(Published in Manila Standard Today under the Greenlight column, June 8, 2009)
The problems with our health care system are well-known and well-documented- and endlessly debated. What’s not so apparent is that many of them arise because the system isn’t, in fact, a system.
Connecting the system
Rising costs, limited access, high error rates, lack of coverage, poor response to chronic disease and the lengthy development cycle for new medicines- most of these could be improved if we could link diagnosis to drug discovery to health care are providers to insurers to employers to patients and communities. Today, these components, processes and participants that compromise the vast health care system aren’t connected. Duplication and hand offs are rampant. Deep wells of life-saving information are inaccessible.
Take for instance, in 2005, the Health Education Reform Order (HERO) reported that the total health care expenditure in the Philippines amounted to P165 billion, or about 3.5 percent of the GNP. Local health care spending has been focused on ‘sick care’, paying for products and services for patients to treat diseases when people have already developed them or are in the advanced stages. There is a clear need for improvement.
A smarter health care system starts with better connections, better data, and faster and more detailed analysis. It means integrating our data and centering it on the patient, so each person ‘owns’ his or her information and has access to a networked team of collaborative care. It means applying advanced analytics to vast amounts of data, to improve outcomes.
Using technology for smarter health care
Smarter health care is instrumented, so our health systems can automatically capture accurate, real-time information. IBM’s joint initiative with Google Health and the Continua Health Alliance enables individuals and stream data from medical devices. Implanet, a French orthopedics manufacturer, is using RFID technology to track surgical implants from manufacture until they’re inside patients. And health care providers in Denmark are using predictive health systems with advanced telemetry to monitor elderly patients in their homes, sharing data instantly.
Smarter health care is interconnected, so doctors, patients and insurers can all share information seamlessly and efficiently. Sainte-Justine, a research hospital in Quebec, is automating the gathering, managing and updating of critical research data, which is often spread across different departments. Then they’re applying analytics to speed childhood cancer research and improve patient care—while drastically lowering the cost of data acquisition and enhancing data quality. Servicio Extremeno de Salud, a public health care service in Spain, has built a regionally integrated system that lets patients go to many health centers within the region, knowing a doctor there can have the patients’ complete, up-to-date records for faster and more accurate treatment.
Replicating smart ideas
Smarter health care is intelligent, applying advanced analytics to improve research, diagnosis and treatment. Geisinger Health Systems is integrating clinical, financial, operational, claims, genomic and other information into an integrated environment of medical intelligence that help doctors deliver more decision s and deliver higher quality care, all because they can easily turn information into actionable knowledge. And IBM is helping some of the world’s top universities develop a global network of medical data, giving doctors diagnostic resources that were once unimaginable. These repositories currently hold millions of digital images.
Smarter health care systems like these hold promise beyond their particular communities, patients and diseases. The smart ideas from one can be replicated across an increasingly efficient, interconnected and intelligent system. This should result in lower costs, better-quality care and healthier people and communities. In other words, we’ll have a true health care system, with the focus where it belongs- on the patient. Let’s build a smarter planet.
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Reynaldo C. Lugtu Jr. teaches management and marketing courses in the MBA Program of the Graduate School of Business, De La Salle University. He may be e-mailed at rlugtu2002@yahoo.com or visit his blog at http://rlugtu.blogspot.com.
The problems with our health care system are well-known and well-documented- and endlessly debated. What’s not so apparent is that many of them arise because the system isn’t, in fact, a system.
Connecting the system
Rising costs, limited access, high error rates, lack of coverage, poor response to chronic disease and the lengthy development cycle for new medicines- most of these could be improved if we could link diagnosis to drug discovery to health care are providers to insurers to employers to patients and communities. Today, these components, processes and participants that compromise the vast health care system aren’t connected. Duplication and hand offs are rampant. Deep wells of life-saving information are inaccessible.
Take for instance, in 2005, the Health Education Reform Order (HERO) reported that the total health care expenditure in the Philippines amounted to P165 billion, or about 3.5 percent of the GNP. Local health care spending has been focused on ‘sick care’, paying for products and services for patients to treat diseases when people have already developed them or are in the advanced stages. There is a clear need for improvement.
A smarter health care system starts with better connections, better data, and faster and more detailed analysis. It means integrating our data and centering it on the patient, so each person ‘owns’ his or her information and has access to a networked team of collaborative care. It means applying advanced analytics to vast amounts of data, to improve outcomes.
Using technology for smarter health care
Smarter health care is instrumented, so our health systems can automatically capture accurate, real-time information. IBM’s joint initiative with Google Health and the Continua Health Alliance enables individuals and stream data from medical devices. Implanet, a French orthopedics manufacturer, is using RFID technology to track surgical implants from manufacture until they’re inside patients. And health care providers in Denmark are using predictive health systems with advanced telemetry to monitor elderly patients in their homes, sharing data instantly.
Smarter health care is interconnected, so doctors, patients and insurers can all share information seamlessly and efficiently. Sainte-Justine, a research hospital in Quebec, is automating the gathering, managing and updating of critical research data, which is often spread across different departments. Then they’re applying analytics to speed childhood cancer research and improve patient care—while drastically lowering the cost of data acquisition and enhancing data quality. Servicio Extremeno de Salud, a public health care service in Spain, has built a regionally integrated system that lets patients go to many health centers within the region, knowing a doctor there can have the patients’ complete, up-to-date records for faster and more accurate treatment.
Replicating smart ideas
Smarter health care is intelligent, applying advanced analytics to improve research, diagnosis and treatment. Geisinger Health Systems is integrating clinical, financial, operational, claims, genomic and other information into an integrated environment of medical intelligence that help doctors deliver more decision s and deliver higher quality care, all because they can easily turn information into actionable knowledge. And IBM is helping some of the world’s top universities develop a global network of medical data, giving doctors diagnostic resources that were once unimaginable. These repositories currently hold millions of digital images.
Smarter health care systems like these hold promise beyond their particular communities, patients and diseases. The smart ideas from one can be replicated across an increasingly efficient, interconnected and intelligent system. This should result in lower costs, better-quality care and healthier people and communities. In other words, we’ll have a true health care system, with the focus where it belongs- on the patient. Let’s build a smarter planet.
****
Reynaldo C. Lugtu Jr. teaches management and marketing courses in the MBA Program of the Graduate School of Business, De La Salle University. He may be e-mailed at rlugtu2002@yahoo.com or visit his blog at http://rlugtu.blogspot.com.
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