How healthcare sector can reap benefits from advanced connectivity?

• Improvements in advanced technology will add $250b to $420b to global GDP by 2030.
• Governments must prioritise funding for innovations and insurers must implement clear reimbursement paths for digital offerings.
• Remote patient monitoring, AI-enabled decision support and integrated command centres are top three use cases.

Dubai: Advanced connectivity has the potential to deliver big savings to the healthcare industry by improving productivity and outcomes that in turn will free up money to invest elsewhere in the business.

The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) and the McKinsey Centre for Advanced Connectivity (MCAC) estimate that the improvements will add $250 billion to $420 billion to global GDP by 2030, about 80 per cent of which can be realised with existing advanced connectivity.

For the past couple of decades, the emergence of electronic medical records, telemedicine, and big data have held the promise of revolutionising healthcare for both patient and provider, making it more efficient, effective, and affordable.

Yet so far, the payoff has been elusive, with technology arguably causing as many (if not more) headaches in the system as it cures.

McKinsey cites three use cases in particular—remote patient monitoring, AI-enabled decision support and integrated command centres—highlighting the massive potential value of advanced connectivity in healthcare.

Richard Bartlett, Associate partner in McKinsey & Company, said that these three use cases are just the most prominent examples of how advanced connectivity could dramatically benefit individuals’ healthcare, as well as health systems and even whole economies, within a decade.

“Connectivity-enabled remote patient monitoring and telemedicine will help people better manage long-term health conditions and gain access to preventative care. Advanced technologies will improve patient outcomes by delivering more accurate diagnoses or rapidly adjusted treatments while health systems will be able to deploy staff, coordinate patient care, and tap limited resources more efficiently,” he said.

However, he said that such achievements require more than advanced connectivity and smart devices.

Moving beyond traditional silos

Naomi Smit, Partner at McKinsey Digital, said that governments must prioritise funding for healthcare innovations, and insurers must implement clear reimbursement paths for digital offerings.

Healthcare systems need to hire a wide range of new roles, she said, including systems architects, data scientists and user-experience designers.

“Common data standards and governing regulatory guidelines will have to be set, just as clear, proven procedures for protecting patient data are paramount. Within and across countries, frameworks to guide investment in technology-driven healthcare services and to test and confirm the validity of connectivity-enabled use cases are essential,” she said.

However, she said that it is critical that all stakeholders—from providers and systems to payors, employers, and technology/connectivity providers—learn to collaborate, most importantly on solving the issue of interoperability across systems and solutions.

“Only by moving beyond their traditional silos and working together for the good of the entire system can all these varied players each reap the benefits of connectivity in healthcare while delivering the most crucial reward to patients themselves,” Smit said.