A paradigm, policy, platform and prescription for wellness and better health.
All around the world healthcare systems are facing increasing pressures and demands. Well developed countries are facing challenges related to ageing population and epidemics such as Diabetes or Obesity while developing countries struggle to leverage diagnostics and access to affordable medicines. All health systems have struggled to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic but there has been a benefit from building on innovative vaccine technologies and in that many health systems turned to digital solutions to cope with this challenge. Despite the progress many
countries have runaway health budgets with rates of growth which are unsustainable. Arguably Digital is the best Medicine for our sick healthcare system1
. Leading physicians such as Eric Topol and Robert Wachter have written about the creative destruction of medicine and digital doctors respectively but how do we make the digital transition of healthcare as quickly and sustainably as possible. Michael Porter and Elizabeth Teisberg have long advocated for redefining healthcare using value based competition. In this context a new paradigm is emerging, Open Innovation 2.0
which helps enable structural transformation of an Industry through digital technologies and trust based co-opetition2
.
In the past the arrival of a single disruptive technology such as railways or the internal combustion engine drove dramatic societal change and benefit. Today we are at a unique point in history where we have multiple digital disruptive technologies all showing up at the same time.
Technologies such as Cloud Computing, Mobile and Social Networks, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and the Internet of Things create opportunities to radically transform healthcare. According to the OECD Healthcare is a decade behind other industries in digitalizing
https://www.oecd.org/health/health-in-the-21st-century-e3b23f8e-en.htm but the time is now to harness these digital technologies to help lengthen life expectancy, reduce morbidity, and provide more effective and cost efficient care. Covid-19 has been a big bang disruptor forcing the
healthcare industry to adopt digital solutions – necessity is the mother of invention and innovation. Digital technology can be a democratizing force for achieving health equality and equity with digital solutions enabling remote diagnostics, consultations, behaviour modification, health inclusion and more effective medicines for all.
1 https://www.businesspost.ie/commercial-reports/digital-is-the-best-medicine-for-our-healthcare-system-0531a93a
2 https://www.nature.com/articles/533314a