Many things are changing at faster pace than ever. Technology like cloud, mobile, internet of things(IoT), Artificial intelligence and Machine learning are fostering innovation. Impact of these developments are promising to make quality healthcare reach everyone who need it and at an affordable cost. Governments are also playing their part by creating and implementing healthcare schemes like Ayushman Bharat.
Here are some of the latest trends which an aspiring hospital and healthcare management MBA should know and track.
Patients are general require consultation from many specialist doctors. When he/she goes to his family doctor or primary care physician, he/she is advised for special consultation. Patient has to manage all this co-ordination by himself with multiple specialists. Here the real issue is that many of these specialists neither communicate with each other to the required extent nor they have access to the all the critical data and tests about the patient. Even the pricing is based on the procedure done or service provided which is referred to as fee-for-service model. Here the pricing is not dependent on the outcome and considers merely the service provided.
To alleviate issues with the above model, a new pricing or reimbursement model is emerging which is called value-based care. The Value-based care payment model are based on clinical outcomes. It provides a differential treatment for reimbursements depending on clinical quality and costs. In this model, doctors are more likely to follow the best practices. All the specialists coordinate and communicate better to produce better outcomes at lower cost for the patient. In the end, when successful, everyone participating in the team would benefit for providing better care. Thus the value-based care promises to deliver best quality care in most cost effective way.
Transition from fee based model to value based care has already started and it will stay and grow because of its own merits.
Spending on Artificial intelligence will continue to grow
Artificial Intelligence (AI) for healthcare IT Application will cross $1.7 billion by 2019 – Forbes
Technology of artificial intelligence and analytics is enabling better customer experience. It is expected that many workflows in the healthcare space would get automated on healthcare platforms. One of the many crucial issues in healthcare is a long waiting, sometimes in days, for the results of some clinical tests. With help of technology this long waiting can be eliminated. Different scans and imaging tests can be improved. With deep learning, some of the scans can be analyzed up to 150 times faster than current human radiologist.
Healthcare analytics
Healthcare industry has started adopting data analytics and big data solutions. More and more applications would be developed in the areas of investigation of drug utilization, eligibility for clinical trials, discrepancy in billing etc. Convergence of artificial intelligence and analytics would pave a pathway for more advanced analytics capabilities.
Growing role of Telemedicine
Today’s telemedicine technology is holding promise to make the healthcare available at distant, remote locations. With this technology, many lives can be saved. With telemedicine, specialist advice can easily be made available without the patient needing to leave his/her place or even fly across countries.
Acceptance of telemedicine is increasing. With help of telemedicine facilities barriers of geographical distance can be easily broken and medicines can be made available to everyone at lower cost. Number of patients using telemedicine has grown up to 7 million in 2018 in USA. Such facilities and its adoption is very crucial for country like India where the ratio of doctors per head considering the population are lower compared to the world standards.
Rising importance of population health management
Population Health Management (PHM) initiative aims at improving the health outcomes to a group individuals by identifying and monitoring them. To do this successfully comprehensive data about each patient is required. This needs aggregation of patient data which is stored across multiple healthcare systems into a single actionable electronic record. Using such data healthcare providers can monitor and try to improve the clinical outcomes and simultaneously lower the cost of treatment.
Healthcare providers are using multiple technologies to segment population of patients and treat their specific illnesses. The new emerging pricing model of Value-based care should encourage partnerships and integration amongst different healthcare providers. By using advanced technologies like predictive analytics, high risk patients can be identified and referred them to appropriate sources for further treatment.
Patient experience is the key
Consumerization is one of the important driving factors we have seen in the retail industry. Now it is entering in healthcare too. Managing experience of a patient is becoming more important.
In his life cycle, patient interacts with human as well as non-human or system elements. Human elements are doctors, nurses, hospital staff, physicians etc. Non-human elements are software and hardware systems like web portals, hospital management systems, medical apps, monitoring devices etc. Patient’s experience is comprised on all these experiences at various points of interactions. There is positive association of patient experience and healthcare processes and outcomes. For example, good communication between patient and healthcare service provider at all interaction points may lead to better clinical outcome, adherence by patient to the doctor’s advice and importantly lower chance of utilization of unnecessary tests or consultation.
Distance MBA in hospital and healthcare Management
There are some of the latest trends observed in healthcare space. An aspiring hospital and healthcare management professional pursuing distance MBA, should track these trends. This will help him understand how the environment is changing. Thus he can keep himself updated about innovations in technology and various other key aspects of healthcare domain. This knowledge will play a crucial in his/her career growth.
