Healthcare is an interesting area for innovative delivery models where we could easily relate those innovations to our everyday life than any other industry. As many reports indicate, innovations in care delivery in the form of remote monitoring technologies such as telehealth and mhealth are gaining prominence among the stakeholders including patients and providers while many insurers are also reimbursing expenses incurred in the process. We also see plenty of mobile applications being developed around smartphones that act as extended diagnostic devices for dermatology, pathology, cardiology and radiology. With digital transformation happening all around, we could probably have our primary care being delivered at our own bedside in the coming years.
The major drive for digital adoption in healthcare came with the passage of regulatory mandate ‘Affordable Care Act’ and other health IT acts. Following slow march from digitization of health records to sharing of health information among different entities, now the stage has been set for bigger analytic usage and delivering care anywhere. Along this line, we are seeing innovations happening in healthcare with the usage of sensors, mobile devices, wearable devices, intelligent applications and predictive analytics. All these sensors, applications and devices when integrated enable patients to be monitored remotely from home. There is this inquisitive article from healthcareitnews.com where Dr. Andrew Watson, who is considered to be a pioneer in utilizing telehealth systems at UPMC, makes an interesting prediction that in the next five to six years, 85 percent of the healthcare will be delivered at home[i] and technology plays a prominent role for this transition.
There are many companies that have developed different formats of home health monitoring systems. One such company is Independa which has developed a system that enables independent living for seniors with clinical measurements such as blood pressure and glucose levels, to sensors that monitor motion, toilet flushing and door opening[ii].The system has inbuilt algorithms to monitor any abnormal activity though sensors including no movement within the home and alert concerned persons. iRobot developed by InTouch allows doctor to consult remotely through screen mounted on robot and has inbuilt diagnostic systems for measuring and sharing key vitals[iii]. Care plans by primary care physicians are also shared on cloud with platforms such as Vivify that allows patients and care givers or nurses to access their care plan and act accordingly which improves patient compliance and adherence to set protocols by doctors[iv]. Today, every detail about the patient such as electronic medical and health records, lab results, prescription and medical history, family history, treatments undergone, current diagnosis and care plans are increasingly made available on cloud for greater ubiquitous consumption of medical data by healthcare providers at anytime and anywhere the patient may need care.
Look at the benefits of this remote care/ home care model. While the fact remains with many studies showing that digital technologies will reduce readmissions, costs and time and improve well-being, we could take another look from a transformation perspective. Imagine yourself on the bed. You have your bed wired with sensors that measures all your vitals and sleep behaviour throughout the night. The intelligent robot at your home receives the measurement of your vitals on a real-time from the sensors. The robot processes this information for the normal functioning of the body. It has inbuilt intelligence to act as soon as it senses certain deviation from the normal threshold. The robot knows your current diagnosis and acts instantly with prescribed first-aid format. The robot then alerts the primary care physician of your condition and shares your vitals to him. Physician then attends to you in no-time and you are back to normal. Robot is constantly updated with current information about your condition and alerts you to take medication, probe you for exercises and monitor your dietary in-take. It also arranges for periodic video consultation with your physician when it is due. Many of the systems that are developed today enables for digital environment as described above.
This digital transformation will have tremendous potential for long term care, home care and immediate care. Despite the concerns about the investments required from providers or the payer side, if the doctors and patients are enthusiastic about the benefits and are willing to go beyond the existing systems to communicate and diagnose by using simple third-party solutions, it will be a big leap forward. I could take a leaf from the futuristic film “Elysium” that showed a diagnostic and treatment device at every home for curing any diseases. Probably, we will have a system as such in every home with intelligence to monitor, predict, prescribe and prevent high cost medical treatments with periodic assessment and diagnosis. Setting timeline for such a system and its adoption is like staying afloat on a ravenous river and it is going to take its own time for fully integrated solution while the prototype will be adopted here and there at intermittent levels.
[i] http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/mhealth-forecast-wows-audience?single-page=true
[ii] http://www.informationweek.com/mobile/remote-patient-monitoring-9-promising-technologies/d/d-id/1110968?page_number=3
[iii] http://www.informationweek.com/mobile/remote-patient-monitoring-9-promising-technologies/d/d-id/1110968?page_number=4
[iv] http://www.informationweek.com/mobile/remote-patient-monitoring-9-promising-technologies/d/d-id/1110968?page_number=5
