Health in a Digital World
This cohesive approach to people, process, data, and technology working in unison is the breakthrough innovation that will change the future of health care.
We asked digital health professionals Angela Copeland and Gillian Sweeney for their perspective on the Canadian digital health landscape and the opportunities presented by digital health innovations.
Mediaplanet What potential do digital health innovations have to increase patient access, improve quality, and reduce costs?
Gillian Sweeney Virtual care has the greatest opportunity to improve health care by allowing patients to interact with providers through virtual visits using computers, smartphones, and monitoring devices. Virtual care facilitates secure communications between health care providers. Ultimately, it increases access for patients to health care providers and services, and allows health care providers to deliver care in a more efficient manner.
Angela Copeland For years, increasing patient access, improving quality, and reducing costs have been fundamental goals for the majority of health care providers. In my 20-plus years in this field, there has never been a shortage of technology innovations with the potential to accelerate the achievements of these goals. Nor has there been a lack of interest in investment in these technologies. Why have we seen so little impact on achieving these common goals? The answer is simple — technical solutions were independently developed and often designed to solve isolated health care pain points. Although this provided temporary relief, it did not necessarily have a broader organizational impact, nor did it benefit the patient themselves. I recently attended a site visit of Humber River Hospital (HRH) in Toronto, recognized as North America’s first fully digital hospital. HRH has been able to demonstrate significant performance improvements by combining data real-time and applying predictive analytics to continuously interpret how effectively patients are moving through the hospital. This cohesive approach to people, process, data, and technology working in unison is the breakthrough innovation that will change the future of health care.
MP How would you compare the uptake of digital health solutions in Canada to the rest of the world?
GS Canada has made great progress in the last two decades with the implementation of digital health solutions such as electronic health records and telemedicine, which has been utilized since the 1970s here in Newfoundland and Labrador, when the late Dr. Maxwell House started to use telephone technology to interact with patients in remote regions of the province. However, compared to our counterparts in Europe, for example, Canada is lagging and needs to increase access to patient-centric digital solutions and services.
AC It is no surprise that the United States continues to be the global leader in health technology development. However, Canada, the UK, China, and India are also making investments in digital health, as they realize the potential contribution to sustainable economic growth. There has never been more potential for fast uptake of digital solutions, because of the shift to consumer driven health care and the fact that most of the world’s population now has access to a mobile phone and signal. Texts are being used to educate people and provide them with best-practice health information; test results can be quickly transmitted; specialists and patients can be connected even in remote areas; and anyone can maintain a personal health record wherever they go.