Digital Transformation in the Healthcare Industry

Healthful Vitality | 07/08/2021 | By Dr. Ahinsa Madumali Digital Transformation in the Healthcare Industry

Background: In recent decades, new digital technologies have transformed almost every industry into various new platforms, systems, and interfaces. This digitalization process has introduced a broader phenomenon called “digital transformation” in virtually all industries and fields, including digital transformation in healthcare, where digital technology causes or influences all aspects of human life. Even though there is no commonly accepted definition for digital transformation, it can be defined as using new digital innovations to promote necessary industrial improvements [1,2,3].

Digitalization is primarily concerned with information processing that involves almost all industry domains and profoundly transforms today’s economy and society. Therefore, the inclusion of information and communication technologies in critical clinical and administrative processes in the health field is also becoming common due to the demonstrated advantages, especially during this COVID-19 pandemic [4]. While digital transformation in healthcare has many benefits, there are issues and challenges in adopting these technologies [5]. Therefore, stakeholders face multiple challenges as they define a vision and roadmap that determine the way forward [6].

Do industries need a digital transformation?

Economic development and a sustainable future are often the product of various social changes. Digital transformation is one of the most recent manifestations of these changes [6]. Digital transformation is not simply about digitizing existing industries but also about transforming products and services into software-defined assets and redefining the industrial structure through these digital technologies [1]. Companies undergoing a digital transformation will likely gain a higher market share and customer engagement, higher employee morale, and increased customer revenue [7].

Therefore, companies are progressively investing in new digital technologies to experiment with new possibilities to change their structures and systems [2]. Furthermore, due to improving customer relationships, internal processes, and value creation, change with digital transformation has become a global need of great importance for all companies in all sectors [6].

Why is digital transformation necessary for the healthcare industry?

Most of the world’s economies are struggling to deliver high-quality healthcare cost-effectively. As a proven solution to optimize the efficiency, equity, access, safety, and quality of healthcare, there is an urgent need for the healthcare system to take advantage of advances in digital health to improve profitability [8]. Including information and communication technologies in clinical and administrative processes in health, the field has become essential to ensure that information related to health care is accessible by the appropriate person, in the right place, at the right time, and safely. Introducing the Electronic Health Record as the main transformative project for the healthcare industry is becoming essential since fully computerized health settings with Electronic Health Records have demonstrated the advantage of using a large amount of data generated to provide better clinical care.

Digital healthcare delivered via smartphones, tablets, and computers with associated good accessibility, portability, agility, or ease of use, supports healthcare through disease prediction and prevention, clinical diagnosis, and treatments [4]. Recent surveys and research also suggest that investing in healthcare technology infrastructure improves cost savings and health outcomes [9]. But only some of those responsible for health institutions still hesitate to undergo a digital transformation. According to the 2018 Price Waterhouse Cooper survey, only 38% of CEOs of US healthcare systems have reported a digital component in their overall strategic plan [5].

Hidden benefits of digital transformation in the health industry

In addition to providing new ways to interact with healthcare services, including direct bookings, teleconsultations, ordering for repeat prescriptions, and diagnostic kits, digital technology brings many more benefits if used intentionally. Rare disease patients over long distances can create communities that can share experiences and knowledge. Chronically ill patients can be much better informed about their illness, including ways to adjust to its impact on them. The public can also contribute their data to improve their understanding of the disease, including information on etiology, diagnosis, and possible treatment routes. Internet search analytics provides insights on issues of concern to people and clues to emerging health trends long before they become apparent in traditional data sources. Social media monitoring can provide information on how people understand health-related conditions and can use data to develop health promotion materials [10].

Importance of digital healthcare during the COVID 19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic challenged traditional methods of providing health services, as they relied on paperwork and filed databases that can be surfaces and sources of the virus spread. The pandemic also increased the burden on the health sector by creating a high political and public demand for accurate and real-time reporting of information related to the pandemic with rapid dissemination.

There was an urgent need to shift COVID-19 data management from traditional paper-based clinical records to an integrated digital data stream to manage the COVID-19 pandemic [11] effectively. Routine face-to-face consultation between doctor and patient has also become an opportunity for the virus to spread. But digital health emerged to provide objective and accessible digital data for caregivers and patients, and virtual teleconsultations while at home led to an equal doctor-patient relationship with shared decision-making [12]. Therefore, the digital transformation in the healthcare industry has become a vital shift in providing good quality and safe healthcare services during the pandemic.

Digital transformation in the healthcare industry: Challenges in the digitalization process

The challenges in any strategic initiative are inevitable. It is also common for the digital transformation process for any industry since it is a continuous and complex process associated with social, economic, and technological factors. The health industry implies a change in the entire setting, keeping the patient as the central value. These challenges range from budget limits to gaining approval from healthcare professionals. However, it is important to involve patients in this transformative movement whose ultimate goal is to improve their care [4]. In a recent survey, 99% of executives have expressed challenges in digital transformation, including technology issues, personal issues, and cultural and organizational challenges as the most difficult [13].

In another study, stakeholders highlighted the need to develop and update digital skills within companies when interviewed. These skill needs include, within public administration and organizations in the education industry, the need to continuously adapt to new digital technologies with better infrastructures and services and the need to develop synergies of innovative technological solutions in the medium and long term through the involvement of different factors from public and private industries [2]. As a result, we can identify the following critical challenges as the most common [7,13].

1. Employee pushback
2. Lack of expertise to lead digitization initiatives and digital transformation
3. Organizational structure and the mismatch in existing toolsets with digital transformation
4. Lack of overall digitization strategy
5. Limited budget

How to overcome the challenges in the digitization process?

Humans naturally like routines, making people feel more comfortable with new things. Therefore, employee pushback is inevitable during the initial digitalization steps of any industry. Accordingly, to overcome employee pushback, employees must be informed and involved throughout the process. Empowering them and helping them to understand the process is essential. In addition, combining talent and technology to undergo a digital transformation is vital. One must have the other to be helpful if current industry systems that are supposed to go through digital transformation may need more internal expertise. Then it is time to look outside and find a technology partnership to accompany the company on the journey.

Indeed, generating a roadmap compatible with the existing organizational structure and toolsets before starting the digitalization process with the help of specialized knowledge will avoid give-ups and slowdowns due to mismatches. Success is likely only possible if the process is planned as a single individual or department. Departments may be tasked with executing part of the strategy, but the entire company must work toward a common goal [7]. Consider optimal timing, shared risk, and procurement conditions for large national digitalization projects. Especially in such processes, negotiations regarding quality and price may be required, as well as evaluating new technology [15]. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has fueled digital transformation, despite the lack of traditional preparations that are generally considered essential for a successful digital transformation, demonstrating that these challenges are highly possible to overcome when it comes to a need and an honest effort [11].

The role of policymakers for the success of digital transformation in the health sector

New rules and regulations must be implemented to create a balance between privacy since, in the digital health system, there seems to be a constant confrontation between the protection of privacy and the interests of data use [14]. Technology, human behavior, and policy-making are the key factors enabling information access. The success of the global information infrastructure requires adapting new technologies to human life, using them efficiently, and establishing policies on the ownership and distribution of information [3]. Therefore, anyone who cares about the future of rural health care must be very concerned about the future of digital communications infrastructure. Consequently, policy concerns must shift from the costs of medical technology to the costs of telecommunications for areas with poor technological development [16].

Future scopes and directions

Technological innovations are becoming inseparable from health systems worldwide to improve the quality of care and become financially sustainable. Even in the case of the first hollow wooden tube stethoscope, it took decades to spread the idea of ​​improving care with innovation globally. Digital transformation in the healthcare industry is critical because successful care delivery depends on collaboration, empathy, and shared decision-making. Nobody denies we can sustain this through digitalized healthcare with newly defined cooperation between patients and their caregivers [12].

Essential to realizing even a rapid deployment of digital communication devices create a “digital divide” between those who have access to technologies and digital literacy and those who do not have access to such technologies. This digital divide creates disparities in access to telehealth care, a successful and adjusted digital transformation can minimize these disparities. Although the results may take time to materialize, the adaptations that occur with digital transformations facilitate modern ways of working and improve the quality of services in any industry [9,17].

Related Article: 10 Strong Benefits of Digital Transformation in Hospitals

References

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