Health care organizations want to know how to move from just “doing” digital to start “being” digital.
To answer the question, “As health innovation accelerates, how do you create the care models of tomorrow that are barely imaginable today?” we present five new points of view that build on this theme.
The first viewpoint introduces smart health and looks at the art of the possible as health systems become smarter around the globe. Just changing information into a digital form falls far short of achieving the end-goal of seamless and connected care. To move into the future, health systems and hospitals will need to embrace innovative technology, adopt new technical skillsets and tolerate nothing less than hyper-connectivity across their ecosystems.
The second viewpoint considers smart hospitals and answers the question, “How will you know if a hospital is smart?” Smart hospitals are hyper-connected, intelligent, human-centered, highly reliable and sustainable. While advanced technology is the key enabler, developing a smart hospital is not just a tech project. Embarking on a smart health journey requires thoughtful consideration of known challenges, strong change management and executive leadership.
We next turn the attention to data, because without good data, health systems won’t be smart. Delivering better care in the right place and at the right time needs an information architecture built around data liquidity. This viewpoint explores five trends that are shaping a data-driven foundation for the future health industry.
The fourth viewpoint in this series shifts direction to that of the smart experience. Paying attention to the customer makes sound clinical and commercial sense. What we need to deeply understand are the benefits to be gained from improving the end-to-end experience in a holistic health care journey for both consumers and the health workforce. In the smart health system of the future, a focus on improving the patient and workforce experience will be key.
And finally, we examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on virtual care adoption and the future sustainability of these new care models. Using survey data gathered from US consumers and physicians, we find that the pandemic did indeed trigger a sprint toward smarter health care. Adoption of health technologies did accelerate, and many preconceptions regarding the technical feasibility of creating a digital-first health experience disappeared.
Summary
Smart health redefines the business of health care, shifting the delivery of care to be more patient-centric, with fewer errors and increased precision.
