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Dec 10

Healthcare: What Lies Ahead? – Lexology

Exercise Programs Comments Off on Healthcare: What Lies Ahead? – Lexology

Living with a limited number of people, reducing social interactions and adapting our homes for working and nursing purposes amongst other adaptations have become our norm. Whilst the recent announcements of the successful phase III COVID-19 vaccine results by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have given us a glimmer of hope to return back to our pre-COVID life, there is no denying that there has been an unprecedented change to what one might now consider a normal life. After COVID, the new normal of working from home and nursing from home will most likely continue and potentially become the new status quo.

The continued threat of the COVID-19 pandemic has made the public generally more aware about one's own health and one's own ability to keep themselves healthy and to manage and monitor their health with minimal visits to hospital and clinics.

There is no denying that the telemedicine ecosystem, supported by high caliber medical devices and AI/Big Data platforms, has been fast-tracked during the outbreak of the pandemic. This raises the question if there will be a decline in patients receiving Hospital Outpatient care (OPD) and Hospital Inpatient care (IPD) from hospitals with these new services available in the new normal.

COVID-19 has accelerated digital health innovations, such as telemedicine or medical digital health platforms, enabling patients and caretakers to access support remotely. In just under one year, the Thai government, as well as other relevant healthcare professional associations, have come up with the relevant infrastructures to support this new environment. Ethical and practice guidelines have been issued to aid healthcare professionals to conduct consultations with their patients through relevant digital platforms. See some more details about these development via this link.

Digital health platforms are here to stay and hospital operators are fully aware of the tremendous potential and benefits telemedicine can offer, not only for patients, but also for hospital operators. Additionally, we have seen the growing popularity of a more health conscious lifestyle, which may result in the decline of people turning to hospitals for care. In response to these lifestyle changes, we have already seen hospital operators adapt to these new trends by providing services to patients for their well-being in place of medical treatment. For example, many major groups of private hospitals have started wellness/health promotion facilities. The facilities may combine annual health checks with personalized vitamin and nutrition supplies as well as personalized exercise programs. Some of them may also add nutrition and exercise lessons and training in the package as part of wellness retreat at the hospital's designated facilities.

While it is clear that the number of IPD patients might not drop in the near future, given the new trend of the public integrating the management of their own health and medical needs into their everyday life digitally, the question for private hospitals/clinics which plan to expand their operations will be whether acquiring a major group of hospitals with a large supply of beds and general health treatment for IPD and OPD will be the way to go.

The new report just launched by Baker McKenzie, Hyper-Hybridity: Defining a New Era of Digital Health Innovation in Asia Pacific, discusses collaborations and partnerships as a way to harness the collective ecosystem to build new solutions and systems. According to the report which surveyed over 700 respondents in the healthcare and life sciences, technology and financial sectors that are responsible for developing, operationalizing and financing digital health solutions in Asia Pacific, 72% of digital health players believe a radical rethink of how innovation is organized, funded and scaled is required to meet demand for new solutions, and 74% of digital health players suggest greater collaboration across the healthcare ecosystem would significantly accelerate progress.

Along the line of this new model of hybridity, hospitals and healthcare or wellness centers will be an integrated platform that serves the needs of tech-savvy patients and a more digitally managed lifestyle will become the norm of our future living, and should be judged by solutions to modern life but not the number of beds or even the number of physicians. A new future solution may be a smaller sized facility in terms of beds but with full supportive functions such as laboratories, research centers, infectious disease units, and nutrition and wellness centers. These so called back office functions could even be run by a third party with their own technology and specialists. Outsourcing enablement functions will of course have potential issues to manage but for certain will make for a leaner and less costly operation. When it comes to business expansion, the acquisition strategy of healthcare/hospital operators may no longer be to expand the number of beds but rather to focus on the integration of other ecosystem players which will enhance the delivery of medical and wellness services that offer the future health solutions. This new model is likely to be smaller, less costly but offer full functions with comprehensive benefits, as far as patients are concerned.

Continued here:
Healthcare: What Lies Ahead? - Lexology

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