Connected Health save Healthcare Industry

Technology-enabled care, or connected heath care as it is known, is helping to redefine the patient-caregiver relationship and simplify treatment, from diagnosis to cure. For technologists, it means more capable, smarter gadgets that can read a person’s vitals more accurately, determine whether there is or could be a problem, and then proactively treat the patient without him or her ever knowing there was an issue. Health care, then, becomes proactive. For providers, connected health care can open up a whole new model based on value, not the number of procedures performed. And it offers new, easier ways to interact with patients. Also, connected health care means a friendlier, more satisfying experience—something like a new lease on life.

But, even as healthcare has become more effective, it has also become more complex and costly. Growing and aging populations are putting increased pressure on health-care systems that are already crashing under the burden of chronic diseases like cancer and diabetes. The Institute of Medicine estimates that in the United States alone, some $750 billion a year – about 30% of total health-care spending – is “wasted on unnecessary services, excessive administrative costs, fraud, and other problems.” If we are to ensure that health care remains affordable and widely available for future generations, we need to think radically how we provide and manage it.

Obviously, healthcare needs to become connected. It should become completely normal for medical professionals to share relevant data with colleagues around the world. Medical devices in hospitals should be able to combine multiple sources of information. A new generation of consumer technology, such as wearable health sensors could automatically alert doctors to medical problems before they become acute episodes. Although such innovations must confront challenges like system interoperability and the need to protect patients’ privacy, the Internet’s integration into the travel and banking industries shows what is possible.

Connected healthcare is becoming a reality. Philips, for example, has developed a technology that allows doctors to digitally share medical data from a prostate cancer biopsy with colleagues around the world. In the past, the biopsy could be shared only physically, which made diagnosing the exact type of prostate cancer difficult. As a result, surgeons and patients may have opted for invasive surgery to be safe. Now, teams of doctors worldwide have an additional tool to work together towards more accurate diagnoses and enhanced treatment plans for individual patients.

A Connected Health mindset would enable and deliver a “Continuum of Care” with the patient at its center, tying together all components and stakeholders within the health system. By closing the loop between consumers, caregivers, clinicians and payers, this approach would promote participatory medicine. Moreover, rather than episodic care tied to certain events, a Connected Health mindset would shift the outlook toward wellness and enable individuals to always avail of appropriate care no matter where they are, in order to remain as healthy as they can.

Connected Health solutions could help relieve the pressure being felt by providers and insurers alike and enable them to effectively manage the total cost of care. There are practical and feasible ways to effect change and deliver results that the Healthcare Reform Law aims for in the short term by altering the way we approach healthcare. The key lies in adopting a Connected Health mindset, which means keeping the consumer at the center, closing the loop between various stakeholders, and aiming to deliver a “Continuum of Care”, thereby realizing significant savings.