Home hospitalization, technology-enabled preventive care, and genomic data-based personalized care are some of the emerging trends in healthcare in the Asia-Pacific region.
Dr. Deok-Hyun Han, Vice CMIO of Samsung Medical Center, Oscar Lee, Professor and Deputy Superintendent of China Medical University Hospital, Low Cheng Ooi, Associate Professor and CTO of Sheares Healthcare, and Dr. Mohammad Adib Khumaidi, president of the Indonesian Medical Association, sat together in the closing panel discussion”The Next Wave in Healthcare” at HIMSS23 APAC.
The future of telehealth, utilizing patient data
“(The) COVID-19 pandemic has significantly accelerated the pace of digital transformation by at least a decade, meaning we have all now appreciated the power of telehealth,” said Prof. Lee.
According to him, some applications of telehealth will be further developed after the pandemic, such as the growing trend of home hospitalizations in the United States. “Patients don’t have to (travel) all the way to be admitted to the hospital and then centralized in the hospital. They can be treated at home – that’s the next wave of care I see.”
Prof. Lee also noted the “rapid advances” in wearable health technologies, which have allowed people to get a handle on their physiological data.
“But how can we make sense of the information generated by wearable devices?” he asked.
Pondering the same question, Dr. Han said it remains a challenge for healthcare providers to efficiently collect and analyze a patient’s daily data for preventive care.
“While we generally have detailed data from the healthy stage of an individual at the earliest, that (data) remains (inaccessible),” he noted.
In managing the volumes of data that healthcare systems can now tap into, it is critical that patients become transparent and educated about their condition.
“Patients need to clearly communicate their conditions to their healthcare providers to make adequately informed decisions. They (also) need to understand the relevant medical details to receive appropriate care,” said Dr. Han. To this end, SMC has come up with various initiatives, including their mobile admission process and mobile questionnaire system.
“Patient engagement, while very challenging, is critical to qualified care.”
Technology that cares
A/Prof Low sees that the next wave in healthcare is ‘technology (bringing) care to the patient’, which in particular improves the patient experience.
“Patient experience is not just about talking to the doctor. It is the experience of once you find out what disease you have, how to navigate the system, how to find your way to the right specialist, how to get care that is affordable, and how to get care that is of high quality . (Patient experience is), in a sense, where you can have a good relationship with the doctor to explain everything to you…”
While sharing his lessons from the recent pandemic, Dr. Khumaidi emphasized that every stakeholder in the health ecosystem – from providers, payers and policymakers to patients and their families – needs to have a better understanding of the concept and technology behind personalized medicine.
In addition, appropriate patient consent regarding the use of genomic data, which has been increasingly collected in recent years, must also be ensured.
“(Genomic data-based) personalized medicine is the new treatment paradigm,” he stated.
However, there should be some sort of guideline or ethical considerations when providing such care, Dr. Low advised.
“This kind of guidance (falls) to some extent at the national level, at the policy level and at the ministerial level. But even within the professional bodies themselves, we need to be able to be aware of the validated scientific (evidence) before we can make that as a recommendation.”
With the influx of new health technologies entering the market today, healthcare providers are further reminded to remember their purpose before jumping in and implementing them.
“The next wave is not about adopting the technology, but about what you are trying to achieve with the technology,” said A/Prof Low. “We should be using all different types of technology to bring (care to) a personal level.”
“Ultimately, (our goal) is to achieve human-supported health. The role of the hospital will further transform from treating diseases to health promotion, so that we (everyone) in the community not only live longer, but also live healthier,” Prof. Lee said.