(Jotting down quick thoughts as I finish a day of a workshop on digital health at Wintec where I’ve spent the week as part of a 2 week speaking tour of New Zealand. )
- So many challenges in the healthcare sector have nothing whatsoever to do with tech. This is a challenge for anyone selling ‘smart health’ solutions. Policy, process and community issues were gnarly issues that don’t have technology solutions attached to them.
- The US’s engagement with digital platforms is looked at as a model which I find frightening. Most Americans are absolutely shaped in their daily life and career choices by their ability to have access to healthcare. This means they are much more likely to be glued to their digital healthcare records than in any other country.
- Patient versus patient(s). It’s difficult to think of patient-centric care when you don’t provide care to one person at a time as part of a service. The model is both the challenges of a factory (people, access to the right tools & resources & managing that access) but also a community (how to you manage staff energy, teamwork, patient trust). They are two competing models.
- (Related) Who really is the user? The doctors? The nursing & support staff? The patient? Everyone’s needs matters here. But their needs are all really different and competing.
Unless we can address some of these I don’t think we’ll find the right tech tools.