Digital transformation in preventive care
ACCORDING to a recent study by the World Economic Forum, the global economic impact of the five leading chronic diseases — cancer, diabetes, mental illness, heart disease and respiratory disease — could reach $47 trillion over the next 20 years. At the same time, the World Health Organization predicts that the global deficit of skilled health care professionals will reach 18 million by 2030.
This is why many health care organizations are transitioning away from a model of intervention toward one of prevention: a model where resources are dedicated to detecting and forestalling medical issues before they have a chance to cause symptoms, develop into chronic diseases or trigger lifethreatening effects.
For many parties across the health care ecosystem, from health care professionals to tech players and government bodies, the hope is that a preventive care model will be the solution to lifting the burden of chronic disease on our health systems, and ultimately, delivering higher-value care that’s focused on enabling the healthiest outcomes.
In the Philippines, many steps have been taken to transition existing health systems toward a preventive care model. Signed into law in February 2019, the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law was created to guarantee equitable access to quality health care goods as well as preventive, curative, promotive, rehabilitative and palliative services.
To complement mandates under the UHC Law, Senate Bill 198 — which seeks to provide free medical checkups for all Filipinos — is being pushed for anew in the 19th Congress. Aiming to prevent public health emergencies by reforming and modernizing the country’s health care capabilities, a bill seeking to establish a Philippine Center for Disease Prevention and Control has been refiled in the House of Representatives.
Preventive care
While the concept of preventive care isn’t new, within the last few years, the digital transformation of health care has led to groundbreaking innovations that are rapidly accelerating the shift toward preventive care at scale. Here are three powerful examples:
Predictive analytics
Driven by the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), many health care organizations now have algorithms at their disposal that could be fed historical and realtime patient data to help health professionals make meaningful, timely predictions on potential outcomes and treatment options.
Remote patient monitoring
Remote patient monitoring refers to a wide range of solutions that allow care teams to assess and even treat patients outside of conventional clinical settings. Implantable devices and wearables such as the Philips BioTel Heart Mobile Cardiac Outpatient Telemetry (MCOT) Patch could give care teams round-the-clock oversight on their patients from any location, collecting data on vital signs in real time and flagging any signs of impending cardiac issues at the earliest opportunity.
Digital patient engagement
Digital patient engagement methods such as health-tracking apps and patient portals empower people to take a more active role in managing their health and well-being. They also help patients to maximize treatment compliance for existing conditions, and start dialogues with their care teams, for faster reporting of symptoms and greater access to information and advice.
Momentum for preventive care
With around 1 in 3 adults being treated for complex chronic conditions globally, the need for a more preventive care model is all too apparent. The pandemic has spurred on much of the digital transformation that’s facilitating the shift to preventive care today — but these advances are long overdue.
To make preventive care a success in all markets and alleviate the burden of chronic illness that’s been felt across the industry for years, we need to go further. We must break the barriers between departments and specialists, eliminate the obstacles separating patients from caregivers, and bridge the boundary between health care settings and people’s homes.