The Value of Data in the Era of Smart Healthcare: Accelerating Innovation and Progress in the Healthcare Industry
#SmartHealthcare #DigitalHealthcare #HealthData #AIMartech
Data plays an indispensable role in driving progress across the healthcare industry chain worldwide. In fact, research and development of “smart healthcare” and “smart care” has been underway for nearly a decade. Taiwan’s level of health data digitization is among the best in the world. These resources have provided AI and Martech tools for the medical, biotechnology, and medical device fields, which has not only accelerated the workflow of large medical clinics, but also allowed the general public to benefit from the development of smart healthcare facilitated by providing health data, thus moving towards a healthier and more convenient life.
“Health data” promotes the development of smart healthcare and enhances public welfare.
What is “health data”? In theory, people’s health data can be collected at various points of sale in daily life , such as health insurance cards , clinics and care facilities , and pharmacies and cosmetic stores. Any daily health data statistic (such as weight and blood pressure) can affect a series of business opportunities in industries such as drug development and home care.
Health data can be obtained from various data channels, including those related to public services, healthcare, and research institutions, including the following:
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Health and medical services:
General electronic medical records, medical images, laboratory test results, etc.
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Medical insurance:
Statistics on the use of health insurance and labor insurance, and the use of various types of disease insurance by other private insurance companies, etc.
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Pharmaceutical R&D and Management:
Statistics on clinical drug use responses, drug testing records, quantity and frequency of drug procurement and distribution by institutions, etc.
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Mass behavior category:
Patient behavior, health product purchase statistics, etc.
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Public Health:
Surveys on health resources and medical services, monitoring of infectious diseases, monitoring of public health emergencies, etc.
These data provide the foundation for the development of smart healthcare. Authorized institutions can apply de-identified health data to the design and execution optimization of clinical trials, the prediction of potential side effects and efficacy in drug development, and accelerate the long-term process from drug research and development to market launch. National health data also provides pre- and post-event analysis and design solutions for public institutions to monitor diseases and infectious diseases, prevent the spread of epidemics, and promote public health policies (such as telemedicine ).
Ideally, smart healthcare aims to analyze the effects of different treatments on patients with different symptoms and physical conditions through big data monitoring of patients’ medical data, in order to design personalized treatment plans. This would not only allow patients to receive the “most suitable” treatment, but more importantly, through AI analysis and automatic monitoring, medical staff could grasp the patient’s condition with less effort, significantly reducing the burden on medical personnel.
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Health data is being utilized through digital Martech to permeate everyday life.
Meanwhile, “smart care,” which is two sides of smart healthcare, has also expanded from being used by a few to permeating everyone’s lives, fueled by the pandemic. Compared to pharmaceutical research and development, which seems to be at the top of a giant tower, “smart care” is actually very close to us; we are all unconsciously monitoring our own health data. Look at the fitness app on your phone or the Apple Watch on your wrist—does it remind you to get up and exercise every day? This is also one of the widespread applications of health data and care.
With the widespread adoption of AI and Martech tools in the medical field, health data is no longer just static information. Utilizing this data brings many benefits to healthcare, including the following:
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Optimize personalized care:
Martech tools for personal/family healthcare can monitor patient (or caregiver) health data 24/7, including blood pressure, heart rate, and blood sugar levels, providing alerts and reducing the burden on caregivers. Data can also be transmitted back to care facilities for analysis. By understanding the patient’s physiological condition and combining it with medical history and other data, healthcare professionals can gain a deeper understanding of each patient’s prescription response, physiological and psychological needs, and adjust treatment plans during regular follow-up visits.
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Monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of adjunctive therapy:
After surgery, or adjustments to medication or rehabilitation methods, doctors need to follow up patients regularly for a period of time to determine the effectiveness and assess whether the treatment was helpful. This process typically takes weeks or months. If Martech can be used during these follow-up periods to import and cross-analyze various types of monitoring data, doctors can evaluate whether the treatment is meeting expectations within a shorter observation period.
Image source: Internet
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Streamline collaboration between healthcare institutions:
Patient health data (medical records, treatment monitoring data, records of purchasing medicines and health products, etc.) are shared through the medical Martech system, promoting seamless collaboration among medical teams. For example, during referrals, hospital transfers, or simultaneous treatment of different conditions, it can effectively help doctors avoid concerns about prescription incompatibilities. During patient hospitalizations and home treatment, close collaboration of data from different sources can prevent duplicate collection and transmission of information, improve the efficiency and communication of the medical team, and ensure that patients receive comprehensive and seamless care.
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Strengthening public participation in health management:
Martech in the medical field provides the general public with easy-to-understand ways to access health data and understand the relationships between data. This greatly helps to reduce the information gap between the public and professional doctors and nurses, enabling seamless communication, faster consensus on treatment decisions, improved treatment outcomes and satisfaction for both parties, and also helps to control medical costs and prevent waste.
Furthermore, the ability to easily access personal health information encourages the public to pay more attention to their own health and change their lifestyles. Monitoring one’s exercise, sleep quality, InBody, etc., through mobile phones or health devices has made health a trend; highly personalized health management helps people better understand themselves, achieve better physical and mental health, and prevent diseases; even more importantly, it encourages people to actively participate in medical matters related to themselves or the public, and the spontaneous participation of the public enables medical institutions to obtain more public health data, forming a positive information cycle.
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Future Trends: Martech will provide deeper and more multifunctional support for smart healthcare
Smart healthcare is rapidly developing in our lives, visibly entering the lives of ordinary people. As it matures, it is expected to promote the consumerization of healthcare services . The “personal/family healthcare Martech” mentioned earlier is actually one aspect of this consumerization: home healthcare.
The demand for home-based healthcare goes beyond simply connecting Martech monitoring data to hospitals and facilitating remote consultations. The most important goal is to bridge the gap in healthcare resources between urban and rural areas, ensuring everyone has access to a certain level of healthcare. For example, Halodoc , a home-based healthcare provider in Indonesia that partners with Amazon, offers a comprehensive service including online consultations, nutrition management, medication purchases, prescription follow-up reminders, home testing, and even medical insurance, catering to various specialties such as cardiology, diabetes, and obstetrics. This is the most easily understood and disseminated aspect of healthcare consumerization, and a promising business trend in recent years.
Image source: Internet
The development of AI Martech will bring more choices to individuals and healthcare institutions.
AI-assisted martech services simplify and streamline the process of collecting public health data for businesses and institutions, while simultaneously connecting various data sources to enable more comprehensive patient research. Furthermore, the general public can enjoy more comprehensive online and offline healthcare services. For example, during the pandemic, remote consultations, home delivery of rapid screening prescriptions, and case registration and tracking, sometimes even including health insurance subsidy applications—all these seemingly simple tasks requiring only a computer—are supported by a series of martech technologies. Beyond the obvious convenience, home healthcare and smart care also help reduce the risk of infectious disease spread and alleviate the administrative burden of large daily patient volumes in medical institutions.
In the future, as AI Martech continues to develop in a more refined and consumer-oriented manner, and with the increasing popularity of smart healthcare, we can expect more innovative medical solutions to emerge, bringing more progress to the health industry, providing more choices and opportunities for individuals and medical institutions, and driving the entire healthcare ecosystem towards a smarter and more burden-free direction.
References:
- A Quick Guide to Smart Healthcare: Understanding its Definition, Applications, and Challenges in Taiwan
- Research on Key Issues and Countermeasures in Smart Healthcare
- Reflections on the Development and Application of Big Data in Health and Medical Care (by Dai Tao)
- The National Health Insurance Administration and Quanta Computer signed an MOU to cooperate in developing AI-powered smart health insurance.
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