Healthcare organisations can be more resilient, agile and innovative: EY report

The pandemic has demonstrated that healthcare organisations can become more resilient, agile and innovative if they shift to digitally-enabled business models with data at the core, according to an EY report, “Getting future ready,” released at BioAsia 2022. The report highlighted how healthcare organisations need to create the right data environment to support a more human-centered approach.

Hitesh Sharma, National Tax Leader -Life Sciences, EY India, said, “Healthcare delivery is moving outside the four walls of the traditional health system. Healthcare providers who take the lead in engaging with users across the healthcare value chain will be best placed to integrate the physical and the virtual world. Healthcare delivery in India, predominantly recognised for sick care delivery, will have to innovate in the coming decade to build next-gen capabilities, and unlock the power of data to enhance the overall healthcare experience.”

The paradigm of healthcare delivery is changing and is poised for a big leap forward, more so after the COVID-19 pandemic. A shift towards patient centricity, prevention, wellness, and anywhere and anytime healthcare delivery has created new opportunities to reimagine the entire patient journey. Data analytics and new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain, sensor, etc are reshaping the entire product value chain. Many pharmaceutical and technology companies globally are coming up with new solutions.

The EY report stated that the road to leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) is built from good data. Healthcare organisations need to consider creating the right data environment to support a more human-centered approach. The report further delves into the five key trends in data that will enable this transformation.

The explosion of healthcare data requires a new ecosystem built around the needs of the individual enabled by technical standards, open data models and empowered by governance systems that deliver trust. The goal would be to have longitudinal health records from birth that records care received and other relevant data. The optimal architecture would unify disparate information from multiple sources to create a health information architecture that can connect and share data, at scale, within and among enterprises and systems, it also said.

In addition, it mentioned that anywhere, anytime care is built upon consumer-oriented virtual health technologies and care models. Apps, wearables and environmental sensors capture and share permissioned information across the care spectrum. As 5G networks further penetrate, they will make the capture of real-time data much faster and more robust. For consumers, this data-driven connected health environment will anticipate their needs, passively monitor their health, and improve the quality and timeliness of their care. For healthcare organisations, AI analytics help address operational challenges, such as waste across workflows, supply chains and duplicative procedures, as well as help to anticipate clinical risks.

To keep pace with the velocity and variety of health data generated, the health information infrastructure must enable providers to connect, combine, analyse and share health and social data. Data regarding a unique individual’s habits, social determinants, genomics and preferences, in addition to traditional medical information, will be leveraged by providers to influence a person’s healthy behaviours and outcomes, it said.

The report further mentioned that trusted intelligence systems will emerge to secure the confidence and participation of consumers and other stakeholders. Increasing mobility, transparency and availability of health information bring both benefits for consumers and clinicians, but simultaneously also increase the risk associated with a fluid system. Governance structures, policies and practices must be sufficiently robust and cover the ethical, legal and moral aspects of collecting, storing and sharing of sensitive health data. The onus will be on healthcare organisations to maintain high standards of transparency around the integrity and security of data and devices. The organisations will have to provide clarity around the ownership rights regarding personal data, secondary uses of data and the protection of an individual’s privacy.

Clinicians will need to leverage medical, data and behavioral science knowledge and skills in the near future to deliver the personalised care demanded by patients. To support this shift, health entities must decide now where to invest in education, training and recruiting. Healthcare organisations will achieve success when they will build from an ecosystem mindset, identifying what data is critical and the right strategy to access it, the report concluded.