How Is Data Reinventing The Way We Are Addressing Global Healthcare Challenges?

Access to reliable information and connectivity in the healthcare ecosystem are the crucial factors in modernizing health, care and prevention delivery. To tackle global health risks and rising healthcare costs, to effectively fight health inequalities and strengthen medical research, public health is reaching for technology.

“There are, in effect, two things, to know and to believe one knows; to know is science; to believe one knows is ignorance,” said Hippocrates.

Today’s global health strategies, policies, and decisions still too often hinge on conjectures and incomplete information. The OECD report “Health at a Glance: Europe 2018” suggests that up to one-fifth of health spending is wasteful and could be eliminated without undermining health system performance. In Europe, with up to 9,7% GDP devoted to health care in 2017, billions of Euros slip through the system. At the same time, thousands of patients don’t get the necessary help because they can’t afford expensive medical procedures, or the waiting times in the underfunded public healthcare systems give them no chance of being treated when they need it.

Waste is a consequence of the lack of knowledge. The unnecessary duplication of tests and services, inappropriate or ineffective care or avoidable adverse events happen when data is missing and communication between different stakeholders in the complex ecosystem malfunctions. Modern healthcare must be an evidence-based, data-oriented, and connected healthcare. Otherwise, the translation of personalized and patient-centered care into practice won’t be possible. What’s more, we will remain stuck with episodic, hospital care instead of moving towards prevention.

Click here to read the full article incl. interviews with Ilona Kickbush, Mathias Bonk, Claudia Stein and  David Novillo Ortiz