Digital Health
Innovation Panel Discussion
In this timely panel discussion, moderator Gunnar Trommer, Ph.D., Principal for Digital Health, BCG Digital Ventures and panelists shared their passion for digital health and what they feel it can achieve. Along with the opportunities digital health brings, there are challenges to overcome with implementation. The panelists shared their expertise and guidance on how companies can leverage and promote health and wellness.
PANELISTS
Janet Campbell, Software Developer, Epic
Dennis Robbins, Ph.D., MPH, Director, Translational Ethics & Policy, PEARL Practice-Based Translational Network, Chief Clinical and Business Intelligence Officer, KPN Health Analytics and KPN Management Partners
Dr. David Rhew, Chief Medical Officer & Vice President of Global Healthcare, Samsung
Dirk Schapeler, Director, Digital Health, Bayer HealthCare
Chris Talbot, Senior Director of Business Development, Qualcomm Life
TAKE-AWAY
Digital Health is valuable because it analyzes and aggregates a multitude of information and then distills it into categorized sets of clear data. There are many challenges and opportunities for bettering the life of the patient and the concerns of the company when employing digital health models.
BEST PRACTICES
Campbell explained that we have much more data than we've ever had before, but that technology alone cannot lead to behavior change. With this multitude of data, there is the expectation that technology should lead many of our initiatives.
According to Rhew, patients need to have a bigger role in healthcare, although they don’t yet have all the tools. They need greater transparency to understand the quality of care being delivered. With these, we need to understand how new technologies can fit together and motivate patients. Individuals must be able to capture data and share it among themselves.
For Schapeler, digital health is about bringing together several different disciplines. The pharmaceutical and medical worlds are different, but somewhere along the line they need to be brought together.
ACTION ITEM(S) TO IMPLEMENT
According to Robbins, if we want healthier people and a healthier world, we need to stop thinking less about healthcare and start thinking more about health. The challenge is moving away from a silo-entrenched system.
Talbot described how financial incentives are needed in order for digital health to take off. It's not enough to make a service or platform available--we need to look at how we engage people to use them, and keep in mind that one size doesn't fit all. If it's not easy to use it's not going to take off.
TAKE-AWAY
When we look at digital health, it's not where we want it to be. Where will it be leveraged?
BEST PRACTICES
Schapeler believes that we are just at the very beginning of digital health. This degree and speed of innovation will evolve tremendously and change healthcare dramatically. It's about the value of patients, peers and providers, but it's not so clearly defined as to be entirely integrated. Integration depends on how we are going to define the problem. We’re not seeing the broader healthcare option; we’ve only experienced a tipping point in incentive, which changes with the business model.
ACTION ITEM(S) TO IMPLEMENT
Through the use of technology, providers are the strongest digital health leverages. The question remains--do they drive the program or are they a participant? In fact, relatively healthy consumers may be key to drive us toward digital health, although we have to make it meaningful to the sick as well. The incentive is to live longer and live better.
TAKE-AWAY
If you had to pick one digital health success factor, what would it be?
BEST PRACTICES
According to Campbell, success happens when patients seek out their own information. It's a success when patients do their own work.
The panelists agreed that the technology itself provided motivation, gratification and fun in most instances. It can engage patients and provide them with a valuable experience and, in some cases, micro-rewards.
ACTION ITEM(S) TO IMPLEMENT
Panelists also agreed that the technology could only be a successful factor if it was passive, unobtrusive and had a meaningful interpretation. To truly make digital health successful, there needs to be engagement and motivation to use that technology. Social contracts through applications are powerful.
FINAL THOUGHT
Digital Health will be invisible if implemented correctly. The future of digital health will consist of large scale deployments of digital health and pay-per-outcomes. Patients will have more power and make smarter decisions.
No comments:
Post a Comment