mHealth is no longer an "add-on" to the hospital's IT infrastructure. It should be an integral part of that infrastructure, connecting caregivers and patients, pulling data for analytics, and pushing care to where it's needed.
That's the upshot of "Healthcare delivery of the future; How digital technology can bridge time and distance between clinicians and consumers," from PricewaterhouseCoopers. The 21-page report is based on results of a survey by PwC's Health Research Institute of 1,000 physicians and "physician extenders," such as nurses and assistants.
The report urges providers to master digital tools to survive in a "New Health Economy," a landscape where the "active value-seeking consumer" presides. PwC urges caregivers to work as a team – with each other as well as with the patient – and suggests putting diagnostic technology in the hands of patients to conduct their own tests, and promotes chronic care self-management through the use of mobile apps.
It also notes that consumers and providers have the same ideas on how to use and benefit from mHealth, but the nation's healthcare system is maddeningly inefficient in delivering care and allowing mHealth to be integrated. Legacy IT systems keep data in silos and don't integrate with other systems or new tools.
The PwC report also points out that the nation's healthcare system is being inundated with new technology, but few are learning how to make that technology work. 'Workflows are an afterthought and care teams are left to figure out how to force-fit new tools into old workflows," it says. And in a nod to the explosion of apps – both consumer- and clinician-facing – now on the market, it quotes Leonard Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, who points out "The last thing people need is 400 apps that confuse the patient even more."
To succeed in this new environment, PwC offers four recommendations to providers:
- Figure out what technology works best for both physicians and consumers;
- Learn how to motivate consumers and caregivers to adopt digital health and keep on using it;
- Use analytics to generate "meaningful, actionable insights;" and
- Rethink staffing needs and organize workflows around digital technology.
"For healthcare, the next five years will be critical in linking data generated by these technologies with data from traditional systems and integrating that information seamlessly into clinicians’ everyday practice," the report concluded. "Companies that have strategies that combine the right incentives, people, workflows, and data will emerge as leaders."
