The empowerment of patients through digital solutions is going to result in revamping of how health care is provided and accessed now. Understanding the dynamics of this new system is crucial for both pharma / devices companies as well as the start-ups in digital health.
The conceptual model shown in the figure tries to capture what we believe are the key elements that would influence this shift of dynamics. During the coming months, you will see different initiatives sprouting from this basic framework.
For the traditional pharma / device companies, it has the potential to provide an opportunity to improve the collection of real-world evidence as well as to improve the outcomes of existing treatments.
Solutions are created based on the drug / device provided, rather than starting with a holistic view from the perspective which will pose a challenge to many companies. Starting with a perspective of ways to empower the patient will prove to be significantly critical in order to then get the value you desire to establish for your business.
Empowering change
The perspective of having the ability to change a patient’s habit by pushing a patient to perform a desired action like changing an eating habit or increasing physical activity for a positive change has not been so successful.
But if you as patient become aware (empowered) of ways to prevent diseases that has the ability to have a significantly reduce your like quality, like Alzheimer and Dementia, you would probably be interested to understand and follows these ways to prevent diseases you know that you are at risk. In our recent blog-post we throw light on the correlation between midlife cardiovascular fitness and the impact on dementia which shows a 60% reduction in risk. Furthermore, there is evolving evidence that diet can have a meaningful risk reduction for dementia.
If we are aware that we are at risk for developing dementia / alzheimer, most of us would probably be interested in understanding lifestyle changes required in order to avoid this disease. If there is only a theoretically understanding of why certain changes are required and how it is to be done, it is not going to be easy to create a lasting change. There has to be a readily available support system to develop and boost the changes that are actually required. Hence, we believe that there is going to be a significant opportunity for solutions that support this process.
We have already analyzed digital solutions focusing on mental unhealth. As a follow up, we are starting a project analyzing the digital solutions covering both diagnostic solutions and digital tools to support accompanying lifestyle changes that are required. We intend to focus on understanding the impact of our eating behavior in current and future disease progression.
We believe that solutions that empower behavioral change will become a more integrated part of how we perceive healthcare in the future.
Smart healthcare interaction
There are many interesting developments in which digital solutions enable a smarter interaction between patients and the healthcare system.
We have also started a project to look at digital solutions that engage the patient in oncology. Already at the start of this project, we can see a significant potential in the ability for patients to use digital applications to submit patient reported outcomes (PROM’s) and the ability of it’s application in cost reduction and improved outcomes.
We are also conducting a series of webinars to go into details of analyzing and explaining how this could work. From an industry perspective, this is extremely valuable since it can improve outcomes simultaneously as it supports the development and collection of evidence.
Access to data
The ability to have access to data from wearables, for me as a patient, is obviously of great interest as it requires very less or no effort from me and in turn provides enormous amount of valuable data. If we in addition to this can have ready access to diagnostic laboratory results, we can be in charge of our own health at a very early stage where preventive lifestyle can already be adopted. Taking into account, the humongous amount of data collected and available, it becomes evident that it would be unfeasible in many instances to use it in the interaction with a doctor. Here, new digital solutions for healthcare can be integrated to simplify and process the data, and deliver it as a concise usable datasheet for the physicians and as an easily understandable update of their own health for the patients where they can access and be in control of their health.
Empowered patients as the basic framework of healthcare is the future!
The foundation for empowerment of patients comes from the ability to have access to data readily in addition to the interaction with expertise. This accessibility to data should be accompanied with digital solutions that will interpret your health data and enhances the ability to connect with a healthcare provider. A high need for solutions that provide guidance and feedback to the patients directly and regularly to keep them on track in between the treatment schedules or even before, aiming at an early preventive stage is on the rise. In conclusion, there is an explicit need for solutions that empowers the patients by creating awareness through health data, assisting in more meaningful interactions with expertise and receiving the most accurate help without any unnecessary delay will be of utmost importance in the future of healthcare which will be patient centered.