Is the Corona Crisis the Catalyst for Digitisation in the Healthcare Industry?

1

October

2020

5/5 (3)

We live in a digital age: never before has our society been so connected. The opportunities of current technological and digital developments seem endless. However, at the same time, it still doesn’t seem like this level of digitalisation is widely spread in the healthcare industry for the public to see. At least, not until COVID-19. During the “intelligent lock-down” I had my first-ever digital consult with my GP. Although this technological service is not novel, why was it the first time I encountered it? For me, this digital consultation was more efficient. Wouldn’t it be more efficient for my GP as well: to serve more patients whilst offering the same level of quality? When is it the turn for E-Health to take off?

 

What is E-Health?

Let’s first start with the meaning of E-Health. Researchers have tried to create a general consensus on the definition of E-health; however, this has proven to be difficult since the term is popular and widely used in various different applications (Oh et al. 2005; Showell & Nøhr 2012). For the sake of this article, E-Health can be viewed as any digital application that supports and aims to improve health and healthcare. E-Health can be anything: from a mobile app that a patient uses to collect and send data on bodily functions (e.g. glucose monitoring), to a secure E-Health platform that healthcare professionals use to get insight into medical records. According to the website of the Dutch government, E-Health should also serve to give a patient more control over his or her health (Government of the Netherlands 2020). Examples of successful applications of E-Health can be fewer physical visits to the hospital or earlier identification of chronic diseases.

 

What are the technologies behind E-Health?

E-Health is made possible through the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. The term IoT was coined to refer to a network of objects that are able to interact with each other. These connections can be between: (i) persons to persons, (ii) persons to things (or machines), and (iii) things to things, made possible through smart networking technologies (Patel & Patel 2016). IoT within the healthcare industry has great potential and is already gaining threshold. For this reason, the term Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) got introduced. IoMT refers to the increased interconnectivity of medical-related devices and services, made possible through digitisation and network technologies (Taylor et al. 2018).

IoMT has already made it possible for patients wearing a smartwatch, to collect data and to track their wellness. This data is can then be seamlessly integrated into an electronic health record for the doctor to monitor remotely in real-time. Today, IoMT is improving access to quality care and reducing costs by tracking equipment, patients and staff, plus much more (Taylor et al. 2018). We’ve just begun to scratch the surface of all the possibilities.

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How can we get E-Health to take off in the Netherlands?

One of the great upsides of digitisation in the healthcare industry is that high-quality healthcare can be delivered more efficiently to patients. During the intelligent lock-down, caused by the corona crisis, many E-Health initiatives were rolled out faster than planned. However, healthcare givers are falling back into their old patterns and are relying on their traditional systems and procedures again (BNR 2020). How can we make sure that digitisation in our healthcare system continues?

1. Educating patients and caregivers

Digitisation in the healthcare industry will require a transformation in how healthcare is viewed by both patients and healthcare professionals. On the one hand, digital innovations can still seem daunting for patients. Especially for the elderly, it will be essential that digital devices and/or services are easy to use. Education and training might play an important role in removing the fear of change. On the other hand, E-Health should also be fully embraced by caregivers in order for it to succeed. After all, disruption will not take off if digital innovations are not fully supported by healthcare personnel. For this to happen, it’s important to educate healthcare professionals (perhaps even early on), with the capabilities (and of course also the pitfalls) of digital technologies.

 

2. Ecosystem orchestration: finding a way for different stakeholders to work together

IoMT enables new players to enter the healthcare domain. From manufacturers of surgical robots to commercial tech companies that provide wearable health watches. It’s essential that all players in the IoMT ecosystem should find ways to collaborate to support the changing face of medicine.

The reason why this is challenging is that healthcare models and institutions are very bureaucratic, and often, differ significantly per country. To be able to provide a mixed form of care, partly digital and partly physical, the structure of these bureaucratic systems has to change. And this is not an easy task.

3. Matter of time?

To be able to steer the healthcare industry in the right direction, the conditions for innovation must be there. In other words, is there enough time and money for E-Health initiatives to materialise? And if so, is it just a matter of time?

Even though much has already happened in the field of E-Health, it’s important to continue further digitisation that the corona crisis has induced. It’s now time to press ahead.

What’s your opinion on E-Health? Is now the time to push through with the digitisation of the health industry? What are the challenges the sector needs to overcome? What are the downsides of E-Health?

Please leave your thoughts in the comment box below!

References

BNR. (2020). Vooruitgang digitalisering in de zorg loopt terug. [online] Available at: https://www.bnr.nl/nieuws/gezondheid/10418179/vooruitgang-digitalisering-in-de-zorg-loopt-terug [Accessed 28 Sep. 2020].

Government of the Netherlands. (2020). Government encouraging use of eHealth. [online] Available at: https://www.government.nl/topics/ehealth/government-encouraging-use-of-ehealth [Accessed 27 Sep. 2020].

Oh, H., Jadad, A., Rizo, C., Enkin, M., Powell, J. and Pagliari, C. (2005). What Is eHealth (3): A Systematic Review of Published Definitions. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 7(1).

Patel, K. and Patel, S. (2016). Internet of Things-IOT: Definition, Characteristics, Architecture, Enabling Technologies, Application & Future Challenges. International journal of engineering science and computing, 6(5).

Showell, C. and Nøhr, C. (2012). How should we define eHealth, and does the definition matter? Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 180, pp.881–884.

Taylor, K., Steedman, M., Sanghera, A. and Thaxter, M. (2018). Medtech and the Internet of Medical Things. [online] Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions. Available at: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/Life-Sciences-Health-Care/gx-lshc-medtech-iomt-brochure.pdf.

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My vision of the medical treatment industry in Germany in the year 2050 – Utopia or rather a dystopia?

9

October

2019

5/5 (2)

The problems in the German medical treatment industry are multifarious (Müller, 2018). Besides having unnecessary and badly executed medical treatments, medicine is costly (Tautz, 2018) and people from the countryside are suffering from a decreasing number of medical care due to the rural exodus of many doctors (Kölsch, 2018). For example, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has a need for doctoral replacement of around 25% because of the previously mentioned reasons (Korzilius, 2008). Nonetheless, not only the countryside is suffering from an undersupply of doctors as 52 000 doctors are expected to retire in Germany until 2020 (DAZ, 2010), but also hospitals are missing 80 000 caregivers currently (Heine, 2018). Furthermore, the absence of IT-networks or standards for data transfer (Banse, 2018) are fundamental reasons for inefficiencies and a poor allocation of resources in the Germany medical treatment industry (SVZ, 2017).

However, change drivers such as the technological development, digitization and new customer needs could potentially enable an enhanced medical treatment in the future (Gerst, 2015). First, the E-Health trend impacts the interaction between patient and service provider and simplifies the self-management of the patient via (mobile) health applications (Wicks, 2014). Secondly, technological developments such as the advancements in big data analysis, self-learning AI deep learning algorithms or the digitization in general allow an improvement in the analysis of patient data, better forecasts, prevention of upcoming illnesses and a rectified interconnectivity between the stakeholders in the medical treatment field (Ehneß, 2018). Additionally, the technological development also offers advancements on the hardware side. For example, hyperloop systems or drones could potentially allow a different medical treatment infrastructure (Rosser, 2018). Last but not least, biotechnical developments in genetic manipulation (Miller, 2018) or in reproduction of organs could facilitate a lifesaving opportunity for patients (Wallace, 2018).

In the following part I will elaborate on my vision for the medical treatment in Germany in the year 2050. In order to empower a vital discussion, I would be keen on knowing if you can identify with my vision of medical treatment in the year 2050. Ask yourself, if ethical aspects such as morality or freedom are considered.

1. Home (-station) treatment
The HomeStation is an interactive diagnostic and robotic system for home use. It can take over general medical tasks, replaces or supports nursing staff and thus guarantees 24/7 medical care. Part of that home treatment is the use of wearables, for example electronic medical tattoos or sensors, which are on the one hand able to measure data regarding blood sugar, respiratory rate etc. (Kraft, 2019) and are on the other hand able to transmit that data to the relevant device or doctor. The role of the doctor will be taken by a robot (Yasa, 2018) who will consult the patient based on 24/7 tracked data. In addition, the robot performs minor medical treatments such as blood sampling or vaccinations. Finally, a 3D-printers ensures an immediate supply of medication, prevents drug abuse and provides better drug treatment through networking with other systems (Soleil, 2019).

2. Stationary care
Stationary care includes supra regional hubs, local hospitals and hubs of expertise for special medical fields. These are connected via drones and an underground network of hyperloops to ensure a fast and efficient treatment of every patient, independent of the location of the patient. Treatment at the surgery will be performed by surgical robots (Crawford, 2016), which are more precise, faster and risk-free. Therefore, badly executed medical treatments can be avoided. Additionally, due to the development in biotech, new organs can be delivered on demand and personalized (Pollack, 2018). A further benefit of the advancements in biotech is the prenatal and postnatal repair of severe genetic defects through genetic manipulation (Sakuma and Yamamoto, 2018).

By using this vision as a guiding principle, the medical treatment industry improves in terms of interconnectivity, flexibility, resource allocation, quality, costs and equality of treatment. Nevertheless, the risks are ubiquitous as there are side and ethical effects of genetic manipulation, as well as a reduction of human individuality by using robots. Therefore, the question arises if humankind should detach itself from its natural state and “design” people by reproducing organs? I am really looking forward hearing your opinion on this very relevant topic.

References:
Banse, P. (2018) Digitalisierung der Medizin – Das deutsche Gesundheitswesen ist zu wenig vernetzt. Available at: https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/digitalisierung-der-medizin-das-deutsche-gesundheitswesen.976.de.html?dram:article_id=413494 (Accessed: 5 October 2019).

Crawford, M. (2016) Top 6 Robotic Applications in Medicine – ASME. Available at: https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/top-6-robotic-applications-in-medicine (Accessed: 5 October 2019).

DAZ (2010) Neue Studie zum Ärztemangel: Knapp 52.000 Ärzte gehen bis 2020 in Ruhestand. Available at: https://www.deutsche-apotheker-zeitung.de/news/artikel/2010/09/03/knapp-52-000-aerzte-gehen-bis-2020-in-ruhestand (Accessed: 5 October 2019).

Ehneß, S. (2019) Wie sieht die Medizin der Zukunft aus? Available at: https://www.healthcare-computing.de/wie-sieht-die-medizin-der-zukunft-aus-a-833099/ (Accessed: 5 October 2019).

Gerst, T. (2015) Zukunft der Medizin: Trendstudie will den Weg weisen. Available at: https://www.aerzteblatt.de/archiv/171346/Zukunft-der-Medizin-Trendstudie-will-den-Weg-weisen (Accessed: 5 October 2019).

Heine, H. (2018) Personalmangel in Krankenhäusern: 35,7 Millionen Überstunden – Politik – Tagesspiegel. Available at: https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/personalmangel-in-krankenhaeusern-35-7-millionen-ueberstunden/22706004.html (Accessed: 5 October 2019).

Kölsch, T. (2018) Medizinischer Nachwuchs: Landflucht und Landarzt-Mangel. Available at: https://www.general-anzeiger-bonn.de/ratgeber/fit-und-gesund/landflucht-und-landarzt-mangel_aid-43810019 (Accessed: 5 October 2019).

Korzilius, H. (2008) Hausärztemangel in Deutschland: Die große Landflucht. Available at: https://www.aerzteblatt.de/archiv/59015/Hausaerztemangel-in-Deutschland-Die-grosse-Landflucht (Accessed: 5 October 2019).

Kraft, D. (2019) 12 innovations that will revolutionize the future of medicine, National Geographic magazine. Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2019/01/12-innovations-technology-revolutionize-future-medicine (Accessed: 5 October 2019).

Miller, J. (2018) The Future of Medicine. Available at: https://hms.harvard.edu/news/future-medicine (Accessed: 5 October 2019).

Müller, T. (2018) Gesundheitssystem Deutschland: Trotz hoher Gesundheitsausgaben – bei der Lebenserwartung hinken wir hinterher. Available at: https://www.aerztezeitung.de/medizin/krankheiten/herzkreislauf/article/976013/deutschland-hohe-gesundheitsausgaben-und-geringe-lebenserwartung.html (Accessed: 5 October 2019).

Rosser, J. C. et al. (2018) ‘Surgical and Medical Applications of Drones: A Comprehensive Review’, JSLS : Journal of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons. doi: 10.4293/JSLS.2018.00018.

Sakuma, T. and Yamamoto, T. (2018) ‘Genome editing for dissecting and curing human genetic diseases’, Journal of Human Genetics, 63(2), p. 105. doi: 10.1038/s10038-017-0380-0.

Soleil, V. (2019) 10 Possible Medical Treatments of the Future. Life Advancer. Available at: https://www.lifeadvancer.com/possible-future-medical-treatments/ (Accessed: 5 October 2019).

SVZ (2017) ‘Ländervergleich: Medizinische Versorgung: Gut ausgestattet, aber ineffizient. Available at: https://www.svz.de/deutschland-welt/politik/medizinische-versorgung-gut-ausgestattet-aber-ineffizient-id18296516.html (Accessed: 5 October 2019).

Szent-Ivanyi, T. (2014) Unnötige Todesfälle in deutschen Kliniken. Available at: https://www.fr.de/ratgeber/gesundheit/unnoetige-todesfaelle-deutschen-kliniken-11233271.html (Accessed: 5 October 2019).

Tautz, D. (2018) Gesundheitssystem: Hohe Kosten, trotzdem Mittelmaß. Available at: https://www.zeit.de/wissen/gesundheit/2018-03/gesundheitssystem-deutschland-bruttoinlandsprodukt-lebenserwartung (Accessed: 5 October 2019).

Wallace, L. (2018) Reproductive tech will let future humans inhabit the body they truly want, Clinical Endocrinology. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2265.2009.03625.x.

Wicks, P. et al. (2014) ‘Innovations in e-health’, Quality of Life Research. doi: 10.1007/s11136-013-0458-x.

Yasa, D. (2018) Why robots could soon replace our doctors. Available at: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/lifestyle/health/body-soul-daily/why-robots-could-soon-replace-our-doctors/news-story/9c33db2f25e0fff6184603b38cdc641f (Accessed: 5 October 2019).

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I Just Want To Make You Sweat

21

October

2018

5/5 (1)

Dreaded by many, probably only loved by your slightly terrifying physician-assistant: blood tests. What if we told you no needles need to be involved?

Researchers from the University of Glasgow have developed a sensor that could base diagnosis on the pH levels in the wearer’s sweat. The researchers explain that human sweat contains physiological information that is similar to that of blood, without breaking into one’s skin. The square centimetre device is claimed to diagnose and monitor conditions such as diabetes, certain types of cancer and kidney disease simply from the sweat that is piling up on your skin. Apart from disease diagnosis, sweat is also a good indicator for activity intensity and dehydration levels. Therefore, the device will not only be for the ill, but it will also provide added value for health and fitness freaks. What if you have a sedentary lifestyle? Little sweat is needed to measure the pH levels and in extreme cases sweating can be provoked by ‘Iontophoresis’. (Dang, Manjakkal, Navaraj, Lorenzelli, Vinciguerra, Dahiya, 2018)

Accompanying the device, the data is transmitted to an app that lets the users track their data to gather deeper insights on the development of aforementioned diseases. However, the development of the device and accompanying infrastructure is still in its infancy. Impact will be made once either one of the existing players in the wearables market starts exploiting its use by integrating it into their product lines, or when new entrants to the market of wearables start creating wearables with integrated pH level measurers. This allows the new entrants to enter a niche market of for example diabetes patients and while they continue to improve their product move onto the mainstream market.

Once these types of sensors become standard in the wearables industry, a significant value will be added to what can be measured nowadays. Right now, wearables are mostly limited to track activity, heartrate and temperatures. With the integration of sweat monitors, a new step will be taken towards integrated health where the users of wearables are actively involved in diagnosing developing diseases and monitoring existing conditions.

W. Dang, L. Manjakkal, W.T. Navaraj, L. Lorenzelli, V. Vinciguerra, R. Dahiya (2018). Stretchable wireless system for sweat pH monitoring, Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Volume 107, 2018, Pages 192-202.

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V is for Verily – Alphabet using data for healthcare

11

October

2016

4.88/5 (8)

How can the technological expertise of Google be used to improve people’s lives? What are the future trends in HealthTech?

Imagine a chemist and an engineer and a doctor and a behavioral scientist, all working together to truly understand health and to better prevent, detect, and manage disease.

– This is what Verily is all about.

Verily was formerly a division of Google[x] and is now an independent company of Alphabet officially founded in December 2015. Its mission is to employ technology to uncover new truths about health and life science. What is most interesting about this company is its multidisciplinary team: it is composed of experts turning ideas into products by cross-pollinating medicine, engineering, and data science. As an example, they have already produced a smart contact lens for diabetics that continuously monitors glucose in tears (instead of having to prick their fingers to test their blood glucose levels).

 

What does Verily deal with?

The company targets health issues affecting millions, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and mental health. It is organized in four business units: hardware, software, clinical, and science. This is not the first time that Google deals with health issues, and indeed Verily was previously known as Google Life Science.

 

The software Business Unit

Of particular interest for our field of study, the software team is composed of engineering and data gurus who intend to better predict, diagnose, and improve treatments of diseases. Wearable technology is very useful in the prediction phase. The collection of psychological, behavioural, biological, and environmental variables could result in a more detailed patient-segmentation analysis, and allows to gain more knowledge about a disease and why it progresses differently among individuals. This, in turn, gives the possibility to better tailor treatments, and to personalize them based on the specific needs of the individuals.

There is a lot of information residing in our bodies – from our genes to our sleep patterns. The software business unit tries to use this information by developing products, platforms, and computational algorithms to improve people’s lives and to increase patients’ empowerment. In this way, people do not need to spend as much time in hospitals and can get the right medications, while avoiding the risk of side effects (and the associated costs).

 

HealthTech trends to keep an eye on

Verily is just one of the many companies dealing with HealthTech: the future of medicine will have a lot to do with technology, more than it ever did.  Below, a list of three important trends for the near future is proposed:

  • DATA: the importance of monitoring and evaluation of data will keep on rising thanks to the growing adoption of wearables and mobile technologies. The collected information will, in the longer term, allow to have personalized treatments.
  • VIRTUAL / AUGMENTED REALITY: a lot of potential resides in this hardware technology. Surgical training and study can benefit a lot, as the VR / AR can be used for simulations before surgery. Also, they could be used as a psychological relief for patients (e.g.: in Argentina, VR is being used to help cancer patients escape the harsh process of chemotherapy).
  • COMMUNICATION: technology could have a strong impact on the communication means of patient-to-doctor (and viceversa), and patient-to-patient. Mobile devices allow to have instantaneous communication, which enables a doctor to have real-time updates about a patient. Also, Social Media empower patients to create communities of people suffering from the same disease, and they may receive support from the community.

 

How is HealthTech going to evolve in the next few years, in your opinion?

Interested in the topic?

Here are some interesting videos:

SOURCES:

https://www.statnews.com/2015/12/02/google-doctor-jessica-mega/

https://www.statnews.com/2015/12/07/verily-google-life-sciences-name/

https://verily.com/

https://virtualrealityreporter.com/virtual-reality-surgical-medical-application/

 

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E-health: hype or revolution?

7

October

2016

5/5 (1)

In a couple years healthcare will change revolutionary. Big hospitals will disappear. At least, that is what the Dutch minister Edith Schippers and State Secretary Martin van Rijn claim. Apart from new medical complaints like ‘tablet-neck’, ‘iPad-wrist’, ‘WhatsApp-thumb’ and ‘selfie-elbow’, there is another development going on which is called e-health. E-health is explained as the use of technology to support or improve health and healthcare. As a consequence of e-health, patients will be able to control their health and there are more advantages.

 

Advantages

First of all, healthcare will be closer to patients as e-health provides solutions like an online patient portal where they can make appointments, see their research results and medical and medication information. They can also e-mail questions to their doctor or nurse. Secondly, e-health will reduce costs. This is as a result of the first advantage. Because of the quicker access to your medical information and easier contact with doctors, it will save a lot of time and visits to the hospital. Thirdly, it will be easier for patients to monitor their health themselves and therefore be more independent.

 

Drawbacks

E- health will stimulate the use of smartphones and other electronic devices, whereas this causes medical complaints as mentioned in the introduction. For this reason, it might be better to put smartphones away more often and just enjoy the ‘real’ world. Secondly, only 16% of the patients are using these new possibility of requesting their medicines online and solely 3% asks questions online according to the e-health Monitor 2016 of research institutions Nictiz and Nivel. So a lot of patients are not even able to find their ‘digital doctor’ and the ones that do find the new online possibilities say it’s not user friendly.

Furthermore, it will be dangerous for the health of patients if digital records are transferred in a bad way, like medication overviews which are not up to date. There is a serious problem here, because the computer systems are not connecting to one another. Lastly, the digital healthcare market is a growing market where billions are circulating, however it is not even sure if e-health is really going to improve healthcare and make it cheaper.

 

Concluding, there has to be done a lot more of testing and research regarding e-health before it will become a real revolution instead of a hype.

 

Sources:

Zorgvisie. (2016). Zorgvisie – E-health dossier. [online] Available at: https://www.zorgvisie.nl/home/dossiers/e-health/ [Accessed 5 Oct. 2016].

Nos.nl. (2016). ‘Zo’n e-consult vind ik het handigste dat er is’. [online] Available at: http://nos.nl/artikel/2126626-zo-n-e-consult-vind-ik-het-handigste-dat-er-is.html [Accessed 5 Oct. 2016].

Haks, K. (2016). Smartphonestress. FysioPraxis, (9), p.3.

Nos.nl. (2016). E-health: hype of zorgrevolutie?. [online] Available at: http://nos.nl/nieuwsuur/artikel/2114269-e-health-hype-of-zorgrevolutie.html [Accessed 5 Oct. 2016].

Ad.nl. (2016). Patiënt komt niet bij digidokter. [online] Available at: http://www.ad.nl/dossier-nieuws/patient-komt-niet-bij-digidokter~ae12f17e/ [Accessed 7 Oct. 2016].

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