The Future of Doctor-Patient Relationships with Health Tech

Consumers nowadays have become more demanding and expect faster, more convenient solutions. The post-pandemic situation has further accelerated the digital savviness of consumers, raising their expectations. As a result, there has been a decrease in traditional phone calls, along with patients shifting towards digital. Before we in pharma marketing realise, patients have been consumers, they are ready to take decisions for their health.

We are currently experiencing a digital transformation across various sectors, where companies are leveraging digital technology to connect with customers, enhance sales models, and exploit opportunities for growth. However, the pace of this transformation varies across industries due to differences in culture, systems, processes, and capabilities.

In India, a significant portion of healthcare data remains unstructured and scattered across different systems, including imaging systems, medical prescription notes, insurance claims data, and electronic patient records (EPR). The integration of this heterogeneous data and its utilization for advanced analytics are crucial for improving healthcare outcomes. However, challenges arise due to isolated and incompatible data formats, as well as the limited processing capability to handle large datasets efficiently. Consequently, healthcare organizations are unable to fully harness the benefits of their vast data resources.

• Interoperability is a key aspect that can facilitate timely and seamless information exchange, optimizing the health of individuals and populations globally. However, the current healthcare system suffers from fragmented data stored in separate systems and databases, hindering a comprehensive understanding of a patient's health. Lack of communication and integration among these systems makes it difficult for providers to deliver holistic care and for researchers to access necessary data for clinical trials.
• Security and compliance pose significant challenges in the healthcare industry, which experiences a high number of data breaches. The majority of medical data remains unstructured and untapped, comprising various types such as text, images, pathology slides, videos, audio, and documents in different formats. Even healthcare organizations that have integrated IT and electronic health records (EHRs) face difficulties in managing and utilizing the abundance of unstructured data.

The healthcare industry is burdened with data silos, storing information in multiple data lakes that lead to redundant and duplicate data. This results in increased storage costs, vulnerability to malicious actors, compromised data privacy, and reputational damage.

While technology plays a central role in digital health systems, it is essential to consider factors beyond technology alone. Digital solutions need to be affordable, easy to use, and capable of addressing the needs of a growing and aging population. However, factors such as regulatory uncertainties and a perceived lack of accountability in the commercial sector contribute to the slow adoption and acceptance of new digital health technologies.

Providing a positive patient experience has proven to have a significant impact on healthcare outcomes, efficiency, resource preservation, service utilization, and workload management. However, as patient needs evolve, technology must also be scalable. For example, while having television in hospital rooms offered entertainment in the past, nowadays patients may prioritize access to Wi-Fi or in-depth analysis of their diagnosis.

Digital health solutions will play a vital role in the future, enabling transformative changes in medical care. However, they will also come with challenges that need to be addressed and overcome.