Insights from HiMSS Europe 2019

We attended the HiMSS Europe 2019 conference in Helsinki last week. In this blog post we have summarized some of our main insights from the event. We have identified 4 main topics that the conference focused on. What will the healthcare sector look like in the near future?

1. Doing more with less

A trend is that the budgets for healthcare spending are getting tighter while the population increases and ages. This means healthcare providers and professionals need to do more with less. A solution for this is to work towards a healthcare system more focused outpatient care and with patients spending less days in hospital beds. This can be made possible through a greater emphasis on virtual (remote) clinics and related digital tools. Another enabler is finding reimbursement models that facilitate cooperation between different healthcare organizations when working toward a common goal.

2. Patient data

Another challenge is regarding the collection and sharing of patient data. Here there are several legislative issues to overcome. Different laws and regulations to follow. Generally there’s an incoherence in the information shared with different healthcare professionals. Information doesn’t always travel with the patient from one healthcare provider to another and the patient is often forced to repeat their entire medical history when encountering a new healthcare professional. This type of evidence, of the benefits for the patient, is needed to lawmakers to be able to allow greater data sharing. Patients are able to influence legislators to validate needs for sharing sensitive, care related data across organizations to reduce risk and improve the quality of treatment. In order to succeed with enabling legislation, organizations should start on a smaller scope, e.g within their community, then scale the data network according to common (national) standards while still abiding by the GDPR.

3. Equal healthcare to all patients

This topic is all about equal access and availability. The quality of healthcare should never worsen due to geographical (or other availability) differences. Patients and their needs must be the focus when evaluating service quality and appropriateness. Patients stories and their feedback should always be a part part of the process when developing health services.

4. ICT systems and platforms – seamless integration

Change management is a huge factor in determining the success of technology adoption and the perceived benefits. Many healthcare professionals are frustrated with poorly optimized service platforms, which complicate their work rather than streamline the process. Particularly in the Nordics, the prevalence of ICT platforms and their integrations to other similar systems within the care eco-system is increasing rapidly. Re-training and education reduce the strain on care professionals in their day-to-day work, while giving control to have a positive impact on professional – patient relations, e.g more time to consult the patient rather than be clogged down by bureaucratic processes.

Conclusion

After attending the conference we feel reassured that Aurora Innovation is on the right path, the things we are working on are in alignment with the main topics discussed in Helsinki last week. The changes needed within the healthcare sector will have a large social impact and Aurora Innovation is already part of this transformation. We see that we have positioned ourselves well, both with our vision of creating a more available world as well as with being a partner to healthcare providers looking to enable tomorrow’s healthcare. We are investing in new forms of patient contact through our digital platform Aurora teleQ, such as chat, video and SMS. We are also always working towards integrating our platform with other systems and functions all in order to help our customers and their patients.