There’s no question that the healthcare sector has faced two years of extreme difficulty. The need to treat an influx of virus cases, whilst still maintaining other essential services, has put unimaginable strain on a system which we all rely on. However, the need to deal with this strain has had an unexpected outcome; the acceleration of innovative services and technologies.
At the start of this year, Omicron and staff shortages continue to hit the headlines. Healthtech will need to act as an enabler, making essential services more accessible and decreasing some of the pressure being placed upon medical professionals. In light of this, we spoke to several experts in the healthtech space to find out more about what they think next year will bring:
Diana Nole - EVP and GM, Healthcare Division at Nuance
“In days gone by, hospitals, health systems, and other care providers viewed technology vendors as exactly that—companies that supplied the digital tools they were asked to provide. But with the pandemic accelerating the pace of digital change across the healthcare sector to an almost unmanageable level, many organisations are placing greater trust in vendors to help them evolve quickly and intelligently and navigate the future of healthcare.
“Within these strategic partnerships, the role of the vendor changes from IT provider to much more of a trusted advisor and dedicated supporter—providing strategic guidance, white glove service and progress reports against specific shared outcomes, however and whenever they’re needed. Instead of waiting to fulfil specific requests, partners work proactively to help guide care providers’ digital strategies and find creative solutions to emerging challenges like:
- Combating burnout by delivering superior digital working experiences
- Simplifying workflows to help care providers focus on patient outcomes
- Mastering telehealth and developing new best practices for remote care delivery
- Understanding shifting patient preferences and demands, and how technology can help meet them
“As partnerships become more important across the healthcare ecosystem, organisations will also look to their partners to help them establish and comply with standards that help them stay flexible and easy to collaborate with, without sacrificing security or privacy.”
John Phillips, SVP at Zuora
“As we move into 2022, healthcare and healthtech companies around the world will increasingly turn to subscription data. Healthtech providers and companies can use this data to give patients, practitioners, and healthcare institutions relevant insights to match services with demand and encourage longer term commitment. Additionally, providers of healthcare services could use these insights to personalise their offerings and ensure patients are aligned to the best treatment options.
“Some companies - like Philips - are already reaping the rewards of pivoting to a more customer-centric business model. By leveraging deep clinical and consumer insights to offer more integrated, connected and customer-focused solutions, they are able to deliver ongoing value and engagement, encouraging customers to return to the brand time and time again.”
Mark Manzo, SVP, global lead of healthcare & technology at Endava
“Many healthcare providers still rely on legacy systems that are outdated and insecure. However, the rapid transformation of the healthcare sector seen in response to COVID-19 will further accelerate in 2022.
“In order to facilitate access to specific healthcare requirements while aligning with data protection standards and ensuring cost efficiency for the future, healthcare providers will continue to adopt cloud solutions. Iterative optimisation and modernisation of legacy systems into modern, flexible, and integrated technologies, that can easily connect and exchange information with other systems, will be the focus in 2022.
“IoT technology, especially, promises to revolutionise healthcare by simplifying access to real-time patient data, allowing remote access to patients, but also encouraging self-monitoring. Wearables will be rapidly expanding into broader medical applications and be used for detection, diagnosis, and treatment. We will witness much more backend integration of healthcare providers with wearables throughout 2022.”
David Newell, director of health, Gemserv
“2021 was probably the most challenging year the NHS has ever faced. It started with the lethal wave of COVID-19 and ended with a superhuman effort to deliver the booster programme in the run up to Christmas. But while the vaccination programme has made a profound difference to where we are today, the short-term and immediate urgency is for the NHS to recover from the pandemic. An individual level risk-based approach must be taken to prioritise non-COVID pathways and treat the 12 million non-COVID patients that will have waited for treatment by March 2025.
“In the short-to-medium term, system-wide integration is critical in resolving supply challenges faced by the NHS today – ineffective governance and management structures, insufficient resources, and inefficiencies of existing resources and pathways. These are the first steps to get the NHS set on a pathway towards a more sustainable, preventative-based model.
“As it stands today, the NHS is not a health service. While it was founded with that aim, it has, over time and under extreme pressure, become a treatment service. There is an untenable expectation that the service can continue to build capacity to meet demand for ever increasing volumes and range of treatments.
“As we look to 2022 and beyond, a focus on preventative healthcare must be key. In the face of growing need, we need public sector organisations to band together and push the agenda towards reducing healthcare demand, not just raising supply accordingly. This won’t be an overnight fix – and can’t be solved with a singular policy shift. While a focus on prevention can alleviate future pressures from the NHS, there are interventions that must take place, in the here and now, to resolve existing pain points overwhelming our NHS.”
