The latest Philips’ Future Health Index (more than 33,000 individuals across 19 countries), published in June 2017, reveals that 84% of Australian healthcare professionals believe that the use of connected care technology is important to improve treatment and diagnosis of medical conditions.
However, the country is lagging behind when it comes to adoption of such technologies, in part because of misconceptions about the cost of using IoT in healthcare organizations.
55% of health professionals believe that adoption of IoT increases the cost of care
Kevin Barrow, managing director at Philips Australia and New Zealand, highlighted to main reasons for this reluctance:
- Among 55% of healthcare professionals and 53% of the general population believe that the integration and adoption of IoT technology will increase the cost of healthcare in the long term;
- Government funding models do not support the delivery of care through IoT technology.
« The reality is (…) technology has been reasonably stable, » Mr Barrow told the specialized website Zdnet.com.
Shifting to a funding model based on a proactive system of disease management
He added that according to the Philips’ study, about 5% of hospital patients account for 40-50% of hospital expenditures because chronic patients are being managed « episodically and not continuously ».
« I think the problem in the hospital is activity based-funding so they get reimbursed or funded according to the treatments that are taking place within the hospital. So while the hospital can see that keeping these patients out and managed well in their home and not in hospital is better for both of them, for cost, and for the community, the funding system doesn’t necessarily support that, » Kevin Barrow said.
The adoption of connected technologies would allow for more preventive measures
According to the report, 59% of Australian healthcare professionals believe that most of their time and resources should be focused on preventing illness, which demonstrates the industry’s need to shift from a responsive system to a proactive healthcare.
« The way to achieve this is to seek out efficiencies through improved integration and adoption of connected care technologies, to empower people to take more preventive measures, and to proactively manage their health, » Mr. Barrow said .
Improving the interoperability of national digital systems
The other problem, Kevin Barrow said, is the lack of interoperability of the systems used by Australian healthcare professionals.
He noted that the individual systems in both primary care and from a hospitals perspective do not necessarily connect the right people with the right information at the right time to manage their care.
In the Strategic Review of Telehealth in NSW report, it has been demonstrated that interoperability of systems would enable easier communication and collaboration between healthcare practitioners in different jurisdictions.
The deployment of the National Broadband Network will be a « tremendous help »
« Secure messaging is fantastic, but everybody’s got to be able to talk to everybody, so we need a standard format, » Mr. Barrow said. He believes that the implementation of the National Broadband Network (NBN), which will be rolled out across Australia, will be a « tremendous help » for the advancement and adoption of connected care technology.
Mr. Barrow believes that Philips can play an important role as one of the many stakeholders in a « quite complex healthcare system » by demonstrating that the adoption of connected technologies will reduce costs over the long term, despite the significant initial monetary outlays.
« We see that we need to play a role in providing evidence so that policymakers can make (…) visionary change. »