Pandemic-driven health tech
The outbreak of Covid-19 drove rapid rollout of technology-led care provision, necessitated by a need to offer digital-first care solutions.
Historically slow to adopt new innovations at pace, healthcare has for a long time been recognised as an area in which technology could drive greater efficiencies and outcomes. However, a number of notable barriers have stood in the way of integration of digital solutions, not least, regulatory barriers, an unwillingness to modify and collaborate existing systems and cost.
While the potential benefits of things like telehealth, data-driven diagnostics, and augmented reality (AR) are well known, the rigid structures of the health service and the scale of the transformation required, led many to accept that the pace of integration of health tech solutions at scale would be slow.
The pandemic and the subsequent response, including rapid deployment of health tech solutions to address the much-changed landscape of service delivery, has altered that mindset. In fact, experts assess that such was the extent of the boom in health tech innovation over the past year and a half that progress is now irreversible and will form a basis for greater innovations in the near future.
Two distinct trends have underpinned much of the current innovation. The first is a change of culture. The Covid-19 response required unprecedented levels of flexibility and cemented the role of technology within the sector as an enabler. Where previously health tech innovation had to slowly navigate preventative structure and barriers, historic hesitancy of innovation adoption was reversed in favour of speedy deployment and fresh agility.
A second key trend was a more structured move to demand-led health tech solutions. Health tech companies had a greater understanding of the challenges facing the health service and worked to deliver solutions to real-time problems. Recognition of immediate benefits to technology adoption has aided the willingness of the sector to integrate these new innovations.
As a result, much of the technological innovation has tended to focus on new applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and data platforms, automating regular tasks historically carried out by medical professionals and also providing remote access to medical advice for patients.
Remote healthcare solutions have dominated the health tech boom. A transition to solutions such as online consultations, diagnosis and treatment has been necessitated by social distancing requirements and protection of healthcare staff and patients.
Some examples of emerging health tech solutions include:
Track and trace
Greater levels of openness to digital health were exemplified by the rollout across Europe of Covid-19 contact tracing apps. For many citizens, the need to slow the spread of the virus overwrote concerns they held about consenting to their movements and personal information being tracked. A clear willingness from citizens to share their personal information for the benefit of the wider population is an encouraging evolution for further innovations in the use of big data, whereby data availability and accessibility enables more precise trend analysis. Ireland’s Covid tracker app had been downloaded by more than one million people by July 2020, just five months after the first case of Covid-19 was identified on the island. Collaboration between the technology industry and the health services facilitated the use of existing technology, such as GPS mapping, to update health records, track clusters and provide treatments. Interestingly, the app also enhanced the levels of personal responsibility on citizens to update and record their own symptoms.
As well as national rollouts, interoperability was also built into some of the apps deployed across Europe. In Ireland, both health services recognised the wider benefits of using an app which worked in both jurisdictions and in October 2020, the EU Commission and member states set up a European Federation Gateway Service which facilitated the connection of up to 20 national tracing apps. This change of mindset to enable greater openness of data has been pinpointed as an opportunity to enhance healthcare deliver of the future.
Big data
For many, the term big data relates to the commercialisation potential of personal information but there is also a realisation that the increased use of technology is also creating mountains of data. The ability to mine those data mountains offers benefits beyond commercialisation, not least to better plan healthcare delivery of the future. Data analytics is far from a new concept, but the pandemic has brought about a culture change, with many of the pre-existing barriers to data accessibility and sharing now beginning to ease. It has also served to highlight the importance of quality data collection. How data is recorded and stored is of equal, if not greater importance than the amount of data gathered, with a realisation that greater access to better quality data should enhance predictive analytics.
Covid-19 has served as an example of how this could develop. Healthcare providers continue to monitor trends in patient recovery from the virus and data from technologies such as wearables are helping to form an understanding of lasting effects both nationally and internationally. Greater access to quality data is also of major benefit to those delivering health tech solutions. Tailored solutions built on real-time data will drive efficiencies and suitability of future health tech innovations and will also broaden the market, be enabling new or emerging technology providers greater access to beneficial information.
Telehealth
At the end of 2020, the Medical Council Ireland published research which suggested a fivefold increase in the use of telemedicine since the beginning of the pandemic. The research estimated that by October 2020 over 20 per cent of the population had used telemedicine compared to just 4 per cent in March 2020. Telemedicine is a broad-term and includes healthcare service access across a wide-range of applications ranging from telephone to Skype and Zoom. Prior to the pandemic, use of telemedicine in Ireland was largely limited to specific circumstances such as where a patient was experiencing sever mobility challenges, however, Covid-19 has largely necessitated a culture shift to a digital-first approach. At a basic level, this has meant that non-urgent interactions with the health service such as repeat prescription or minor illness are being carried out through digital means. However, telehealth provision has also involved the integration of several technologies. One example is the provision of in-home technology to allow patients who require regular monitoring and treatment to record their own information, such as their blood pressure, to inform the healthcare provider prior to a digital consultation.
The evolution of telehealth applications has also enhanced confidence in digital security among both providers and patients. However, the ransomware attack on the HSE in May 2021 will have served as an example of the challenges associated with greater levels of technology integration.
