions, and navigating the access to care.

Governance

The growing rate of data assets and the reliance on the digital healthcare platforms is posing newer challenges in data governance.

Data governance is a policy infrastructure which ensures that the data assets are managed against security and privacy threats. The policy frameworks are expected to offer greater transparency in terms of safety outcomes and quality which are backed by valid data. This way, the health systems can learn which care offers the best suited outcome.

In addition to data governance, it is the strategy and vision that comes in from system leaders which guides the digital transformation strategy inside and across the system.

Conclusion

Whether we like it or not, digital transformation is upon the healthcare domain. According to a Stanford Medicine report, the size of digital health dealings have topped over $23 millions. In the current scenario, only those healthcare systems would sustain and grow to become digital health leaders who are able to not just execute clear digital health plans but are also able to earn significantly high returns on investments.