The Case for Accelerated Investment in Healthtech Interoperability

During a recent checkup, as I walked into the exam room, my physician was wrapping up documenting a previous patient encounter. She voiced a frustration I’d heard many times before. I’m paraphrasing but it goes pretty much like this: "I went into medicine to help people, and to connect with my patients. But lately, all I'm doing is clicking boxes and filling out forms." She then went on to say that while the administrative work helped to ensure compliance and payments, it sacrificed her ability to focus on and build rapport with her patients. I watched as she spent a nontrivial amount of time hopping between devices, applications, and different windows before finally wrapping up. We went on to have a very comprehensive, albeit speedy, visit.

Her experience with technology is hardly unique, raising a critical question: why hasn't technology delivered on its promise to increase the quality and reduce the cost of delivering care?

It's Not a Feature, It’s a Bug

I will preface this by saying that I reject the notion that any solution provider sets out to make a poor user experience; that’s just not the most effective business model. But isn’t it ironic? More data, and more software, yet the experiences of both patients and clinicians are deteriorating rather than improving. Having worked in both the healthcare and software sectors, I've seen the incredible potential of technology as a force for good when developed and implemented in a user-centric way. I admit a bias here, but I truly believe that tech-enabled healthcare is the path forward and the increased innovation in this space is the best shot we have at improving our healthcare system. (Note, I said tech-enabled, not tech first. See below on collaboration).

That said, the claim can be made that the scope of the problems digital health solutions aim to solve is too narrow which has had unintended negative consequences.

Many solutions focus on a specific problem/use case and then go about creating a product to solve that need. This is a good thing on its face – find a point of friction and create a solution. Things start going sideways when we extrapolate this well-intentioned effort to the numerous interactions within a given patient visit, the complexities of a patient moving through a healthcare facility, or the intricacies of driving workflows across patients, providers, payers, and suppliers at the healthcare system level. If for every point of friction, there is a specific software solution – even if that solution works as intended – you can quickly see where this leads. This is partly why the typical healthcare provider tech stack has morphed into a patchwork of point solutions, fragmented systems, and often siloed outdated data. I refer you back to my doctor.

It was not by design, and it all started with the best of intentions (cynics will certainly disagree).

My doctor could have had a greater degree of satisfaction, our interaction could have been more in-depth, and my experience improved if the technology implemented in her practice was designed in an integrated way. The case for interoperability, collaboration across systems, or the (mythical) single pane of glass through which she could manage her visits could not be stronger. I do not lay the blame for this squarely at tech’s doorstep but rather, on the historically inconsistent meaningful collaboration between the tech and healthcare sectors – a topic I’ve written about previously. The good news is, that there are digital health providers who are moving towards this ideal state of whole-person, tech-enabled care (see Teladoc Health , Amwell , and others).

Future-casting: Empower Doctors to Focus Solely on Patient Care

Imagine the same physician, but this time, the technology at her disposal takes care of the routine, mundane tasks, allowing her to spend more quality time diagnosing and discussing treatment options. In such a future, technology would empower her to operate at the top of her medical license, focusing on complex decision-making and patient care. That is the destination I believe tech-enabled healthcare can provide. AI will certainly play a role in this journey so we will do well to nurture and watch that space closely. As will data standardization, portability and fluidity. However, a wholesale turn away from technology, or the drawdown of investment and innovation, will see us fall short of the best chance we have at improving our healthcare system.

Conclusion

Technology has an incredible role to play in transforming healthcare, but only if we can bridge the divide between its creators and its practitioners. As someone who has lived in both worlds, I see not just the challenges but the immense opportunities. But we only get there if we commit to meaningful collaboration between these two diverse yet equally critical fields, and continue to drive the innovation and significant investment needed to make this a reality.