Healthcare is undergoing an enormous evolution in terms of Digitalisation presenting a wonderful opportunity for providers to extend their cover to their Patient base. Digital Health – the application of Digital Technologies in healthcare and especially Mobile and Wireless solutions are expected to prosper in the near term. A Digital Health Strategy should start with the company finding a clear Vision and deriving a corresponding Corporate Mission. The strategy can then be formulated and executed to fulfil the vision. To become a leader of the digital revolution in the healthcare industry, it is crucial to make digital health an integral part of the overall Company strategy. A digital health strategy requires adjusting the corporate strategic approach in the same way other functional strategies do. Furthermore, a successful digital health strategy addresses the entire value chain and , in doing so, ensures the alignment of external stakeholder demand, internal capabilities and digital resources.
The place of Digital Health Today
59% of healthcare organizations are either in delay with their digital health strategy or have no digital health strategy currently in place. The remaining 41% of healthcare organizations state they are on schedule with implementing and executing their digital health strategy. The global digital health market is estimated to more than double over the next three years, and to exceed $200 billion in 2020 .
Ingredients to Successful Digital Health Strategies
Value-add
The offering addresses the patient’s needs and creates additional value for him or her as a customer. A smart solution improves the quality and outcome of a treatment by simplifying processes and saving time and money. Digital treatments should support the patient in tracking their health status and sharing data with all involved physicians, renewing their prescriptions, predicting likely changes in health status based on available data, and so on.
Interaction
A successful digital solution compasses the whole customer journey by connecting the stakeholders – patient, physician, payer, healthcare provider and supplier. Pharmaceutical companies have an added advantage of consistent association with Doctors, hence have chances of being in a potentially stronger position to drive the adoption of digital solutions through clinicians if their offerings address Doctors’ needs. Medical device companies have not interacted with clinicians as much in the past, and hence would have to build related capabilities.
Data
Electronic health records offer the possibility of tracking and sharing the patient’s health status and customising the treatment.
Devices
Successful digital health solutions involve use of devices that collect and analyse the data, communicate with the patient, and provide multiple interfaces to other medical devices and communication platforms. The device almost becomes a lifestyle product for the patient.
Sensors
Sensors enable tracking of a patient’s health status in real time, and yield precise and continuous measurements. They mitigate the gap between home care and professional equipment. Furthermore, sensors are designed to be convenient for the patient: wearable, inconspicuous and suitable for daily use.
Pharmaceuticals
Digital offerings can potentially enhance the value proposition of a pharmaceutical and the related therapy. Technological dimensions can add to the core product and enable a tailored treatment. RFID chips on pharmaceutical boxes, sensors on inhalers, pumps, smart pills, cloud-based patient records, video platforms, patches and implants to track the status – for example – of the Cardiovascular system or Glucose concentration, learning programmes, and many more options are available to enrich the value proposition.
Final steps : Investigate and Launch
Finally, develop an implementation timeline and begin executing on key parts of the strategy.Launch an internal mobile health summit and get feedback from stakeholders with different roles in various divisions. This internal “crowdsourcing” can result in far more interesting pilots and innovative ideas than a top-down approach.
Technology is shaping the future of healthcare success with digital health leading the charge. Remote monitoring and analytics are all key initiatives for healthcare companies to focus on in 2015. Every healthcare organization needs to take steps forward or risk being left behind. The time to execute on digital health is now.
Why Practice Social Distancing?
Amidst this lockdown, many are still asking the question about “Social Distancing”. As per the scientists, finding the cure or medicine for COVID-19 it may take about 12-18 months to find it. Hence. To prevent the spreading of this virus social distancing is the most effective way to do it.
Let's start by explaining what is social distancing, it is a conscious and deliberate choice of maintaining the distance of six feet from the people around us, to prevent the spreading of COVID-19.
To understand better the impact of it, here is a small visual to explain how the virus will spread if social distancing is not paid attention.
Social distancing is so effective right now that as an individual we all are contributing in the prevention of spreading this deadly virus.
There is another major concern that is coming into the picture with the rapid increase in the coronavirus patients. Hospitals around the world do not have enough resources to tackle this pandemic, there are limited numbers of healthcare facility in all the countries around the world.
The coronavirus outbreak in Italy has shown, the faster rate of the population getting infected by it and to tackle with it, there are not enough medical resources like hospital beds, ventilators and doctors. This will be challenging for the healthcare to save lives leading to exponential rise in number of deaths.
Hence, social distancing is the most effective way to "flatten the curve" or reduce the spread of this coronavirus.
What does flattening the curve means?
The researchers have projected a graph to understand the impact of the spreading of coronavirus against the number of hospital beds. Though this is a theoretical graph, it does show how quickly the capacity of healthcare can come crashing down which can make COVID-19 an epidemic, hard to deal with.
This curve indicates, if the same number of people are getting at a slower rate over a longer period of time, then it reduces the pressure on the healthcare system and making it easier to treat everyone, hence, a lesser number of deaths.
Therefore, just by taking small measures individually, like maintaining social distance, washing hands frequently, avoid going out in crowded places, and spend maximum time inside the house. We all can contribute a collective to fight against this deadly coronavirus.