Digital Health

Digital Health

Introduction

Digital health entails a healthcare delivery model, which makes use of technology in providing healthcare remotely. The model used helps in maximizing healthcare resources as well as providing increased and flexible opportunities mainly for health care consumers in order to engage with clinicians in enhancing patients’ care. Digital health uses technology while leveraging the readily available consumer technologies. This is meant to enhance the deliverance of patient care outside hospitals or doctors’ offices. This could only be possible through the application of various healthcare programs such as remote care, telehealth, and the management of disease and lifestyle. It also happens with the leveraging of existing technologies like connected devices with the use of cellular networks that exist. Mainly, efforts are initiated to improve chromic cares. This paper is based on digital healthcare. The paper describes digital healthcare emergence, and the way it is affected by technology/markets, industry models/industry dynamics, and the government through its role, investments, production, and supply networks. The paper also identifies key companies with the development of some strategic recommendations for the companies based on the industry analysis.

The emergence of digital health happened with the introduction of computers and advancements in information and communication technology (Kaptelinin, 1996). The industry is emerging mainly at the intersection of both health and technology. Its emergence has changed the way people access and uses their personal health information. Its adaptation was enhanced by computer technology. Today, the industry is still emerging. New advancements in technology are also shaping the industry to bring in a better looks in both efficiency and safety (Tecco, Pollard, Avey, Woodcock, & Panchadsaram, 2013). Again advancements in the mobile phone and tablet technologies have enhanced the way people access information. Big data and information within the cloud enable personalization, game dynamics, new engagement mechanisms, higher physicians’ engagement in online interactions, and increased vibrant conversations about health. Digital health is still emerging is forever transforming the way people access and the way they make use of personal health information. It also controls the way people manage their own health and the way they interact with medical practitioners. People have increasingly understood that good health is a fundamental requirement and that easy access to healthcare is an important requirement in human life within the current social-economic dynamics. While digital health has evolved with the emergence of computers, emergence of newer and more advanced technologies has been promoting its application. New medical gadgets, social software have been a key to this success while smartphones and tablets have made people get into even new and easier ways of getting better access to healthcare (Daman, 2013).

Typically, connected health changes how people manage their health. The introduction of digital health came with many advantages and benefit to both healthcare providers and those demanding the services. Some of the benefits are associated with cost reduction especially for the chronically ill individuals. In a global perspective, it has contributed to the improvement of both global and local processes of investigations. This further indicated a reduction in epidemics, which in turn has enhanced the control over many infectious diseases besides improving drug safety. Again, there is much improvement in healthcare as evidenced by reduction of medical error rate and provision of better healthcare customer service. Connected health has been found to be more effective and safer when used in clinical trials. This technology is highly advancing in such a way that better services are coming up through innovations. This is made easy through the increased use of information/ communication technologies to address healthcare problems as well as various challenges faced by patients. The technologies applied are in the form of hardware and software solutions (Daman, 2013). The core concern is the development of health systems that are fully and effectively interconnected in order to improve the application of computational technologies, techniques of computational analysis, smart devices, and communication media. The application of these elements and techniques assist healthcare professionals and patients in the efforts to manage illnesses as well as health risks and promote their health and wellbeing.

The industries’ innovative cycles involve five process that include the identification of healthcare problems, doing the research, designing the respective digital solutions, evaluating the designed solutions and then generating evidence, and supporting the innovation. In the identification of the healthcare problem, the healthcare issue is defined. This stage also requires an understanding of users and identification of their needs besides the clinical care pathway. User requirements as well as the context of using the digital technologies is formalized with the use of scientific, psychological, and engineering principles and theories, which are relevant to the health problem/problems. The digital solution is then designed. In this case, the solution is designed. It is then developed with assistance from stakeholders using human-computer interaction principles. The key designs used in this stage are user centered designs, experience centered designs, and activity centered designs. Evaluation of the digital solution and generation of evidence are then initiated. In this stage, the technological solutions is tested in both patient and user group. The testing is done to ensure that safety, effectiveness, and affordability are ultimate. An evaluation on the respective impact is then done specifically in large scale through either clinical studies or trials. The evidence is synthesized possibly through published literature (Daman, 2013). This process could as well include clinical studies, which evaluate economic impact. Lastly, adequate support on the digital innovation is provided. The generated knowledge, from the synthesized evidence is shared among the respective stakeholders such as patients, clinicians, and the industry. This is meant to promote the digital technology and spread it as much as possible throughout the healthcare industry.

Various Components and the way they influence Emergence of Digital Health

Digital health and its emergence have been influenced by various components. Among the various components influencing its emergence include technology and markets, business models, industrial dynamics, investments, the government and its roles, production, and supply networks. Other than influencing the emergence of the digital health industry as individual components, aspects of their interaction also affect the way the industry emerged and how it is currently emerging (Daman, 2013).

Business models/Industry Dynamics

Business models and dynamics in the industry contribute a lot to the emergence of digital health. Digital health industry is characterized by increasing innovations and dynamic changes. In the industry, conferences on digital transformation with respect to health care are becoming more pronounced. Innovation projects are being cultivated with the increase in competition being a core drive for even more advanced technologies. Hospitals have standard IT programs that support delivery of good medical care. Every hospital is trying as much as possible to deliver the best services possible in healthcare (Lachapelle, 2012). With computer stations, access to patients’ results especially at the nursing stations of various hospitals as well as within physicians’ offices (Eastern Daylight Time, 2012). In the past, accessing information concerning patients at their bedsides required medical teams to recopy such results or even print the results from the respective computer systems in order to take the results with them. The major problems facing the health sectors especially terms of accessing information have been also behind the core driver for the emergence of digital health.

Many problems facing the healthcare industry have been in a great need for innovation. The attempt to solve such problems also facilitates the growth or development of digital health. Most healthcare systems recognize the potentiality for mobile tools in addressing medical staff s and their respective jobs in their efforts to presents certain information to patients, imaging reports, lab results, and transcribed documents. All these were earlier done at the patients’ bedside. This practice has been argued to be difficult and time consuming (Lachapelle, 2012). Besides, errors are likely to arise due to the use of traditional techniques of accessing information. The information has to be accessed from a central point by every professional who requires the same information. The need to decentralize such information sources requires the application of digital health technologies. Initiatives to configure clinical applications that could make patient information more accessible and on computer terminals, smartphons, or tablet/iPad platforms have been a major concern with many hospitals and related healthcare facilities having started using such applications (Lachapelle, 2012).

Initiators of the digital health programs understand that the platforms are hardly the actual solution to the decentralization of information to make information access easier. The applications that make the information available on mobile platform comprise of the main application and solution to the industrial problem. Such applications are able to provide medical practitioners with adequate information about patients from an up-to-date perspective. Such success factors are increasingly making the process of making healthcare decisions easier. Healthcare providers are also able to inform patients about their health without physical interaction and at the same time, healthcare providers can provide their patients with information concerning their respective health and involve them in healthcare decision-making process. In the attempt to come with effective programs related to digital health, healthcare researchers could initiate and launch pilot tests on their applications in a real world perspective (Lachapelle, 2012). Through such tests, the effectiveness of such applications are tested for efficiency, effectiveness, safety, and other aspects. This gives room for further development and improvements. More functionalities are added. This aspect is part of the digital emergence with healthcare providers striving to keep in pace with the prevailing technology and industry dynamics. This also implies that the industry dynamics contribute much to the emergence of digital health.

On the other hand, business model has some meaningful influence on the emergence of digital health. The need to develop the healthcare technology is highly affected by the type of business model used by a given healthcare organization or facility. The evolution of digital health and its ecosystem seems to be painfully contrived at times. Today, things seem to have changed greatly since those healthcare organizations delivering healthcare to earn profits have to enhance their competitiveness. The business model in this case makes things and the ideas behind the digital health clear in that for better profits and more sales in terms of health services and health products, better healthcare should be initiated (Lachapelle, 2012). This could only be possible through good and effective technology applications. In this situation, the digital health applications are among the key factors to the promotion of good healthcare as far as the current world is concerned. Such requirements call for the development and application of digital health on various healthcare departments of an organization.

Health firms such as hospitals are increasingly search for the best digital health applications that tally with their business models. Associated costs and the respective application benefits also drive the emergence of digital health. The kind of business model applied in hospitals and in other types of healthcare facilities generates a great impact on the application and implementation of digital health. In conclusion, both business model and Industry dynamics influence the emergence of digital health (Lachapelle, 2012). A healthcare organization or provider could make use of digital technology to enhance its competitive position in healthcare provision, offer better healthcare, or adopt the technologies used by other firms as far as industry dynamics are concerned. A firm may also apply the digital health in order to promote its business model through innovation. The two factors thus contribute to digital emergence significantly.

Investments

Investments affect the emergence of digital health in various ways. Health providers usually have varying types of investments. Despite the kind of investment that a given healthcare firm or hospital has, emergence of digital health is significantly affected. Typically, digital health helps in promoting healthcare in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, cost reduction, and ease of information access by stakeholders such as patients, healthcare professionals, and investors among other individuals. Investment in this case could imply the accumulation of produced physical entities. Health providing firms whose main objective is to make profits are focused on increasing sales, attracting new customers, maintaining customers, and growing economically and physically (Eysenbach, 2001). Even when investors purchase assets, they are more focused on the respective returns than any other benefits that could be obtained from a particular asset, human resource, or new technology (Kaptelinin, 1996). In order to increase their income generation, such firms have to incorporate new technologies.

When making decisions to incorporate new technologies, they are forced to conduct research in terms of the associated financial and economic benefits such as profits increase and cost reduction respectively. Usually, economic benefits contribute to increased profits by increasing the profit margins. A health facility with this kind of investment model would definitely incorporate digital health in order to ease information access and reduce the associated costs (Norman, 2002). Digital health has other benefits such as increased quality of healthcare services and lower costs in accessing and transferring patients’ information. The practice of having to access a patient’s information from the patient’s bedside was found to be tedious especially given that doctors or other medical professionals have to check the patient’s health physically and manually. This was tedious especially given that the medical practitioners can hardly maintain a close track of the patient without having to visit the patient regularly. Hospitals thus found digital health technologies effective since they can watch over their patients from their offices or even from home.

The economic benefit in this case is the amount of time saved especially given that such professionals can use the time they could have physically used to attend their patients for other activities. The emergence of digital health in this case is initiated by the pressure that healthcare providers face in order to maintain a high competitive position in the healthcare industry and market. Customers/ patients like a feeling of being cared for and treated in a special way. This is possible through interactive means of communication as well as providing them with some substantial control over their healthcare information. In the attempt to improve their investments, healthcare providers make use of digital health technologies that could promote easier access to health information, reduce consultation costs to patients, enhance doctor-patient interaction (for instance via online communication through social communication), and promote better healthcare service provision. The need to boost healthcare investments has thus been a major effect of digital health emergence (Norman, 2002). Private investments seem to be the most aggressive in promoting the emergence of digital health. Private healthcare facilities are swift in adapting new technologies in order to promote their investments and promote their financial growth. These types of investments are very keen on long-term outlook in healthcare service provision and would do anything within their financial and economic reach to better the future prospects of their investment models (Lachapelle, 2012).

Some investments in healthcare service provision are developed to provide social benefits to the society. In this case, adaptation of new technologies such as the digital health technologies would only be initiated if the technology would enhance their ability to increase the social benefits. Digital health could be very expensive such that some private investments in healthcare sector can hardly afford to install. Not-for-profit healthcare providers are usually large organization with powerful financial backups due to the support they have from various NGOs. It their attempts to implement digital health, their goals are based on better and more effective ways of providing healthcare services to their society. Their main problem is hardly the cost associated with the digital health technology and the challenges to its installation. Instead, the main concern is increasing the delivery of health services to every patient (Lachapelle, 2012). They promote the emergence of digital health through their effort to digitalize their healthcare services for better healthcare. Patients in this case are able to receive benefits from an individual level rather from a community perspective. Consulting with such organization for the purpose of personal health improvement and maintenance has contributed to increased demand for digital health thereby calling for its emergence.

Role of Government

The role of government in promoting healthcare services and wellbeing has been a major contribution to the emergence of digital health. The government is always in the first line to promote healthcare delivery in the country. In the effort to promote healthcare and human wellbeing, the government has developed a number of healthcare facilities as well as healthcare development units supporting various areas of healthcare. The government could decide to fund and manage various healthcare projects or it could support other healthcare providers within the country or the industry. The government has contributed to healthcare development through the initiation of programs the ensure equal distribution of healthcare facilities and services throughout the country. Such contributions have also gone hand in hand with the application of new technologies in healthcare service delivery (Defined Contribution Health Care, 2013).

Through equal distribution of resources, the government has promoted equal and fair competition within the sector. Its contribution and support for technological advancements and innovations has been a factor contributing the emergence of digital health. The government is responsible for its population’s health status and therefore it has to ensure that healthcare providers are providing the best health services possible. Through its bodies such as the local governments and state governments, promotion of better healthcare has been initiated in a great deal. The government has also been very supportive to technology adaptation in healthcare and researches in healthcare that promote new developments and more efficient programs in the sector (Defined Contribution Health Care, 2013). This attracted investors to the use of new technologies including digital health. This aspect contributed to the emergence of digital health in great deal. While the government had done a lot in promoting healthcare and human wellbeing, its contribution to the emergence and adoption of the digital health technology is wanting.

The government should implement more health care systems that are increasingly universal. The government has adequate power to generate positive influence in various economic and social sectors including the health sector. There is the need for the government to reconsider the existing debates on its participation in healthcare. Its open concern on good health and human wellbeing is a great encouragement for healthcare facilities to adopt digital health techniques. Even through the provision of backed healthcare from the government, promoting of new innovations and better technologies in healthcare could be possible. This is because people would be encouraged to get regular medical checkups, thereby increase the generation of revenue that could be used in promoting research and innovations within health facilities. The government should also encourage people to have health care coverage given the new technological abilities, which could see more patients attended by a single medical professional than ever before (Eysenbach, 2001). The increased demand through government’s effort could enhance digital technology emergence as hospitals structure better ways of handling the increasing number of patients. To ensure that this new trend is successfully realized, the government should ensure that healthcare programs are universal such that all citizens gain a strong minimum coverage amount.

Many European countries have developed this trend in healthcare, which has promote the condition of health care services. The government could as well ensure that programs such as Medicare and Medicaid are hardly affected in a negative way by the government involvement in healthcare. Such programs should instead remain strong or they could even be strengthened by the use of digital health technologies. In order for the government plans and programs in promoting health care and new technology in the sector, it should increase its bureaucracy. It should delegate some of its health care promotion responsibilities to the lover governances such as state governments and local governments. Most of the possible interruptions would come from political and ideological arguments against its participation in health care promotion and its campaign for the application of digital health technologies within hospitals and other types of healthcare facilities (Kaptelinin, 2006). The government could also develop legislations that promote good healthcare. Such provisions should concentrate on good health services to patients. Minimum healthcare standards could be set including the need to enhance health information transparency and availability to both patients medical professionals. The government could also demand that patients monitoring be made as interactive as possible which could call for either more employees in each hospital or the adoption of technologies that could enhance patient monitoring (Eysenbach, 2001). Such cases would only go for the economically cheap option, which is the use of digital health.

Production

Production processes within the healthcare sector could call for use of various technologies. Today, customers seem to take full control of what firms have to produce it terms of quality and methods. This aspect implies that consumers of products and services have to be in touch with firms. Firms ensure this by structuring ways in which customer relationships are enhanced. Interactive communication is very critical in this case. Companies need to understand the way consumers feel about their services or products. The use of new and upcoming technologies has been prioritized in this case especially the use of interactive user interfaces. Companies are able to obtain information about various customers without even interacting with them physically. Through the same techniques customers are able to understand companies’ activities and ask questions concerning various issues. Similar techniques are used in digital health as hospitals strive to create interactive environments with their patients as well as trying to establish cheaper, faster, and easier ways of monitoring their patients and collecting information about their health (Daman, 2013). As far as production is concerned, healthcare organizations are in the run to deliver the best health services possible within their respective markets. These efforts contribute to the emergence of digital health since health practitioners try their best to promote good health from the view point of patients, the public, and other stakeholders.

Interactive communication and increased transparency within the health care sector give healthcare facilities some new images from the perspective of patients and the general public. Generation of good medical services has been a major factor promoting the need for new technologies such as the digital health applications. Production techniques within healthcare facilities are structured in a way that patient health appears to be of ultimate concern. Such production methods could involve the delivery of health care services over distant locations especially among patients receiving medical treatments from their respective homes. Advancements in digital technology especially in the information and communication sector has transformed the way patients interact with their doctors. Digital health applications have emerged as solution to the problems experienced in distant medical consultations or treatment/medical prescriptions (Eysenbach, 2001).

Digital applications such as healthcare websites, social networks, emails, and chats make it easier to seek medications while patients are being served from their respective homes. Doctors and other healthcare professionals could monitor their patients from a distance thereby saving the service delivery time and cost. Doctors can now get patients information from their locations, formulate medical prescription based on the provided information, and generate a database for all the patients within a given health facility. This aspect makes the costs of running health care activities and production processes lower. The time spent in the entire process is reduced (Eastern Daylight Time, 2012). The need for faster, more efficient, and cheaper healthcare processes calls for the adaptation of digital health especially in the communication bit of the technology. It follows therefore that production promotes digital health emergence.

Supply of Networks

Digital health would be meaningless without the existence of network supplies. Network providers play a key role in the emergence of digital health especially when organizations have to make use of such networks to complete their digital health applications. Digital health technologies use application that requires the use of internet networking. Today, the internet plays the biggest role in communication. It has taken over most other forms of communications in such a way that even calls are possible with the use of internet technologies. The internet is the main resource used in making use of social channels of communication. The major contribution of internet providers to digital health and other healthcare technologies is its property of being a core information source. Healthcare providers are able to learn about the existence of new technologies by obtaining such information from the internet (Daman, 2013).

Supply of networks promotes the use of digital health applications thereby making access to information easier. Network supplies also reduce the cost of researching on new technologies and their implications on healthcare service delivery, quality of healthcare services, and the associated costs. Supply of networks has contributed to online health promotions and their insights. Such promotions create awareness and the need to install better technologies. The emergences of digital health and interactive communication technologies have been possible due to network availability (Redbird Communications, 2013). Healthcare facilities develop digital health application with the knowledge that supply of networks is available to promote such digital health applications. It can be ascertained that network suppliers have contributed to not only digital health but also to other important technologies in health care. Availability of network supplies enables the initiation of effective researches and enable the use of the technological applications to enable the intended activities (Redbird Communications, 2013).

Key Companies in Digital Health

Digital health would hardly have been successful without the discovery and use of computers. Computer technology is the core initiator digital technology and the basis of all other global technological advancements evident today. Companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Google, have participated greatly in promoting the emergence and application of digital health technologies. Microsoft and Apple Inc. are the major participants due to their advancements in computer technologies in both hardware and software. Microsoft participation in health care has contributed in easier ways of managing data and information. The same has been promoted through the development of various communication tools especially through web applications. On the other hand, Apple Inc. participation is through the development of mobile platforms that enhance interactive communication and data/ information transfer from patients to doctors or from doctors to patients (Tecco, Pollard, Avey, Woodcock, & Panchadsaram, 2013). Google Company on the other side seems to dominate most of the internet application including chat applications and the World Wide Web. Other major companies contributing to digital health include Samsung through its smartphone and tablet technologies.

Recommendation

Based on the industry analysis, it seems that the emergence of digital health is influenced by many players. The technology however lies in the hands of the core developers. While other factors affect digital health emergence indirectly, the key companies contribute directly by providing the resources required to produce the technology and make it work effectively. These companies can therefore transform the healthcare sector technologically such that services are of ultimate quality. These companies should fully cooperate with healthcare providers to develop even better and more customized digital health application that could fit their respective business models for better health care.

References

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Eysenbach, G. (2001). What is e-health? . J Med Internet Res, 3(2), doi:10.2196/jmir.3.2.e20.

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