Digitization of the Health Sector: Towards Modern and Interconnected Health Systems

Digitization of the Health Sector: Towards Modern and Interconnected Health Systems

Some analysts refer to the digitization of the healthcare sector as the digitization of processes, however, the digitization of processes is far from what is currently required by healthcare systems to improve health and address future threats to public health.

According to technology experts, to digitize means “to convert something physical, such as a text, into a digital representation; to convert or encode into digit numbers, data or continuous information such as a photograph, a document or a book”, however, this concept falls short when we want to address an issue as necessary and complex as the use of new technologies and digital processes to achieve a modern and interconnected health system that streamlines processes, maximizes the productivity of human resources in a hospital and improves the patient experience.

New Technologies and New Prevention and Healthcare Models

The use of new technologies in the healthcare sector such as artificial intelligence, analysis of large volumes of data, the use of applications and mobile devices and the storage of information in the cloud, among other things, can help governments to improve healthcare systems. A modern healthcare system requires the extensive use of technologies that enable better medical care, improve health outcomes, optimize services, but above all improve the patient experience and improve or develop new models of prevention and healthcare.

An Interconnected and Efficient Hospital

Digitization is a challenge for the different areas of a hospital, from outpatient or emergency care, to diagnostic services such as radiology and clinical analysis laboratories or even the hospital pharmacy; but not only digitization is the issue, it is not only required that the patient no longer receives a diagnosis, a prescription or a charge card on paper, but also that everything related to their health can be an electronic record. It is then required that all patient data be processed technologically and the different areas of a hospital can be interconnected to offer comprehensive solutions to the needs of a sick population. A physician should be able to see his patient’s medical history, the latest results of his clinical tests and the treatments he has received throughout his life; also the physician could issue a prescription and have the system detect the pharmacy’s inventories to see the medications available and the physician could select the appropriate treatment and the pharmacy would automatically receive the request so that the patient could receive the medication before leaving the hospital, so it could be an interconnected and efficient hospital, but for many patients and physicians this may sound like science fiction.

And just as it would happen in an efficient hospital, an entire healthcare system should be connected so that patient information is available whenever there is access to a computer and the Internet. However, the situation has forced health authorities, the medical community, patients and companies to rethink the operating models of a healthcare system in which sustainability, quality and participation are fundamental to advance and improve the quality of services in a scenario with few financial, human and equipment resources where digitalization and the use of new technologies have lagged behind.

For a Healthier and More Productive Society

The rapid adoption of new technologies is critical; investment is required in education focused on the benefits for everyone in the health sector: physicians, patients, health workers and administrative personnel, and that companies and governments can work in a coordinated manner with a long-term vision and a public policy that promotes the adoption of new technologies to reduce costs, increase the productivity of health personnel and achieve a healthier and more productive society.

Significant progress has been made in terms of regulation and policies implemented by organizations such as the WHO; however, there is a need for clear public leadership and the decisive participation of the companies that develop the technologies in order to move towards a modern, interconnected healthcare system in which interoperability is critical. It is not a matter of creating short-term solutions for a hospital or a region, but of thinking in the long term and investing the necessary resources to bring about real change and achieve benefits throughout a healthcare system.

The benefits range from the analysis of large volumes of data to make better public health decisions, to the use of artificial intelligence that can help doctors find individualized treatments for certain diseases such as cancer, and above all, what is currently under discussion among healthcare experts, to achieve the transition from a curative system to a preventive system.

 

It is time to invest in health, research and development and implementation of new technologies and for all components of the health sector to actively engage in the creation of a public policy that is geared towards the transformation that health systems require, and the use of tools that allow better decisions to be made to successfully address present and future threats to public health.

Javier Marín Director Senior LLYC Healthcare Américas

Javier Marín Director Senior LLYC Healthcare Américas