Engaging patients using technology

Every patient draws satisfaction and comfort on being extended good personalized care. With technology permeating the healthcare space, there is a strong feeling amongst many people that the degree of personalized care is only going to improve in the future. Infact, technological innovations are also expected to find progressive solutions to the hurdles currently faced in managing and curing fatal diseases. This is the consequence of the paradigm shift in the manner in which people have started viewing the impact of technology on healthcare. There is a high degree of willingness from their end to become part of the solution to the world's healthcare problems with the aid of all sorts of technologies – to the extent that they are now open to virtual doctor visits and to the extensive use of remote medical devices and health sensors. Basically, there seems to be no hesitation whatsoever in embracing a form of healthcare which makes it possible for them to access care outside the hospital premises, share their information anonymously for better outcomes, receive care which is highly personalized i.e. even take into account the patient’s genetic details.

Given the expectations which patients have, it has become imperative on the part of providers and physicians to acknowledge them and subsequently device ways to address them. Though the inhibitions on the part of patients towards using personal health records and mobile apps for managing their care is on the wane, physicians in turn can be reluctant to accept electronic data from patients due to liability concerns. A research was done in order understand the reasons for the apprehension on the part of the physicians and the subsequent steps taken to address them. The major concerns included timeliness of data availability, adequacy of response, volume of data, accuracy and decision on who should respond. Based on the findings, some steps have been suggested to make it possible for physicians to better engage with patients using technology.

They include the following:

• Achieve an understanding of the nature of information patients would be expected to share , how they would do it and who would be the person responsible from the clinical team to review the information and at what frequency
• Identify and train a member of the clinical care team to monitor incoming data and decide urgency
• Have a protocol in place to handle medical emergency
• Use the correct judgment to arrive at a decision on whether or not a patient-generated electronic health information needs to be included in a physician’s medical record

The above points can act as valuable guidelines for providers as well in their endeavor to engage patients using technology. Besides, they will also enable them to offer highly effective, efficient and most importantly patient-centered care. With better data and technology at their disposal, it will be possible to see what is happening to patients more easily and, if need be, make the required adjustments in real time. In the new emerging payment models like Accountable Care Organizations, technology can actually play a very crucial role in engaging patients - by prompting more preventive behavior and spurring patient-physician discussions. The new models aim to negate fee-for-service by offering incentives and savings to patients for doing things the right way. This is where they expect technology to play a major role. Mobile health app development teams can help you build clinical and EHR/EMR software projects within allocated budgets and time schedules.

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Major factors affecting healthcare as it evolves

The true importance of Health IT will be understood only when people start looking upon it as something beyond just electronic health records. Only then, will Practices understand the relevance and the need to invest and build up the required infrastructure to support its implementation. At the same time, a lot is left desired in terms of the pace and manner in which its adoption is being rolled out. Standards seem to be in a constant state of flux followed by emphasis on technologies whose benefits in a true sense have not been realized universally. This has compelled comments from eminent groups expressing concern over unintended consequences and additional costs for physicians. Infact, surveys done have clearly started indicating that it takes time to bring about changes in the infrastructure of a health system to support the Health IT efforts and to deploy the tools – that to expect results to start showing immediately is a tall order.

Healthcare has an industry has been experiencing significant changes across all the major dimensions, namely; regulatory, technological, medical and market. This has compelled the leaders of the industries to come together and collaborate so as to define the best ways of adapting to the changes. Of all the important ones some which stand out for the impact that they make have been shared below:

• More engagement and control for Patients: They are going to be more informed about the what’s and how’s of any treatment process that they undergo. On the insurance front, the availability of exchanges will allow then to make better buying decisions based on their need. Use of mHealth will help them to administer self-monitoring technologies. With general awareness of better living habits going up, they will be more involved in managing their health.

• Overhaul of Care-Settings: There will be a major shift of care delivery to homes and communities. Technological advancements will make it possible for patients to stay connected with their providers remotely and avoid unnecessary visits. In addition to that, informed and engaged patients will be better equipped to self-manage a lot of things, courtesy availability of data through electronic health records, smartphones etc.

• Move towards to Pay-for-Performance Billing: Every dollar spent will have to be justified in terms of the treatment offered. Quality, Outcome and finally Satisfaction will slowly become the mandatory deliverable for all providers. New methods of payments are expected to evolve to bring about more risk-sharing and accountability. The models are likely to become more team-based with Non-physicians providers expected to play an important role 

• Consolidation of stakeholders: Independent hospitals and stand-alone practitioners are going to find it tough to sustain the operations. With the focus shifting towards better efficiency, lowering costs and improving quality, all concerned stakeholders i.e. payers, hospitals, pharmaceutical suppliers etc. will see consolidation as means of sustenance.

This will result in a better integrated approach to delivery of care for physicians the most important shift would be that in the payment model. From affecting the financial status of the present breed of physicians in the short term, it would have a defining long-term effect on the career decisions of many interested to join the profession.

Many physicians today receive payments on a fee-for-service basis which provides no incentive for delivering high quality of expertise and which ironically would result in reducing the number of visits and thus the services they offer the patients. However, the changes taking place currently have altered the dynamics altogether. With an emphasis on lowering cost and improving quality, physicians are going to be put on a budget and expected to offer the best of outcome and care within it .Be it capitation and shared savings, withholds and rick pools, pay for performance or bundled payments the emphasis of payment models will be entirely towards risk sharing. All this just adds to the headache for the fraternity already bogged down by the burden of having to adapt to the technical interventions. The last thing that they want now is their profession not rewarding them financially enough.

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Can Big Data live upto Healthcare expectations?

Based on the analysis made so far on the effect Big data on restraining healthcare cost, it is being suggested that the industry stands to save an approximate amount to the tune of $450 bn. Further improvements and suggestions which are bound to come by as more research is done in this field will only result in more savings. Important suggestions made so far include doing away with the fee-for –service as a method of payment and change in the mindset of the providers and patients to accept the benefits of making use of data. The second point is highly critical. Unless there is a change in the approach on the part of the stakeholders in terms of their willingness to use the recommendations suggested by the analysis which comes with the sue of data , it will be next to impossible to actually start realizing the benefits of the approach. A case in point could be as simple as the following. No matter how much of investment and research is done in the field of fitness and exercise, the true benefit can never be passed on to people if they continue with the sedentary lifestyles as they have been for all this while . What big data analysis might provide as an input is the importance of exercising and some metrics to prove how it can possibly help people with a better lifestyle. But no matter how many new exercising techniques are suggested, the benefits can never be realized unless people actually start devoting time to fitness. Experiments done in controlled conditions have indicated that even if simple interventions were made successfully, on the large the results will lead to huge savings. This however will require physicians to combine their treatment methodologies with bog data. Although one of the major factors to distinguish one physician from another is their ability of judgment for treatment decisions, there is no harm if they were to combine it with big data usage and multiply the benefits. This however requires a paradigm shift in their openness to this field and a willingness to apply the recommendations.

Various developments over the last two decades in healthcare have resulted in the industry reaching this juncture at which the benefits of harvesting on the data available seem to have a lot of potential. Providers and Payers have digitized their medical records, Pharmaceutical companies have been supplying huge amount of information related to research and development into medical databases. Information from clinical trials and insurance programs are available and most importantly it is possible now to collect and analyze data from multiple sources. However the major factor which is responsible for driving up the demand is that of rising fiscal costs. There is now a huge need among healthcare stakeholders to compile and exchange information. This has been the result of a shift in healthcare delivery approach which is taking place. The tradition method of delivery where the payment was based on treatment volume resulted in high cost escalation which has compelled adoption of models where payment is related to the outcome and just not on the delivery of service. Since it is now the outcome which is of importance the stakeholders have started realizing that the costs can be brought down and results better achieved if there is more cohesion in their approaches and there is avoidance of repetition of processes. For this to happen it is imperative that they have access to common data and systems which make it possible to exchange information. Thus the need for availability of data and its harvesting has never been more.

Physicians who till now have relied on their judgment to take treatment related decisions have also started noticing the benefits of more evidence-based decision making. The process is based on taking inputs from systematic reviewing of clinical data and letting the best available information impact treatment decision. The important point here is that, surveys have indicated that the early adopters of this new approach have already started drawing the benefits. This is not only encouraging but could mean the beginning of a new era in the healthcare industry which till now has not been banking on use of big data compared to others like the retail and banking. There are bound to be roadblocks ahead but the journey nevertheless seems to have started already. Healthcare software development teams can help you build clinical and EHR/EMR software projects within allocated budgets and time schedules.

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