The healthcare industry is on the cusp of a transformation similar to that witnessed by the banking industry 15 to 20 years ago.
Like healthcare, banking is a very personal yet highly regulated industry that once thrived on in-person visits. The industry started to shift in the late ’80s and early ’90s with the infancy of digital banking and then took a giant leap forward with the introduction of smartphones in 2007. The American Bankers Association says online banking officially became mainstream in 2011, and today, the bulk of in-person visits to brick-and-mortar banks are largely transactional.
Shifting to today’s healthcare landscape, an increasing number of visits to brick-and-mortar care providers are similarly episodic. This has created an opportunity for stakeholders to build a digital framework that transforms the industry, a health system in the cloud focused on understanding what individuals are doing between visits. The idea is to harness the power of digital tools and cloud-based systems to create solutions that understand the root cause of healthcare needs to ultimately revolutionize care delivery, improve outcomes and reduce costs.
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The ‘must-haves’ in the next step of healthcare delivery’s evolution
As the healthcare system evolves and expands to become a more all-encompassing experience, there are three things the industry must focus on to make it work.
1. Holistic patient management: A connected digital healthcare system would integrate various aspects of a patient’s health into a unified view, a more comprehensive approach that would improve the quality of care and reduce treatment costs. A connected digital ecosystem enables treatment for the whole person, not just their symptoms. Imagine a physician connecting a patient to Mental Health services as they struggle through behavior changes to address a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. A connected digital ecosystem can enable this type of personalized care.
2. Outcome-focused solutions: The power of digital tools is the amount of data they produce between visits. A patient’s adherence to a care plan can be monitored in real-time, and provider quality can be assessed continuously. Compared to brick and mortar, digital barriers to achieving a meaningful outcome can be addressed longitudinal instead of episodicly. Further, this improves accountability throughout the ecosystem so that all healthcare consumers can gain access to high-quality care.
3. Comprehensive, high-quality networks: Enabling holistic patient management and outcomes-focused solutions requires a comprehensive, high-quality network. Too often, point solutions are treated as just that — points of care. To truly unlock the power of digital health, these solutions must be curated into a comprehensive network that can steer back into a brick-and-mortar specialty. A single-point solution does not have the breadth to impact medical loss ratio; a network of point solutions does.
Embracing these pillars gives the industry the best chance to provide more effective, efficient, and patient-centered care, ultimately leading to better outcomes and a more sustainable overall system.
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Integrating digital tools with traditional care
We know that an overhaul of healthcare will be a gradual shift and not a flip of a switch, but one of the primary keys will be seamlessly integrating new technologies with existing care models. There is an abundance of exciting innovation taking place that should be viewed as complementary to traditional care and enhance its effectiveness rather than replacing it entirely.
One of the most promising aspects of a more cloud-based health system is the potential to offer cost-effective alternatives to traditional procedures. Providers can utilize remote monitoring, telemedicine, and AI-driven diagnostics to achieve comparable or superior outcomes at a fraction of the cost of conventional methods.
Digital tools can also significantly improve the efficiency of specialty care. By implementing sophisticated triage systems, providers can ensure that only patients who truly need specialized services are directed to these resources. This approach optimizes valuable specialist time and reduces unnecessary costs due to over-referral. This process may involve using chatbots for initial symptom assessment, remote consultations for minor concerns, or personalized health coaching through mobile apps. It all gets back to addressing health concerns at earlier stages through digital means when appropriate to reduce the burden on physical healthcare facilities and resources.
While it presents a significant opportunity to enhance care delivery, integrating digital tools with traditional care must be approached thoughtfully so new tech augments rather than replaces the undeniably irreplaceable human element of healthcare.
A health system in the cloud faces four major challenges
While it’s crucial to devise strategies that integrate digital tools with conventional care delivery methods, it will undoubtedly create a list of new challenges. The four most prominent among these are:
1. How to bridge the gap between traditional and digital healthcare – There is an understandable perception of traditional and digital healthcare as separate entities, but it’s essential to recognize the approaches are complementary rather than competitive. Strategies for bridging this gap include:
- Integrating digital tools into existing workflows
- Providing comprehensive training on emerging health technologies
- Demonstrating how digital solutions enhance patient care and clinical decision-making
- Encouraging collaboration between IT specialists and healthcare providers
2. Aligning economic models – No matter what business or industry you’re in, there is one constant: money talks. In healthcare, today’s prevalent fee-for-service model often conflicts with digital healthcare’s preventive and efficiency-focused nature. Addressing this misalignment requires stakeholders to:
- Advocate for value-based care models that incentivize outcomes rather than service volume
- Develop reimbursement structures that recognize the value of digital health interventions
- Focus on demonstrating how digital tools can improve patient outcomes and reduce long-term costs
3. Addressing distrust in point solutions – In recent years, there has been a dizzying rise in the number of digital health solutions on the market, making it tough for health plans and employers to discover, assess, and identify the solutions that suit them best. Further, many healthcare professionals are skeptical of standalone digital health tools due to concerns about efficacy, security and integration. To overcome this distrust, the industry must:
- Prioritize comprehensive, integrated digital health platforms over isolated point solutions
- Demand rigorous evidence-based validation of digital health tools
- Participate in pilot programs and share experiences with peers
- Engage in the continuous evaluation and feedback on existing solutions
4. Leadership buy-in and industry adoption – We’ve all seen how reluctant to change the healthcare industry can be, often following the lead of established players. This “follow-the-leader” mentality means those prominent in the industry are pivotal in driving digital health adoption. Healthcare professionals looking to influence leaders should:
- Stay informed about digital health initiatives from leading health systems and insurers
- Advocate for digital health adoption within your organization
- Participate in professional forums and conferences focused on digital health innovation
- Collaborate with IT departments to identify and implement suitable digital health solutions
Understanding and addressing these challenges proactively will significantly improve patient care and bolster clinical efficiency and effectiveness in an increasingly digital healthcare landscape.
The future can be now
Like many industries before it, healthcare has an opportunity to tap into the power of technology to positively transform the industry for decades to come. The potential benefits of a cloud-based digital health system are substantial, but the path to widespread implementation is also fraught with challenges.
Addressing these issues will require a coordinated effort from all stakeholders across the healthcare ecosystem, from technology developers and healthcare providers to policymakers and patients. By focusing on integration, aligning economic incentives, building trust, and leveraging industry leadership, the healthcare sector can seize the opportunity to advance the industry rapidly.
Photo: shylendrahoode, Getty Images
Ed Liebowitz has spent more than a decade building, commercializing and scaling digital health businesses — serving stakeholders across the care continuum. He has developed products representing a broad spectrum of digital health use cases from diet and fitness applications to AI solutions for clinical decision support. He is currently EVP, Chief Product Officer at Solera Health. In the early 2010s, Ed managed two of the top ten grossing health and fitness apps in the iTunes store, launched the Mayo Clinic Diet and helped build the Payer / Provider business unit at Everyday Health.
Ed then joined Becton Dickinson to lead their digital diabetes efforts, spearheading their first consumer-facing mobile application. Prior to joining Solera, Ed served as Chief Product Officer at HealthReveal, where he launched an analytic revenue stream, expanded product management capabilities and transformed the company to an agile delivery model. Prior to his endeavors in digital health, Ed held a variety of analytic and operational improvement roles at financial services firms including Standard & Poor’s and Brown Brothers Harriman. He holds an MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, an MA in Political Science from Fordham University and a BA in economics from Hobart College.
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