dr. Waqaas Al-Siddiq DBA, founder of Biotricityis a serial entrepreneur, former investment advisor and technology expert.
Digital health can be simply defined as both healthcare innovation and its future. Digital health tools provide a means of patient-centered care that was previously only available to a select few. As a population, we are more aware of what is considered healthy, but for many of us, our health continues to deteriorate. Historically, this problem has been largely due to a lack of access to health care, a lack of coordinated care and/or problems with: interoperability. Digital health can address each of these issues in a streamlined way that is adapted to each patient’s condition. This can result in improved results.
Digital health has successfully integrated technology into healthcare by enabling on-demand whole person monitoring. Whole person care focuses on and follows individuals from labs to diagnostics to disease management and intervention as needed. Still, the penetration of digital healthcare continues to face many challenges. Those challenges threaten innovation by slowing our pace.
While digital health is trending and a focus of innovators around the world, many current healthcare solutions remain obsolete. As a healthcare entrepreneur, I have found that innovation is often hampered by regulatory hurdles. Products must comply with guidelines for safety, quality, data security, functionality, data protection and interoperability. Once products meet these requirements, they are eligible for regulatory review and may be eligible for insurance reimbursement. The review timeline and requirements vary depending on the type of product. For example, some require long-term studies and long-term clinical data. All obstacles aside, digital tools are well suited to improve morbidity, mortality, costs and quality of life.
In contrast, we have the simplest form of healthcare products with the fastest path to commercialization: healthcare apps. Obtaining clinical data for them is often difficult because data is collected through mobile apps and widely used by the public. That data is of course skewed because individuals use those apps are on average younger and healthier. This data is self-regulated by mobile users and, in my experience, is often abandoned before you get any long-term data or substantial insights. There is usually no way to prove the reliability, validity, or effectiveness of those tools. To be accountable and ensure the reliability of data, physicians must supervise. The problem is, why should doctors be motivated to view self-generated data for free?
Depending on the health care issue you are addressing, things can get more complicated when you consider health care reimbursement codes. Developing new medical codes for innovative technologies and treatments can be difficult and time-consuming. This may further stretch commercialization timelines. Such hurdles can increase costs and make healthcare innovation expensive and market penetration difficult.
Depending on the focus area, the costs can be even higher. For example, it is expensive and time-consuming to make new medicines. Drug developers must provide clinical evidence that their drugs are safe and effective before approval. However, it can be difficult to observe side effects with so many limitations in duration and magnitude. Often, side effects don’t show up until after the drug has been widely used. This is where digital health can provide valuable insights to improve the quality of care and lower its costs.
So, how can we, as healthcare innovators, overcome these hurdles?
Consider Where You choose to innovate
We know that chronic conditions are responsible for: 75% of healthcare expenditure, so innovation in chronic diseases is paramount. How can we innovate without slowing down? First, innovate to support the institutions that deliver care or develop technologies that ultimately serve the patient directly. We already know what is accessible to patients: electronic patient portals, telemedicine services, wearable devices and online chats. We know what to achieve if an ecosystem, but are patients really empowered? Has the quality of care really improved? We can innovate to correct shortcomings and misconceptions to improve the overall patient experience.
Consider How You choose to innovate
Focus on connectivity. Let the ball roll with interconnected therapeutic and diagnostic products and services. That way you can generate valid long-term data that you can use to improve precision medicine and use predictive analytics.
Match an existing refund code
The first two give you the fastest path to commercialization if you can figure out reimbursement, a key problem in healthcare innovation. I thought that was the best approach is hiring a reimbursement specialist and analyze refund in the space in which you are trying to innovate – look for a established medical code directly related to your space. Based on that, you can innovate and shorten the entire process and develop a solution that fits within that code.
Digital health: the last frontier
The benefits of digital health technologies for clinical care and research will be appreciated when you have solved the above mentioned challenges. Digital health will connect patient data from telehealth, remote patient monitoring and remote diagnostics, creating a more holistic patient view. This will ultimately drive the adoption of more evidence-based technologies.
We can innovate without getting stuck. We need to examine our current challenges and limitations and proactively change the status quo. Data quality, security, privacy, user-friendliness and refund issues can all be remedied. We need to work closely with our stakeholders and establish early collaborations to eliminate kinks and leverage existing refund codes. In this way we ensure that digital health improves outcomes, reduces costs and improves the quality of care.
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