Hospital of the Future

- By Simon Rost, Marketing Director - Healthcare Digital, EMEA

What factors are shaping the future of healthcare?

Predicting the future of healthcare has taken a giant leap forward. Whilst the pandemic has accelerated a reshaping of the technologies and processes inside global health ecosystems, bubbling under the surface have been other factors that are driving transformation.

Where once we prophesised over the emerging benefits of telehealth, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotic surgery as de rigueur hospital technologies of the future, it now seems acceptable to be even more visionary about healthcare and consider apps that can diagnose COVID-19 from a cough, or bathroom mirrors with behavioural analytics embedded to monitor mood and wellbeing. The recent seismic change in healthcare needs and expectations has heralded the start of a digital revolution. 

1. The explosion in health data

Firstly, let’s consider data. There has been an explosion in the amount generated by healthcare and its growing fast, by 48% per year¹. This is from not only an increase in patient records, text files and laboratory results, but also in high-resolution diagnostic imaging used at the frontline of health. 2D, 3D and real-time moving diagnostic records from ultrasound, CT and MRI have filled the medical archives with petabytes of data. There is now an opportunity to unlock and harness this data for self-propelling benefits to improve the workflow and care of patients plus assist in future innovations around machine-learning and AI.

2. The rise of the smart patient

Now add to data the consumerisation of health. The rise of the fitness trackers – estimated to be growing at 19.9%² per annum – has introduced watches, rings or other wearables to the engaged consumer. When connected to smart phone health apps they can chart and expand interest in heart rate, activity levels, body temperature or blood oxygen saturation. This illumination of personal and smart health statistics has refocused individuals onto personal wellbeing and opened the door to a change in the way we consume healthcare.

The pandemic of 2020 added virtual, ehealth and telehealth consultations into the mix during lockdowns and helped us avoid frontline health centres. The result is a fast-tracked shift in how we see medical practitioners and an acceptance of new technologies and the ways people want to interact with their personal health. The opportunity for ‘Digital Health Applications’ CE certified as medical devices will further fuel the two-way digital symptomatic dialogue between clinician and patient. This is taking shape in German via Digitale Gesundheitsanwendungen (DiGAs) or “apps on prescription”, for diagnosis, prevention, monitoring and treatment of disease or alleviation of injury.  

3. The changing shape of health

Even before the coronavirus pandemic medical physician retirement and burnout rates were high, heaping pressure on health establishment workforces that at the same time are needing to see burgeoning numbers of patients. Impetus has been given to redesign processes or opt for new innovations to power productivity, driven by the philosophy that by improving the lives of care givers, the patient experience is also enhanced. New innovative technologies such as robotic automation and AI clinical assistance will empower talent nurture and professional role development in the health establishment giving the care givers more time with the patient and less time operating equipment or documenting information.

The changing shape of healthcare is not just about technology supporting humans. The entire structure of healthcare ecosystems is set to change. It is highly likely that the future of the acute hospital setting will become more specialised and a ‘high-touch’ environment where procedures such as surgery or interventions are performed. This will see the frontline triage aspect of patient symptoms becoming more virtual, home or community based.

For example, the concept of community diagnostic hubs recently discussed in the UK have been a reality in France for many years. This de-centralisation of a hospital that ‘does everything for everyone’ will give autonomy to patients to ‘check-in’ for health appointments using their smart phones; empower clinical workforces by specialising what they do even further, for example, trauma, oncology, neurology or surgery; and smooth the flow of the patient journey to the right place at the right time.

In parallel, there will be greater emphasis on keeping a patient in their home for as long as possible – before hospitalisation and afterwards. This reconfiguration of patient stays will deliver relief from capacity and financial pressures to the bricks and mortar hospital establishment; however, it will rely on digital healthcare to facilitate the change. Community communication channels will need to become better established; the measurement of vital patient medical information remotely will need to be enabled; and instant access to medical records made easier. This will help with choreographing the next step in the patient diagnostic testing, imaging or procedural journey.   

4. The digital health revolution

When we all ushered in the dawn of a new decade, there came with it a proliferation of predictions for the future of healthcare. A Deloitte report³ listed the technologies most likely to transform healthcare over the next 10 years. The top three were listed as AI and machine-learning (83%), robotic surgery (39%) and sensors / monitoring devices (33%), with the Internet of Things (IoT), AR/VR, Blockchain, robotic process automation, 3D printing, Cloud and 5G cascading down the chart.

AI is firmly THE technology most likely to have the highest impact on the transformation of healthcare and this brings with it exciting opportunities when properly orchestrated into the clinical environment. This includes increased provider productivity, improved diagnostic accuracy, enhanced patient experience and an overall improvement in the quality of care.

The future of healthcare is an intricate cycle of interconnecting factors that have been accelerated by the arrival of a global pandemic, but not defined entirely by it. AI can be seen as the key tool of the future, but this is underpinned and fuelled by the data explosion. Patients’ expectations have changed by an increase in ‘virtual’ during Coronavirus, but also by more interest in their own fitness and health by the wider consumer offerings of wearable devices. Coronavirus and the changing shape of how patients are seen then has a roll-on effect into the reshaping of health structures. Where patients are seen, and how they are seen, is set for a change and this has the potential to improve the pressures on our caregivers.

What is certain after 2020 is that healthcare can never be predicted with 100% precision. But it has readied everyone to be more flexible to change and opened eyes to the digital revolution that will power the future of hospitals and our wider health landscape.