Digital health innovation

The combination of smart devices, software, smart tracking, data feedback loops, and predicative and monitoring analytics that make up digital healthcare are undergoing rapid change. The first iteration of digital health was very focused on accessing and monitoring patients, consolidating patient records into large databases, and clustering the data into portals for clinical and commercial use.  Despite early mixed results, digital healthcare as a concept is racing forward, powered by smart devices, artificial intelligence, genomics and deep learning technologies and behavioural changes among user groups.    It is a very diverse sector, from wellness apps targeting consumers to complex Big Data systems for use in clinical discovery and treatment.  Automated workflow systems, data tracking across services, and apps that provide clinical data on weight, sleep, movement and prescription drugs all use churn out digitised data that feeds clinical, purchase for value, and supply chain management decision-making for health care providers.

The next iteration of digital health will build on the above platforms, and will focus on data driven decision making and insights. Aggregate data could uncover interesting new insights into chronic disease management or be used for pilot studies into behavioural health issues that could be managed with technologies. The potential of data analytics in new models of treatment, virtual R&D models, and new kinds of costing models based on melding customer usage, clinical patterns and resource allocation into digital models will open avenues for sharing data with a wide range of stakeholders. Devices that monitor patient drug compliance, for example, with workflow patterns that track access to physician care and cost per visit will form the basis for new insurance and spend decisions.  Sophisticated understanding of how people use social media to form communities and access supportive forums is forming the basis for a new round of R&D on using technology to manage depression, PTSD, substance abuse, and suicide in specific groups.

Venture capitalists are beginning to fund this area, combining clinical knowledge with market analysis on how people engage with social media and technology.  The healthcare sector is attracting interest from companies like Apple and Samsung who are bringing both fresh thinking into the sector and a deep understanding of what technology can do.  Where technology companies struggle is understanding the dynamics of clinical evidence generation, R&D on health and wellness, and the social and political aspects of public health provision.

Data security and privacy remain key questions that must be addressed in the evolution of digital health care, but the technological advances underway hold the promise of delivering health care in faster, smarter ways.

Author: Eamonn Hoxey, of E V Hoxey Ltd, UK, is a writer, trainer and consultant on a range of life science areas including regulatory compliance, quality management, sterility assurance and standards development.