Future of Healthcare Needs Global Standardizaion of Care: Expert Panel at Davos

"The management and delivery of healthcare in the hospital of the future will be driven by big data and powered by artificial intelligence and this trend is going to get bigger and better," according to the panel of experts that discussed the 'Hospital of the Future' at the concluding day of the 47^th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum at the Congress Centre in Davos.

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The panelists in the discussion included Dr. Shamsheer Vayalil, Founder & Managing Director of VPS Healthcare; Sean Duffy, Co-founder & CEO of Omada Health; Dr. Elizabeth Nabel, President of Brigham and Women's Healthcare; Thomas DeRosa, CEO of Welltower USA; Sarah Doherty, Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer of TeleHealthRobotics and Dr. David B. Agus, Professor of Medicine & Engineering at the University of Southern California.

Noting significant transformations affecting the world and the advances made in healthcare, the panel was tasked to find answers about the emerging technologies that would impact the way of healthcare delivery in the future. Dr. Shamsheer said, "As almost every expert agrees, data is the new oil, the new currency and healthcare industry is already using this and moving towards sustainable, accessible and affordable delivery model."

With the advancements in technology, it is imperative that digital health records be standardized and the interoperability of data is going to play a major role in the future of healthcare delivery.

"We would like to take healthcare delivery systems as much in to the homes and in to the communities as possible because we believe we can deliver better care at lower costs. If you believe in value-based healthcare, the definition being patient measured outcomes defined by cost. We believe that outcomes will be better delivered in the homes and communities rather than hospitals," said Dr. Elizabeth Nabel.

Healthcare industry has been a bit slower to embrace the digital revolution as compared to others. There is a lack of uniformity across technology systems and these self-created silos are creating confusion, errors, redundancy, missed opportunities, and waste.

"The healthcare industry is very risk averse because of the issues of quality and safety. There has to be some disruption in the industry but I believe the disruption in healthcare will come from outside the industry because we still tend to think very conventionally. We need to come up with new ideas, new technologies that will lead to disruptions else we won't see a hospital of the future. We need a change across the globe, a change which can make things work," added Dr. Shamsheer.

Digitization continues to be at the heart of change in healthcare delivery and has led to the introduction of complex technical systems across the globe.

"Privacy is going to be a big issue because of cyber security. We need to encrypt data. As we know, a single stolen EHR is valued at 100 times that of a stolen credit card, so we need to be careful about online security," said Dr. Shamsheer.  

On the curative side, hospitals & clinics are becoming increasingly aware of the pivotal role of hospitality & service culture in the patient experience and the impact on the bottom-line. On the preventive & recovery side, hotels & resorts are increasingly improving their health & wellness services for their guests.

"It is an exciting time to be in healthcare. Medicine is becoming more democratized and patients are already pushing health systems to innovate and to collaborate with them," said Sean Duffy.

"The hospital of the future will only be used for catastrophic care with individuals using the quantified self with sophisticated artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to create the best possible scenarios for their health. I for one, am excited to be a part of this brave new world and believe that a broad based revolution in healthcare is just on the horizon," added Dr. Shamsheer.

SOURCE VPS Healthcare