{"id":2567,"date":"2020-01-08T18:07:26","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T18:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orionhealth-blog.local\/?p=2567"},"modified":"2023-11-08T23:06:14","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T23:06:14","slug":"the-state-of-digital-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionhealth.com\/ca\/blog\/the-state-of-digital-healthcare\/","title":{"rendered":"2020: The state of digital healthcare"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we mark the\nstart of a new decade, I wanted to share my first blog of the year, in which I look\nat the state of digital health in Canada and make some predictions for what\nlies ahead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canadian healthcare is on the verge of significant change. Several\ninitiatives and strategic forces will have a profound effect on how healthcare\nis delivered in this country and across the individual provinces in the coming\nyears. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The big picture challenges facing our health system continue: long\nwait times, controlling escalating costs, lack of care coordination and fragmented\ncare delivery, are still the main issues. Inappropriate medication duplication,\nan ongoing opioid crisis, the rise in chronic disease and the aging baby boomer\ncohort round out the list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What stood out for Orion Health in 2019 was our\ninteroperability survey of 150 digital health professionals across the country,\nwhich included an insight filled report on the Health\nof Interoperability in Canada<\/a>. The report uncovered the progress and\nchallenges digital health experts have seen with respect to interoperability including\ntheir perspectives on barriers, funding and perceived health system benefits to\nbe derived from improved interoperability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, Orion Health also became a founding partner of Canada Health Infoway\u2019s, ACCESS 2022 program, demonstrating Orion\u2019s commitment to providing solutions to Canada\u2019s disconnected healthcare system and achieving the goal of improved efficiency and efficacy for every patient\u2019s journey through the system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With 2019 in the\nrearview mirror, here are my thoughts about what\u2019s in store for digital healthcare\nin Canada during 2020 and beyond. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patient-centered care<\/strong> is a movement focused on placing\npatients in the centre of all goal setting and decision making, treating\npatients with dignity, and ensuring proper coordination of their care. It is\nnot possible to deliver patient\u2013centered care without high quality\ninteroperability. We will see a continued focus on increasing the capabilities\nof patient engagement tools including personal health records, patient portals\nand remote patient monitoring (RPM). RPM enables patients to play a more active\nrole in managing their personal health and chronic disease from the comfort of their\nhome. In the right context, as part of an overarching care coordination\nsolution, RPM has been shown to significantly reduce hospital readmissions and improve\noutcomes.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Including patients\u2019 individual, unique goals as essential elements\nof their medical record will take time and indicates an important change in\nculture from the purely problem-oriented medical record. This will prioritize\noutcomes that matter to patients and is aligned with long-standing nursing\ntheory and practice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Increased patient access to data – <\/strong>In 2020,\nwe\u2019re likely to see a more cohesive lobby for an official patient bill of\ndigital rights. This should both improve access by patients to their data and\nrestrict the rights of other groups to access patient data inappropriately. Most\njurisdictions already have patient ombudsmen and a stated strategic commitment\nto patient centered care, along with an understanding that digital health\nrecords are a key element in operationalizing the strategy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patients are becoming increasingly eager to see all the information that their healthcare providers see. In the US, there\u2019s been a significant move toward \u201cOpen Notes\u201d whereby the patient has full access to everything the physician and other providers have written without limitation. Expect this thinking to strengthen in Canada in 2020.

Helping physicians make sense of it all – <\/strong>Ensuring patients receive the highest quality of care in a digital world means giving physicians the data they need in a timely fashion. Despite waves of digital transformation across hospitals and the community, it\u2019s still not easy for clinicians to find the data they need, when they need it. This is especially true for patients with complex conditions that involve multiple providers in their care. Additionally, clinician burn out is a significant problem across North America and the evidence increasingly points to the burden introduced by the EMR as a major cause for that burnout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Province-wide EHRs on the other hand, aggregate all the patient\u2019s\ndata from across the province into a single record and focus on providing rapid\naccess to the relevant information for the current patient. They reduce the\neffort needed to make sense of the patient\u2019s clinical picture and thereby\nalleviate some of the causes of clinician distress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020 and beyond, we will see greater focus on presenting complete, meaningful<\/em> and relevant<\/em>data to clinicians with respect to each individual patient. Smart searches, analytics and predictive modelling across aggregated clinical data can significantly help the move from \u2018big data\u2019 to \u2018actionable data\u2019. This is the next logical step toward achieving the vision of more effective and efficient patient-centric care.

Artificial intelligence moves into care – <\/strong>We cannot discuss the future of Canadian healthcare without addressing the role of AI. Going forward, AI, machine learning and deep learning will help predict all manner of adverse events that today are left to physician intuition and judgement. It has already had major impact and benefits in use cases such as predicting surgical outcomes, adverse events like sepsis, and determining optimal staffing levels in emergency departments. AI, however, is only as good as the underlying data used to train and implement the algorithms. Hence an increased focus on the quality, timeliness and overall governance of data is likely to go hand-in-hand with the desire to introduce AI more closely in the care delivery process.

Measuring and delivering value – <\/strong>As healthcare providers struggle with an ever-aging population and increased chronic disease, the sustainability of healthcare systems will hinge on the ability to deliver value for taxpayer money being spent. New models are evolving that reward providers for working in teams, and for improving the quality of care they deliver to the population \u2013 examples include the Primary Care Networks<\/em> in Alberta and Ontario Health Teams<\/em><\/a>. While these efforts are still at an early stage, it\u2019s reasonable to expect that cost pressures and related forces will cause the model to expand rapidly across Canada.

Moving care into the community – <\/strong>Provincial governments are increasing their spending and focus on the huge range and diversity of care offered in the community, including primary care and community clinics, with the aim of reducing the rate of hospital admissions and managing patients effectively in the community. \u00a0Expect to see an emphasis on better managing patient transitions in care from hospital to community, and in preventing readmissions, as obvious areas for improvement.

Canada saw progress in 2019. Many of the digital building blocks for healthcare transformation already exist, and now it\u2019s a case of using them in the right way to deliver value for patients and a sustainable health system. The next decade heralds some fundamental changes to our healthcare system. If we are to maintain a sustainable system, it\u2019s critical that we support physicians and empower patients to participate meaningfully in their care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With another year behind us, and one\nthat saw considerable progress in digital health, I want to wish you all a\nhappy and healthy new year.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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