Better: How digital transformation can improve the work of medical teams

Reflecting on their report, Better Ltd, a European provider of digital health solutions based on an open-data platform, has published a paper on how digital transformation can help improve the work of medical teams

Both documents discuss approaches on how to overcome the technological challenges associated with the support of new models of care.

Healthcare organisations are under constant pressure to improve patient flow, reduce patient risk and provide better patient care. The situation of COVID-19 further increased the need to change models of care. In this new environment, medical teams are under constant stress to make timely, accurate and safe decisions. They are constantly losing time and are at risk of making poor decisions due to the fragmentation of information and multiple patient data sources.

In order to address these challenges successfully, healthcare organisations must adopt new models of care and fundamentally change their current approach to digital technology. The focus should be on the data that needs to be stored and governed independently of the applications that created it. Rachel Dunscombe, CEO of the Seveso Digital Academy, remarked, “Data is for life, not just for one system. If we consider that as a principle, we will design and acquire systems differently.”

According to Aloha McBride of Ernst & Young, an open platform environment is needed to connect and share data on a scale, within and between businesses and systems. The optimal platform will separate content and technology and be vendor-neutral, distributed and modular – incorporating both third-party and legacy systems.

Hospitals, research institutions and regional and national healthcare systems across 15 countries have already implemented an open-data approach. This approach proved to be effective during the COVID-19 pandemic, since it enabled medical teams to respond quickly to new circumstances.