Convergent Transformation in Healthcare: The Next Normal
By Rudrani Ghosh
Digital maybe the new normal but it’s time for the ‘Phygital' healthcare that can truly bring transformative innovations to the sector.
There’s no going back to normal. The “After COVID-19” world has witnessed the speed and agility in the adoption and innovation of technologies. Businesses that once mapped any transformation in one to two- or three-year phases are now scaling their initiatives in weeks.
Welcome to the "next normal"– the new reality which provides a glimpse of the future world in which every interaction of the physical world is revolved around digitalization. It is estimated that the digital health market is expected to increase nearly 6 times in size by 2026 to nearly $640 billion, with an expected CAGR of 28.5% from 2020 to 2026.
Beyond Digitalization lies Convergent Transformation
The very same things that made the new arms race to digitalize every aspect so transformative and successful are also what marks their limitations. People are already citing app fatigue, distracting social media, or complicated screen interfaces as key frustrations that are centered around screen-based services. Screens, apps, and social media that once defined the digital era are now limiting us to innovate for the future. And, so companies like Google that once centered themselves in the software space are now moving into the hardware domain to seek a balance so that they can precisely reshape the next generation of services, products, and customer experiences. Thus, what lies ahead is the era of Convergent Transformation- a shift to remodel and reinvigorate the internal capabilities to deliver a new "convergent" form of product, services, and digital.
Phygital: the new buzzword
As the COVID-19 crisis kicks in new ways of interacting, now is the time to ask oneself: What bold actions can be pursued now, which were not undertaken in the past?
To survive the existential threat, organizations need to innovate themselves in a convergent, rather than an isolated way. Dr. Harish Pillai, CEO, Aster India, believes that companies must build convergent capabilities to compete or face disruption. “It may not be practical to exclusively focus on healthcare delivery using only the virtual mode. The most practical model is to leverage Omni channels, making use of the best of both,” he says.
Digital’s fight with Physical World
The digital era has given advancements in the healthcare sector which in turn have driven many companies to branch themselves in digital space. But as intelligence begins to permeate our physical surroundings, the most innovative digital designs won't just be digital but will embrace and embody themselves in new physical experiences. Convergent transformation marks the future for companies that have reached their digital benchmarks and who are looking to propel their growth and hold their balance in the future of increasingly bold innovation and competition.
According to Dr. Pillai, in this race against time advanced phygital technologies are enhancing and influencing the point of care and recovery. He adds by mentioning a few examples of phygital models which are being rapidly adopted in healthcare:
The use of RFIDs to track the movement not only of patients but also materials and medicines within a hospital ecosystem; the use of Robot-assisted transport systems within hospitals.
Intelligent CCTV cameras in ambulatory care areas help in early recognition of the acute onset of symptoms which helps to fast-track such patients for urgent care.
Touch-less interfaces for capturing demographics within a hospital and preserve the infection control environment and consequently enhance the safety of healthcare workers.
Intelligent buildings that constantly monitor the internal and external environment in real-time, help in the control of utility costs, and enhance the work environment.
Focus on the Ecosystem to Disrupt and Transform
Healthcare organizations should now re-design themselves thinking in terms of both the customer-centric approach as well as considering how infrastructure and technologies can be put to use to achieve greater efficiency on both clinical and operational outcomes. Undoubtedly, convergent transformation presses organizations beyond their comfort zones, but in doing so they stand to improve customer acquisition, new opportunities, new revenue streams, and new data.
Mr. Santosh Marathe, COO and Unit Head, Apollo Hospitals, says, “Technology has revolutionized healthcare and play a huge role — the advent of EMRs and the ability of big data to aid in the analyses of protocols, patient monitoring, and readmissions have been a boon to the industry. Big data and technology platforms have affected several brand experiences including patients the ability to adjust their behaviors based on outcomes and provide easy access while empowering them to undertake educated choices. The IT-enabled options in healthcare have allowed new entrants into the healthcare segment like Google, Nike, etc.”
In the same vein, he adds, “Apollo Hospitals has been a frontrunner of technology (like Proton therapy) and has always focused on deriving meaningful trends out of the data maze puzzle, such as:
The integrated Hospital Information System acts as clinical decision support to provide transactional alerts on drug to drug reactions, compliance of Plan of care, standardized ICD-10 coding, medical equipment interfacing, patient education, unique patient identifier, and multiple other initiatives.
The JCI or NABH accreditation ensures all the systems to be hard-wired for quality and outcome-based pathways.
The Patient Safety Organization brings in internal benchmarks to identify the best practices sharing knowledge repository within the Apollo-ecosystem.
With its national Tumor Board, any oncology patient across India can get access through e-connectivity by the best of super-specialists without having to travel any distance.
The Gallup patient satisfaction scoring system gives the ability to map patient satisfaction scores across all touchpoints of the patient journey – capturing data via online method, pen-paper approach, and post-service delivery feedback.
With its secondary and tertiary care networked hospitals in and around the region, Apollo provides e-ICU, tele-ECG’s and e-Consultation services.”
Bringing the ecosystem together leads to create value-adding products, simplifying and reducing costs in the healthcare service delivery leading to more patient-centric pathways with personalization and precision.
Convergent Transformation ensures cross online-offline worlds
Brands are now built through designing seamless customer experiences across every touchpoint – physical and digital. “COVID-19 has been a historical accelerator for such convergence and many healthcare providers have rapidly embarked upon several aspects of telehealth including teleconsultations, and homecare, to extend service delivery events during the stringent physical lockdowns. Some hospitals have taken measures to leverage technology to safeguard their senior consultants who would otherwise be vulnerable and exposed to COVID related environments. All these measures have changed the paradigm where Indian Healthcare is concerned and we are sure that even after the pandemic, these convergence transformations are here to stay,” says Dr. Pillai.
According to Mr. Marathe, “The convergence of genomics, digital devices, and precision medicine is going to revolutionize the future of healthcare delivery around the globe. The convergent transformation will add value to every touchpoint of the patient journey. This transformation shift will put service-providers and all stakeholders at an advantageous position if they can assimilate the patient's clinical and administrative data in a meaningful way to improve the health of the populations they serve. Even the government is coming along quite well with multiple initiatives being undertaken like National Health Digital Blueprint – to revolutionize how population interacts with national health services and strengthen both the public and private health systems.” He further elaborates how the Health Ministry has also envisaged setting up an Integrated Health Information Platform as a major step addressing the existing situation of ‘electronic silos’in health system wherein interoperability and data exchange amongst Health IT Systems is almost lacking. “To shape the shift in the healthcare industry from volume to value, the need to translate data into evidence for clinical decision making is critical. However, the critical question remains, as to how much does the consumer want and whois going to pay for it?” he adds.
Convergent transformation in healthcare is thus more viable and more necessary than ever before. But even though the idea of this shift works great to define a customer experience strategy, the transition however could be very challenging. It is not a plug-and-play delivery model which will be able to roll out immediately. It is an evolving concept and does not come with ready business cases and proven ROI models.Innovators need to keep in mind that convergence is not just injecting digital features into an established product or services, it is more about weaving the digital, product, and services convergently from beginning to end to ensure an efficient outcome.