Digital Innovation Frameworks in Healthcare

On-demand healthcare delivery is one means of digital innovation possibilities where mobile and web apps become the basis for better communication between patients and doctors. But these innovation possibilities cannot spring up in a technological vacuum. They require the right digital transformation strategies that foster these and other mobile healthcare innovation possibilities.

This can mean providing patients with digestible content geared to their specific recovery track via video and bite-sized chats. That will require customer-centric app development, UI, and UX with cloud platform use and CI/CD pipelines along with containers and microservices to meet complex needs across patient groups.

The use of AI and machine learning can facilitate collection and sharing of relevant observational patient data to create a feedback loop between doctor and patient that results in delivering more personalized care for the patient. With access to more relevant data, doctors can make more informed decisions about the best treatment for a particular patient. This can inform providers about:

• Optimal discharge time based on patient data and hospital usage data
• Remote urgency predictions via mobile apps and telehealth to avoid unnecessary emergency room visits while increasing accessibility across all socioeconomic groups
• Provide demographic data that can fuel future innovation outcomes based on local and regional healthcare demographics for specific health conditions and important socioeconomic contributing factors pollution, jobless rates etc.)

This creates a collaborative loop between AI innovators and clinicians that fosters innovation from digital transformation planning based on agile possibilities.

Mobile Tools for Fair Access to Consultations

Innovation possibilities work best when every healthcare organization, provider, and patient can apply and access them. By taking advantage of near-ubiquitous technology like mobile phones as the basis for patient platform connections, telehealth and application-based monitoring and healthcare support, more people and organizations benefit across socioeconomic strata.

Innovative possibilities like AR/VR for healthcare can involve an augmented reality system to assist with real-time precision in surgery to improve on strictly freehand surgery outcomes.

This requires digital transformations strategies that are designed for innovation possibilities, where:

• Cloud platforms can store and stream 3D, AR/VR content
• Edge computing systems can deliver real-time analytics and modeling
• Developers have the CI/CD pipelines and cloud architecture to build, manage and deploy 3D, AR/VR applications and content
• DevOps teams can create platforms and microservices and API-driven applications that enable conversion, compression and optimization of 3D models and digital twins data so they can stream them to multiple devices in real time

Using unique cloud solutions that support innovation opens the possibilities for new services, products, and approaches, including integrated AI and analytics. 

Integrated AI/analytics for Service and Resource Planning

The ability to combine, sort, and understand the vast array of connected data across a healthcare system can have a major impact on innovation possibilities. It can span everything from resource allocation to evidence-based healthcare decision making across entire patient populations or groups, by:

• Creating reports to spot trends earlier, identify high-risk groups, and plan interventions
• ER risk monitoring to improve real-time provider alerts and care across ER and acute care units
• Online portal to address the significant delays that exist when moving patients from the hospital to a care setting. 

AI and Robotics in Healthcare

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has developed a lot over the past couple of years. Its application in healthcare and robotics is vast and researchers are continuously introducing it across different fields. AI can recognize patterns to help providers, researchers, pharma, and biotech understand cause, effect, and solution possibilities for diseases, treatment protocols, and patient population changes.

Projections show the global surgical robots market reaching US $14.4 billion by 2026 from US $6.4 billion in 2021, according to market research firm MarketsandMarkets. Robotics-assisted technologies like telesurgery and PARs (Physical-Assistive Robots) are just two forms that robotics are taking in healthcare.

Healthcare organizations are currently using PAR for aging populations that may have:

• Suffered strokes
• Lost muscular power
• Suffered bone fractures
• Have neurodegenerative diseases, and other conditions

The robotic technology aids people with these motor impairment conditions to have more autonomy through wheelchair and other robotic-enhanced support. This includes everything from endoscopy-assisted bots to targeted therapy microbots. An important robotic process is robotic process automation that automates repetitive tasks across hospital operations, including:

• Document digitization
• Appointment scheduling
• Records management
• Infection control
• HR
• Billing and processing

Half of US hospitals will invest in RPA by 2023, according to Gartner. The technology mesh that connects all these innovation possibilities comes from creating an innovation strategy that guides digital transformation. The strategic use of cloud, edge, AI/ML, application development and other digital transformation approaches must be driven by a broader innovation strategy that becomes the baseline for healthcare.

Making Innovation the Baseline for Healthcare with a Co-creation Partner

Healthcare organizations are often stuck between the fast pace of medical/operational need and the slow pace of technology adoption. Making matters worse is how digital transformation strategies focus on specific outcomes without a clear benchmark for business or healthcare outcome improvements. That’s a symptom of a larger challenge where healthcare IT organizations must respond to that fast and slow-paced dichotomy.

Many organizations lack the personnel, expertise, or outcomes-based strategy for stakeholder/end user agreement and adoption. Top-down edicts without bottom-up needs input along with busy IT organizations with limited budgets is often a recipe for failure.

Digital innovation possibilities must grow from a healthcare culture focused on user-centered design that removes complexity on the front end by enabling agile development via digital transformation back ends. That means a clear focus on implementing digital transformation based on broad innovation possibilities where new tools:

• Work with, rather than replace, existing behaviors
• Don’t compete with or disrupt workflow
• Deliver transparent interoperability via democratic data access without silos
• Reduce costs and friction in healthcare outcomes and operations improvement
• Are financially viable digital innovation costs deliver broad possibilities of value generation

Achieving this innovation culture within healthcare often requires a co-creation partner that understands the broad challenges. Equally important is that they bring the project experience, expertise, and personnel to become part of the healthcare organization’s internal IT team. This enables a co-creation mindset focused on creating a digital innovation strategy focused on current needs and future possibilities.

We assembled the Techolution team for co-creation that can support digital innovation that delivers specific business outcomes today and in the future. Healthcare organizations have varied IT digital transformation needs ranging from fractional to end-to-end support that vary from one project to the next.

Our ability to customize expert teams to fit those varied needs while working in a fixed bid framework ensures budget, scope, and outcome adherence. Not everything needs to happen today, but without a digital innovation strategy, it’s impossible to deliver incremental and long-term results to meet changing healthcare continuum needs.

To read Part 1 of this blog series “Pathways to Innovation in Healthcare,” click here.

Contact us if you are interested in innovating your healthcare business and achieving your business outcomes.