By Ricardo Costa, Health Business Development Manager at EMC
Digital information is dramatically changing the way we interact personally and conduct business. We are always connected to more than one device. In addition, we can quickly access data around the world. When it comes to healthcare, we are both patients and consumers of information.
And there's a lot to be consumed. As healthcare data continues to grow by 48% per year, organizations are also challenged by the new expectations of patients living in this always-ready, immediate world.
In a recent Vanson Bourne survey of 236 global healthcare leaders, 89% of healthcare providers say technology has already changed patient expectations.
According to the study, patients want faster access to services, personalized experiences, connectivity and 24/7 access and access across multiple devices. All of this means that we want healthcare at the speed of now, right away, with full access and quality care, anywhere, anytime.
To meet the needs of information generation and keep pace with this digital mindset, healthcare leaders agree that you need to deliver five business priorities to stay ahead of the competition:
1. Identify new opportunities in advance
2. Demonstrate transparency and trust
3. Innovate in an agile way
4. Provide unique and personalized experiences
5. Operate in real time
Imagine the critical role these priorities play in a healthcare environment for initiatives such as population health management, value-based treatments, clinical research, telemedicine, genomics, and home care. Yet today, many healthcare organizations are just beginning to address these business priorities well or apply them across the enterprise.
Leaders in healthcare have also identified key technology trends that will impact healthcare delivery in the future, including:
• Big data analytics logic
• Automation
• Cyber security
• Smart Communities
• Hybrid Cloud
To help adopt this digital mindset across the enterprise, we work hand in hand with healthcare organizations around the world to simplify their healthcare IT infrastructure, reduce costs and innovate faster. To drive value-based treatment initiatives forward, we also help healthcare providers leverage predictive analytics across clinical, financial and operational use cases, along with improved security and availability of patient information.
These solutions help accelerate collaboration in continuum of care and empower hospitals and healthcare systems to transform IT in this area, driving real improvements in operational performance, clinical outcomes, regulatory compliance and patient engagement.
As an example, eHealth Saskatchewan has implemented solutions across the enterprise's hybrid cloud and end-user computing and can already see the impact of its technology investments.
In Brazil, the health market has different characteristics from other countries. As an example, in the United States the share of the population that depends exclusively on public services is around 20%. In Brazil, between 70% and 80% of people depend exclusively on the SUS. In the United States, about 10% of the population has no health insurance (not even public). In Brazil, even those who have a private plan are protected by the SUS, which makes it the largest centralized bank of patient records in the world.
Comparing the same countries, the private healthcare market in the US is served by around 450 providers. In Brazil, that number jumps to over 1300, and this is a particular challenge due to fragmentation. This fragmentation is also reflected in IT. It is common to find hospitals with several systems, from several manufacturers and that do not communicate.
There is enormous difficulty in hospitals in consolidating data of different standards, formats and structures, from traditional databases to images, so that they can extract more intelligence from their data both for population management, hospital operation and for advances in research. . These are crucial points for the main objectives of all hospitals in the 21st century: reducing costs, acting in prevention and adhering to the value-based remuneration model.
In the case of Brazil, we still need to take into account the impacts caused by the economic crisis that drained public and private budgets in the area. The impact of the exchange rate (R$ and US$) was one of the biggest, given the fact that the vast majority of technologies in this industry are imported. However, even in the face of adversity, health providers in Brazil cannot stop, as the effect of inaction will be even worse. The key is to invest correctly rather than simply saving.
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