Maybe it’s time to follow the lead of banking and financial services in bringing a patient/customer-first experience to the sector. Pic supplied by Josh Ayscough.
Last week I attended Digital Health Festival in Melbourne, and it was a confronting experience.
The event itself was good; well attended across the healthcare ecosystem and there are always a few stars in the room – Five Faces, Corcillum Pty Ltd, Talking HealthTech, ANDHealth, Krystal Barter, Grace Lethlean – but behind some “vibes” sat five big issues for me:
No urgency.
The time is now for digital health and it’s the perfect environment for change but the discussions are about solutions in “years”.
Yes, health moves at the pace of trust to a degree, but action and adoption must happen now.
Confusion on “who pays?”
Putting aside the timeline of change, nobody is able to clearly articulate how change will be funded.
This was equal parts public sector, which has “no budget”, and private companies “hoping” someone will create a budget to pay for solutions.
Also in today’s edition:
- All quiet on the SDPR front as HNELHD goes live
- Coalition wants CGT inquiry before it backs NDIS reform
- Albury Wodonga Health chair announces departure
- CDC should run national ‘forever chemical’ biomonitoring program
- NSW launches strategy to eliminate HIV transmission by 2030
- TGA green light for first drug to slow type 1 diabetes
Building for a better yesterday.
I was shocked to hear the focus of health leaders was on fixing legacy and the problems of the past.
There is definitely a need to modernise a portion of legacy systems but if the sector wants to meet patient demand, simply going from 2003 technology to 2021 technologies is not success.
Yes, it’s a big leap forward but we must be building for the future.
“We’re building something ourselves”.
There are some great airline pilots out there but I don’t think there are many that would trust themselves to build the plane themselves.
The number of conversations about public and private organisations building their own foundational systems was striking.
With so much innovation coming out of private companies, it’s either arrogance or ignorance to think building custom systems in this environment is the best option.
Related
Digital health founders may not be able to stay the course.
Digital health is a long journey for most, and like any startup needs the Hustler.
What I saw in the DHF26 “Startup Zone” was very disappointing.
Passive founders waiting for people to approach, founders sitting down on the ground in the afternoon of day one and more than a third not bothering to turn up at all for day two.
Again, there are a few bucking this trend – shout out to Louis J Sisk from Doccy who was the best of the group – but more than half the founders I approached were not ready to “pitch”, didn’t have demos ready, no collateral/cards and didn’t seem like they wanted to be there.
Some of the above are easily fixed, others are systemic issues, but if digital health is to gain momentum, attract talent and investment, change needs to happen now.
The sector, the government and the people leading must bring a fresh outlook, find ways to more quickly adopt modern technology, partner with private companies and, as much as it pains me, follow the lead of banking and financial services in bringing a patient/customer-first experience to the sector.
Josh Ayscough is a partner in infrastructure services specialists Utiliti Group.
This article was first published on Mr Ayscough’s LinkedIn feed. Read the original article here.