The integrated digital healthcare revolution – Helping life sciences find solutions to rising NCDs
This is the third post in my series about the global shift to integrated healthcare. Last time I wrote about how insurers are being empowered by mobile and wearable device data. This week I’ll be looking at how content can help life science organisations better support the healthcare chain.
As I mentioned previously, the World Health Organisation cites that noncommunicable diseases are an invisible epidemic. In the UK, it’s predicted that by 2018 over 2.9 million people will have three or more long-term conditions – the cost of which will be huge.
Naturally, life science organisations are taking the leading role in finding solutions to autoimmune diseases, heart diseases, cancers and diabetes…just to name a few. Thankfully, Electronic Patient Records (EPRs), wearables, telemedicine devices, and genomics present a significant opportunity for life sciences in addressing these conditions.
How? Since 2005, non-profit associations started collecting data to reach a wide set of the global population to have personal genome mapped. Companies like 23andMe have already been using genome mapping to forewarn customers about chronic diseases that they are more prone to contract. And the UK’s NHS is in the midst of its 100,000 genome pilot project, analysing how best to use genomic data in healthcare.
Similarly, data from telemedicine devices and wearables that monitor vital signs, activity, lifestyle, and eating habits (as discussed in my “Empowering insurers with wearable and big data” post) have the potential to fuel an even deeper understanding of the general population and individuals. Particularly since, as IDC predicts, 126.1 million wearable units will be in use by 2018, generating vast amounts of unconscious raw data.
Imagine what life science organisations could do with this level of detail on large populations? If shared via EPRs and data lakes, they could dramatically speed up the rate at which they develop more accurate and effective treatments, and eventually customised treatment for individuals. Doing so would also create new revenue streams and opportunities for the sector, as well as cut costs to drive more affordable personalised care.
The success of this relies on an integrated digital healthcare ecosystem that enables a more effective management of clinical information along the research process. Developing a sustainable information platform to support collaboration between healthcare actors is the best approach to enable data, coming from different sources, to be managed seamlessly yet securely. As an example, enabling secondary use of EHR systems to automate clinical trials/research, would streamline the research process eliminating errors deriving from manual steps, but I’ll talk more about that in my next post.
Let's keep in touch. Click here to follow me on Twitter.