In healthcare, experience is paramount. According to The Beryl Institute and Ipsos PX Pulse, 92% of respondents indicated that positive healthcare interactions are important to them and their well-being. Patients respond positively to experiences that feel convenient, customised and connected. Digital ecosystems can bring those interactions to life by leveraging digital tools, shared languages and common objectives to reimagine and restructure the patient journey.
With digital ecosystems, care is no longer confined to episodic visits within the four walls of a hospital or clinic. So, how are digital ecosystems reshaping healthcare experiences for the better?
Patients are more connected
Patients today are increasingly empowered to act and be perceived as true consumers of care. They expect experiences that feel personalised and supportive of their healthcare goals. People are more engaged with their own care, equipped with information that in the past could only be viewed as a single datapoint.
What does that look like in practice? Take, for instance, the experience of a person living with diabetes. In the past, a patient may have had to take blood sugar readings via a finger prick multiple times per day, have their A1C measured periodically at the clinic, and the primary care doctor would prescribe medication accordingly based on those limited data points.
Now, some patients living with diabetes have access to Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs), which measure blood sugar multiple times daily without a pinprick. Pair that with data from a wearable watch and specialist data available within a connected electronic health record (EHR), and the entire clinical team has a much better view of the patient’s health and factors that impact it.
Digital ecosystems also make care more accessible. Telehealth, for example, represented just over 5% of medical claims at one point in 2022. Virtual visits allow those who are experiencing potentially contagious symptoms to remain isolated, and they broaden how many specialists are available to rural residents.
Providers are more informed
According to Beryl Ipsos PX Pulse, 83% of patients have positive healthcare experiences when providers can access their medical information easily. The incredible amount of data available to providers is beneficial beyond individual patient encounters, however. This information can be transferred to larger repositories that enable providers to look at a symptom as a microcosm of a potentially more significant trend.
For example, suppose a new virus strand is surfacing and ailing several patients with similar symptoms. If a facility has access to a more extensive database that can look at state, regional and national trends, real-time numbers can spotlight and possibly predict looming issues.
Payers can make decisions more quickly
Patient experience is impacted by how insurance companies’ systems function as well. For example, prior authorisation (while sometimes necessary and important for ensuring appropriate care) can delay vital treatments, creating frustration for patients as well as providers.
Digital solutions can reduce the amount of time required for an insurer to make a decision. This is the difference between picking up a new prescription on the way back from the clinic versus waiting 10 days, receiving approval and perhaps neglecting to get the medication filled at all.
A digital ecosystem empowers insurers to act faster, physicians to spend less time on administrative tasks and patients to access the care they need in a timely manner.
Pharma is more efficient
Conservatively, new drugs take 10-15 years to complete the approval process, accumulating a lot of data, costs and uncertainty along the way.
Clinical trials are prolonged by extensive in-person studies and observations. Digital technology gives researchers the ability to monitor clinical study subjects remotely, reducing the cost of studies, making it feasible to manage larger subject cohorts, and providing better quality data that can be more easily validated.
Digital health ecosystems have the potential to transform healthcare by connecting all the stakeholders in the patient care journey. Patients have better control over their own health. Clinicians can make better-informed decisions and improve the quality of care they provide. Payers can improve the speed and accuracy of the data needed to make decisions. And pharmaceutical companies can develop solutions quickly while being more cost-effective.
Endava is redefining how humans interact with technology and the world around them. Read about some of the work we have done in the digital healthcare ecosystem.