The Digital Health Top 10 December 23

Contents:?

?? 1) The benefits of virtual healthcare

?? 2) Supermarket body scans

?? 3) Using VR to educate patients

?? 4) Wearables not worn by those most in need

?? 5) The need to design with patients and users

?? 6) GenAI can transform how healthcare works

?? 7) The clinical impact of AI in healthcare

?? 8) The need for diverse data in AI healthcare

?????? 9) AI in UX design research?

?? 10) Why internal UX matters

?? 1) The benefits of virtual healthcare

For certain conditions, there are key benefits to a virtual consultation: the convenience of booking, not needing to travel, access from remote areas, safety from exposure to illness, a more comfortable setting for consultation, and a lower impact on the environment.

This article on Virtual healthcare is here to stay, tracks telemedicine back to the 60s, highlights its importance during the recent pandemic, and outlines benefits along with the case for why a physical doctor’s office is also still needed. Shared by Johannes Boshkow.

??? 2) Supermarket body scans

American radiology firm, RadNet has made a deal with Walmart to open diagnostic imaging centers called ‘MammogramNow’ in multiple stores.

RadNet said the pilot program’s goal is to bolster breast health awareness and accessibility. They’ll also utilize artificial intelligence tools from subsidiary DeepHealth , aiming to optimize disease detection without extending appointment times."

The reason for this move is because almost 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of Walmart, and adding this service to supermarkets will grant simpler access to radiology.

This will boost prevention efforts and means that similar scanning fascilities might be coming to a supermarket near you sooner than you think.

Shared by Bertalan Meskó, MD, PhD.

?? 3) Using VR to educate patients

Health information can be difficult to access and understand for many patients. In surgery this can sometimes lead to costly cancellations and wasted resource. A solution to this problem is upgrading pre-op education for patients through VR, allowing? patients to receive better information in an immersive setting (and also revisit the information at home), using 'My Pre-op Assistant' from UK patient education company Cognitant Group Limited .

Designed with the help of patients and clinicians, the content features personalised resources and immersive, interactive experiences ranging from home to hospital settings. Users choose their own adventures in their learning experience. All of which has shown very promising results.

Shared by Johannes Boshkow.

?? 4) Wearables not worn by those most in need

There’s a disconnect between health tech and the people it’s supposed to help. Wearable makers have added advanced features aimed at improving heart health, but studies show that the people most at risk are sadly unlikely to use them.?

“We found that individuals at highest cardiovascular risk were least likely to use wearable devices, such as smartwatches, or use technology on their phones to track and improve their health,” - Rohan Khera , author and assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine.

This is a reminder that time and time again, researchers have identified lower tech literacy among older people, as well as the high price of smartwatches, as barriers to health tech adoption.

As such, this could restrict the growth of remote patient monitoring among the most at-risk demographics if the people who would benefit most are currently unable or unlikely to use them.

Shared by This Week in Digital Health.

?? 5) The need to design with patients and users

In a paper, Patient Design: The Importance of Including Patients in Designing Health Care, by Bertalan Meskó, MD, PhD and Dave deBronkart, the authors underscore the significance of patient design as a fundamental element of healthcare.

This is something we wholeheartedly agree with and champion at nuom . Within any solution we design for patients and users, we use their input and insight as part of the design process. Through primary research interviews and design sprints, as well as validation through user testing, to ensure we create systems and solutions that work for all users.?

As per the paper and our ethos for digital transformation, the development of anything intended for patients necessitates their active involvement throughout the entire process.?

??? 6) GenAI can transform how healthcare works

An article in the Harvard Business Review has outlined the key ways that GenAI could transform healthcare. This includes ecosystem transformation (creating efficiencies across the spectrum of healthcare delivery) and much improved resource management (coordination across hospitals, systems, partners, and vendors), to lowering costs and improving patient outcomes.?

However, effective ecosystem transformation will require organizational transformation. This will include changing data access, creating new metrics, and offering more transparency on the use of data.?

Creating a more connected healthcare system will drive new synergies, and offer a more holistic view of the patient as a person, in regards to their health, employment, living situation, and social needs, by using patient data more effectively.

Shared by Frank Kumli

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?? 7) The clinical impact of AI in healthcare

A recent paper, The economic value and clinical impact of artificial intelligence in healthcare - shared with summary insights by Jan Beger - has found that AI clearly enhances healthcare service delivery and provides positive financial impacts.

Almost 60% of studies showed improved disease screening efficiency and early diagnosis through risk prediction.?

AI interventions were shown to increase clinical efficiency, such as reducing physician time across the care pathway and shortening hospital stays, thus offering both financial and operational benefits.

While from a societal perspective, AI was found to offer improved healthcare outcomes and cost savings across various medical fields.

However, challenges such as reduced reimbursement for healthcare providers and the need for balanced stakeholder assessment were noted.

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??? 8) The need for diverse data in AI healthcare

An article by Forbes, Unlocking equitable healthcare with AI, highlights that the development of AI in healthcare requires a much stronger data foundation to address the health needs of diverse populations.?

With the right AI-enabled data strategy, better interventions and public policy can be crafted, which will also help to reduce costs.

For example, a staggering quarter of healthcare costs in the US are attributed to caring for people with diabetes. Estimates project that 1 in 3 Americans are now at risk of developing diabetes, with American Indian or Alaska Native, non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and Asian are more prone to diabetes than the non-Hispanic White population.?

By harnessing medical data in conjunction with social determinants of health, AI can help identify at-risk populations and enable personalized and timely interventions, which will translate into better health outcomes and reduced healthcare costs.

Shared by Rudolf Wagner.

?????? 9) AI in UX research

A survey report by User Interviews on AI in UX Research has found that 70%+ of UX design researchers are using AI in at least some of their work, with the most-used UX research tools with AI-based features being HotJar, Dscout, Glassbox, and Dovetail. While ChatGPT is the most widely used AI-specific tool, with about half of the audience using it for UX research.?

The researchers’ biggest concern about using AI is the potential for inaccurate or incomplete analysis within UX research, with most being cautious about its use, yet keen to explore ways to harness its benefits.

Shared by by Rachel Murray

?? 10) Why internal UX matters

In an article by Anna Rozwadowska, on user-centric design for internal products, the author highlights that while nobody questions the value of user experience for customer-facing digital products, that many companies and organizations fail to deliver this internally, to employees and users. Leaving them with outdated and confusing interfaces, which slow internal efficiency and can cause inaccuracies.?

For us at nuom this is a key point and something we help clients with in the healthcare and clinical space.?

Internal systems within health, life sciences and beyond can be extremely poor, which produces difficulties for users (who may have different roles, and work across different organizations).

The result of this can be severe inefficiency and significant errors, which can have devastating effects on outcomes, as well as productivity and organizational dynamics.??

If you would like to know more about how we create human-centred digital healthcare systems that optimise UX for all users, from patients to healthcare workers, scientists to admin staff and beyond, then just drop me a message. ??