A bright new future is here to stay, whether we see it or fear it, it will come!
Technology has disrupted our lives already in the communication sector; how we relate to each other has changed a lot and will continue changing. The next step will be either Health or Education. For us to accelerate these changes and be able to enjoy as soon as possible the good impact they will bring us, a clear purpose and the goodness in people to serve society will have to be the main motivation!
The disruption on human relations: Family’s like mine, of expats, are much closer now than they were before. When I left Brasil in 1999, cell phones did not have video calls (you do not have to be THAT old for having lived it!). I recall waiting to talk to my mother the weekends and controlling the time, as the calls were super expensive from Hungary to Brazil. Slightly before my mother passed away, in 2006, we have discovered a new “tool” that allowed us to talk “with” the computer seeing the faces of each other and for free – it was called Skype! Right now, I am able to talk to my siblings, families and friends seeing their faces whatever time I can – for people of my generation, we thought this would only be the Jetsons!!! We are indeed living what before was only in our dreams. We have right now in “one piece of device”, all our preferred music, our whole family and friends, news, notes, mails just in a “simple thing” that we can carry in our pocket! …information, connection, safety, entertainment, etc… in our hands 24/7! Some people see the negative aspects of the cell phones, I choose to see the positive!
Where the next disruption will be? In my view it will be in the HealthCare sector, mainly because in the education we are already seeing examples of disruption, but this have been more silently and have been a big impact generation after generation already. The hope I see in education is, that, in the future, it will not be based on supporting one individual to be successful or to succeed in one organisation. The old ways of maximizing GDP’s of countries, Profits of Businesses, learning how to lead winning competition, influencing and convincing people to do what they might not be willing to do, is long gone. The future of leadership education will start from childhood, but to lead society to pursue a common goal – humanity well being, harmony and fight together the biggest challenges we face today! Universities as the Singularity University (https://su.org/) will take over, and the goodness and care for society and humanity will prevail. The next generations will not look for schools, Universities, where you learn how to compete and win the “wild human race”, but they search places where they learn how to cooperate and in collaboration make a better “harmonic human existence”. You can see it just by screening the first page of the SU website:
“Preparing Global Leaders & Organizations for the Future
Explore the opportunities and implications of exponential technologies and connect to a global ecosystem that is shaping the future and solving the world’s most urgent problems.”
Why I believe HC will be the next big step of humanity evolution through technology disruption? Because Medical Science had developed super quickly, solutions that are being studied today can truly prolong life and there are researches going much beyond, but still our societies and countries are not ready. Technology has advanced hugely and right now all different stakeholders in the Healthcare sector are trying to find different solutions to be more effective and to be more productive, and to give the best service to THEIR patients. Where this will take us?
This is the biggest question and the answer is another “WHY fundamental question”: “WHY WOULD WE, STAKEHOLDERS OF HEALTHCARE SECTOR INTRODUCE TECHNOLOGY IN OUR AREA?” Here comes the most important break for reflection. The right answer should always be:
“BECAUSE OUR PURPOSE AND FOCUS IS THE CITIZEN WELL-BEING”.
If we all truly think on the patients when bringing technology to our areas; hospitals, labs, researchers, government, then we will align ourselves in order to have the right technology to measure the clinical outcomes of the patients and track the whole patient journey, not only in that given moment, but also historical data. If Public and Private sector are aligned and “speaking” to each other, the data produced throughout the patient journey will help policies to be built which really help to optimize the Healthcare system and bring the best outcome to the patients. When procurement can be made according to the right added value to certain step of the journey, optimization of the whole chain can be achieved and the transparency can be the mother of the right decisions! This will provide the right platform for the collaboration among stakeholders, and by the end the citizens will be benefited. All decisions in the Health sector will be wiser….
How far are we from this??? My truly and deepest belief is that we are not far, and I believe that India can lead this journey. One of the biggest challenges that countries and systems encounter is the metadata to identify the citizens throughout the chain and the willingness and capability of the system to implement technology. India has both… India is the only country which has the Aadhar, which is, not only one identification covering 98% of the population, but also a biometric one!!! (Dream of any country which would plan to implement new Informatics system to track health value). India has also one of the highest acceptance of technology, innovation and the stakeholders are willing to implement technology in their “houses” to optimize services….
And…. On the top of this, in February 2018 the government has announced the biggest National Health program in the world, and among other ideas, they are willing to utilize this scheme to implement a National Health Stack that might have the potential to align all actual technology in the country, state wise or central wise. Both Public and Private sector can benefit!
Can you imagine if, in some years, India is able to have a health system which is bumped by technology and the whole Healthcare system, public and private, is summed up in one technological system which can track, not only the costs, the interventions, the steps of the patients, but also the clinical outcome of the citizens? …and the AI, Machine learning can help different stakeholders to compare outcomes for patients vs their journey in the health system? Then policies can be built based on the best value for patients, meaning the best outcome with the holistic more sustainable cost…
I believe we can do this if we align stakeholders from the public and private sector and start segment by segment! I add here a report which is showing already first results of a pilot done by WEF and Atlanta government! Enjoy it and I hope that this brings you the same beautiful picture it brought me – an Indian healthcare evolution bumped by technology and collaboration among stakeholders, private and public sector, which allows more access to health care and ultimately a Universal Healthcare which benefits all Indian citizens with high standards of care!
Click to access WEF_Insight_Report_Value_Healthcare_Laying_Foundation.pdf
* I work for Roche. All opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily represent the position of my organisation.”