Perfect storm for digital health?
BOSTON—It’s possible that a perfect storm is brewing for digital health, according to the participants of the virtualized acute care reimbursement during the Digital Healthcare Innovation Summit.
David Levin, MD, CMIO of the Cleveland Clinic Health System, said he’s been waiting for the convergence between care and technology. However, he said “we’re in the age of the Model T which is better than the horse and buggy but we don’t have a Ferrari yet. There needs to be a balance between high tech and high touch.”
Shafiq Rab, CIO of Hackensack UMC, said healthcare can’t forget about the patient. “We can buy from Amazon at 2am but we can’t talk to our physician. That has to change.”
That consumerization will further pervade healthcare, said Frank Nydam, senior director for healthcare solutions and healthcare CTO, VMWare. Young adults have grown up on Facebook and they’re addicted to their phones but “enterprise IT hasn’t changed much since the mainframe.”
Patients expect better efficiency, said Rab, which is coming to healthcare for the first time.
Levin said three factors are creating the coming perfect storm. First is changing reimbursement. The shift from volume to value is “a real game changer.” Second is the explosion of devices which are low-cost, portable, smart and connected. Third is consumerism. “I joke that I work and then go home and live in the 21st century. The rising generation is expecting these changes because it’s the experience everyone is having in the rest of their lives.”
Healthcare needs “evidence-based IT,” said Scott Filion, general manager of EMC Healthcare. A focus on results and outcomes will prove business models. Levin agreed. A lot of tools may look cool but they have to have value. “We’re thinking more about solutions and how to bend technology to do that.”
Rab said his organization has been using technology to start solving problems. For example, they are giving phones to patient transporters and housekeepers so that with an alert, they can more quickly clean hospital rooms.
Much focus has been on the 10 percent of the population that needs the most intense care and therefore consumes the most resources. But, Levin said there’s an opportunity among the other 90 percent. Once the industry determines which tools are sticky and get people to change their behavior, there’s a “real opportunity.”
Nydam said healthcare faces formidable challenges. Referring to quality measures, Meaningful Use and ICD-10, “I’m astonished at how much is on their plates. Plus, there is so much legacy infrastructure and data.”
Rab mentioned making IT “sexy” to increase interest but Levin said “I don’t want IT to be sexy--I want it to recede into the background. Technology is a means not an end. Our job is to support what the clinical and operational leaders are trying to accomplish.”
Budgets too pose a challenge. Filion said about 80 percent of healthcare delivery organizations’ budgets “is spent keeping the lights on and only 20 percent is reserved for innovation. Our customers want help with a business model and we want to help them fund innovation projects.”
Cleveland Clinic Health System also has a small innovation group, Levin said. “Their job is to disrupt us. It’s annoying but in the long term, it’s a good thing.”
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.