How evidence, engagement and experience unlock the promise of connected healthcare

A connected healthcare system, a seamless patient and user-centric ecosystem is available, but the vast nature of the healthcare system can make it a little difficult. To create a cohesive, connected healthcare ecosystem, organizations need to focus on three keys: evidence, engagement, and experiences.  Moreover, organizations can combat issues within the healthcare space using predictive data, real-world evidence and digital health innovations to fill the gaps within healthcare and produce better health outcomes.

Evidence from actual patient journeys 

Patients may find themselves in gaps of care with incomplete medical histories, broken data systems, and no time-sensitive insight. It’s possible to examine real patient experiences to identify and gaps in patient care, understand health barriers and consider health treatment plans. 

Patient health data 

Patient health data provides a fuller medical journey of an individual. Patient health data is valuable to identify the healthcare gap, what situation has created it, and whether it was created on our behalf. Organizing data from different sources, claims and medical records, population health, lab and genetic, and other behavioral and reported patient data can provide organizations with a wealth of patient healthcare experiences. From those data sources, health care providers can develop a picture of the most pressing health challenges a patient faces including equity barriers, disease burdens, comorbidities, and disease progressions.

Predictive data

Predictive data is a step further than understanding past patient journeys; it also aims to predict future health outcomes. It can inform to organizations to predict future events, which can assist in managing the progression of disease to help find patients who are not receiving appropriate treatment and make the process of healthcare smoother overall. With real-world insights, plans can be made for treatments and interventions that can measure against real risks to make an actual change in health outcomes. This means fewer barriers, a better medical experience and control over an individual’s health data for patients, taking the patient overall care model and placing it back up at the top of the pyramid. 

Redesigning for engagement

Patients face many barriers to being able to access the best quality care worldwide, due to friction and inconvenient circumstances. Friction can take many forms, like transportation, cost and access to specialty care that can create barriers to health. While many healthcare organizations have invested in addressing these everyday barriers, not many have realized improved health or sustainable programs. When designing an effective patient navigator program, consider sustainability, access, affordability, and equity. An effective patient navigator program will also need to consider its outcomes in terms of improving health, managing risk, always justifying its investment and building long-lasting impact on the patients’ health.

Using a holistic approach with more control, choice, and greater interventions, can change the outcome for common conditions. Organizations can build sustainable patient engagement programs to support patients through all phases of the healthcare journey, noticing the first signs and symptoms, diagnosis, initiation of treatment, and ongoing management of care. Programs that engage with patients directly can support patients through the health journey, in the long-term health conditions like diabetes, kidney disease, or being overweight. In these programs the patients are engaged in maintaining their health.

Connecting clinical care 

In order to enhance the care, every part of the healthcare system will need to actively engage with patients to find an improved method to connect with the individual. Part of this better method will be to improve the recruitment of clinical trial participants (including approaches to make trials easier to access and allow more diverse enrollment). However, this is only one part; healthcare companies also need to collect real-world data when a patient is being treated, and continue to support the patient beyond the confines of the environmental factors associated with the healthcare system that shape their experience. It is here that connected healthcare solutions play a vital role. By integrating clinical data, real-time monitoring, and patient engagement tools, such solutions ensure that care is continuous, coordinated, and personalized across every stage of the healthcare experience.

Clinical evidence

Digital platforms create opportunities for researchers to deliver better clinical trial experiences by simplifying the process of becoming part of and being involved in clinical research for patients. In particular, digital platforms can eliminate access barriers for disadvantaged communities and reduce the burdensome data collection processes and other impediments often faced by patients in hospitals and homecare experiences. With better clinical evidence generated by improved clinical trial and recruitment processes, organizations can produce real-world data, which leads to new life-changing therapies and healthtech solutions being available to individuals more rapidly. 

Real-world evidence

To be helpful to patients, healthcare companies must generate connected solutions that give importance and resonance to each moment of interaction. There is a lot of data accumulated through digital health devices, which doesn’t provide a truly valuable picture of patients’ health to clinicians. Companies can connect the data from monitoring devices that patients interact with in clinical trials across their multiple points of care. By doing this, clinical trials can become less burdensome and encourage better clinical approaches to therapy and prevention and help ensure greater success. Digital health gives the possibilities to maximize innovation trials and deliver clinical care most effectively to populations that have been underserved in the healthcare system.

Creating a connected, equitable and human-centric healthcare ecosystem will require diligence and energy. By concentrating on real-world evidence, engagement and experiences, healthcare players can provide the care people desire, need and deserve. With support from artificial intelligence consulting services and emerging technologies, organizations can transform outdated, fragmented systems into truly connected healthcare solutions.