Three takeaways from HLTH 2022

As much as I was intrigued by the innovative technology vendors and discussions at HLTH22 last month, I was struck by how the success of many of these offerings still revolve around understanding and respecting the human experience of all those involved.

During a fascinating panel discussion the EY organization hosted on how integrated care systems can enable seamless health and wellness for all, our panelists echoed this common theme:

1.) Health systems must eye every interaction with their patients as a way to strengthen the relationship and proactively impact their health. One panelist told EY moderator Kelly Hawk, EY US Health Transformation Architect that when he picked up a prescription for a minor eye condition, an alert was triggered within the system to schedule him for a colonoscopy. Another panelist told of how a health system took advantage of the 15-minute waiting period that patients had after their COVID-19 vaccine to conduct a digital literacy screening so they could better understand how to engage them in the future. These are not easy feats, but as we lay out in our recent piece, How innovative infostructure can power the purpose of integrated care systems, the right data infrastructure will accelerate health systems’ abilities to derive insights that improve patient care.

2.) Create technology solutions that integrate into the current clinical workflow. Clinicians are overworked, and constrained by long lists of administrative tasks that prevent them from being fully present for their patients. This is causing many of them to leave the profession. We should be using data and technology to take away from their administrative burdens, in ways they do not even realize because of how intuitive and seamless they are. That is key for widespread adoption by care teams.

3.) Know your patients. No matter how many data sets and digital tools as you have, health systems must always incorporate the human touch. “The most important point to integrating care systems is that the patient is in the middle of the system,” said panelist Christian Egle, EY GSA Health Sector Leader.

We can build dazzling digital tools that do amazing things, but if we don’t make things easier for patients and clinicians to have a trusted, continuous relationship, they will not help us transform healthcare to provide better health care for all.?