Last week I highlighted some key considerations for healthcare systems embarking on digital health. This week’s post will add some more.
Start with an ecosystem mindset – the care of the future won’t be a patchwork quilt of one-off legacy systems that struggle to communicate with each other. Health systems that have implemented Electonic Medical Records (EMRs) will know all about these pain points. As we look to develop new models of care, ecosystem approaches will make the most sense. Think about how you currently manage your patients with diabetes? You likely have multiple medication regimens to choose from and build on if results are not satisfactory. Enter digital therapeutics to address diabetes as a new model of care. Continuous data streams provide more information to the consumer and care teams to optimally manage symptoms, time meals, and medications in real-time.
Digital health will also allow for the development of different benefit structures as these tools become part of the standard of care or act as a differentiator in the marketplace. Start mapping the role these tools can play in your health system as the road to benefit development is a long one. Last week I referenced value-based payment models as being a prudent place to develop for digital therapeutics.
Digital is here to stay so you can decide if you want to be an entrenched incumbent on the path of obsolescence or an early adopter. You can, of course, also pace your experiments to be in the middle of the pack, so you have early learnings and signals on where to move next. Consumers will expect digital as part of how they receive care.
Thanks for reading – Trina
(Opinions are my own)
