What's the Problem you are solving?

There are few people or companies in the world today who don't talk about or who are not planning to "go Digital"! In the healthcare space a casual Google search on "Digital Health" reveals a ton of scholarly articles and a list of companies with ambitions and/or products in this space. Sometimes a discussion on Digital becomes just a technology discussion with less focus on the "why" - why are we "going digital" and what is the benefit to the end consumer. Hence I think that for us to be a true digital company we need to pause and go back to first principles - we need to ask and zoom in on what is the customer problem being solved by a digital initiative. 

What is the universe of problems to solve, you might ask. There are numerous and we don't have to look far to find out - WHO's Sustainable Development Goals outline them quite well. In healthcare in particular, the 3As - the problems of Affordability, Access and Appropriateness of healthcare for people are universal - whether it's about saving infants and newborns in remote areas or saving lives from heart attack - between the problems of lack of proper primary care, and the NCDs of Diabetes, Cardiac diseases and Cancer - the solutions lie not just in medical research but also in just working to make healthcare accessible to the people in need when they need it. 

An example of such an initiative can be found in what is called "TeleCardiology" - connecting primary care to cardiologists to ensure expert help in interpreting ECGs to detect heart attack. At GE Healthcare, our Remote Consult solution in partnership with Tricog helps patients get access to expert help when it is needed. Our solution enables cardiologists and primary care doctors save lives - in a pilot in India this initiative detected over 7,000 Myocardial Infarctions (heart attacks) in just 6 months - that's 7,000 people saved! In developed markets the same solution helps in making healthcare available at a lower cost to serve. By connecting clinics to central hospitals in Europe, China and the US this solution enables patients to go to primary care facilities to get care and the hospital network can provide care at a fraction of the cost than if the patient had to come to the ER in an emergency. The solution here is not rocket science, but identifying the right problem to solve is the key. 

As companies we need to keep the customer problem in sharp focus at all times. Clarity on the promise to the customer makes it easy to pick the right technology to enable it - that's a lesson I have found very important to remember. 

I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences. What do you think?