[Part 1 of a 12-Part Series]
Health care is fraught with significant challenges which in some cases can be reduced to a minimum and in many cases eliminated by the use of technology. The 12-part series begins by outlining the macro-level challenges the healthcare industry is starting to address with technology to stem bleeding/reverse the onset of more severe complications.
Challenge 1: Supply and demand
Healthcare provision worldwide is characterized by a lack of adequate supply of qualified doctors and specialists. This situation has been significantly exacerbated in the new post-pandemic normal which has seen doctors from all walks of life leave their profession in droves. Technology companies like HealthViewX have helped address this problem by building care orchestration platforms [the HOPE platform for providers and the POPE platform for payors] which enables physicians and clinical care providers the ability to provide care to more patients by streamlining and automating work processes. This platform allows patient access to doctors and services that are not restricted or restricted by location and physical boundaries.
Challenge 2: Variation in treatment
Health care outcomes view variations in sigma levels as a direct consequence of variations in care delivery. The fundamental challenge to addressing such variation in care stems from the lack of contextual data around the encounter of care including clear attribution of data, capturing the suitability and integrity of measurement systems (repeatability and reproducibility). The care orchestration technology platform is designed to capture data during care encounters that can be analyzed across multiple attributes to streamline clinical and operational services. HOPE for example is able to collect millions of individual data points that can be combined and analyzed at both the patient and population level to see patterns and probabilities. These are then turned into actionable insights.
Challenge 3: Growing consumerization
Consumer expectations around healthcare delivery under the new normal have permanently evolved from a reluctant acceptance of the confines of large monolithic infrastructure driven by points of care to a strong demand for care around each other’s ecosystems. In short, uberization of healthcare except on a large scale. However, healthcare has so far been severely constrained by its business model as it requires a significant initial investment in infrastructure followed by a significant waiting period before a return on investment is achieved. Technology has become a bridge to serve new savvy consumers who will not be satisfied with the pre-digital limitations of an industry that still uses paper and fax machines. Treatment platforms again come to the rescue by helping to build intersecting digital hubs that allow patients to have a digital ecosystem built according to their preferences. This digital hub is being built at scale at a disease-specific level suitable for the cohort level and individual-specific management and reversal of disease progression.
Challenge 4: Data illiquidity
One of the biggest challenges is collecting individual health service data across service delivery islands. This is compounded by the fact that lifetime quantum data can be an order of magnitude and unfortunately not available in maintenance/elongated sequences. However this inefficiency is solved by care orchestration platforms like HOPE and POPE which address interoperability issues by building machines that serve as bridges between these islands of data linked through technology as well as building new approaches centered on a plan of care defined by and around each patient by the care team.
