Healthcare without bounds: towards proactive care

Every day, healthcare moves forward. Yet even the most advanced healthcare networks can be more integrated. Systems need to be able to talk to each other. Data needs to be available when and where decisions need to be made. At Philips, we help create seamless solutions that connect people, technology and data across the care continuum.

When Arizona-based healthcare group Banner Health realised that just 5% of US patients account for 50% of the nation’s total healthcare spend^[i], they set themselves a tough challenge: to reduce costs and improve the outcomes of patients with multiple co-morbidities. Within six months, costs of care were cut by 27% and hospitalisations down by 45%^[ii].

Remote access to doctors

How did they do it? By using an approach that in the recent Future Health Index (FHI) research physicians commented on is one of the three most important innovations in healthcare technology: greater access to doctors remotely^[iii]. Thanks to a combination of connected devices and data analytics, a Banner team uses a platform and clinical program from Philips to monitor the vital statistics of Banner’s chronically ill patients in their own homes, and can use live, 2-way video to deal with emergencies around the clock.

Banner is not alone in needing to find new paths to better care. In Australia, we’ve been working with West Moreton Hospital and Health Service on a program to proactively manage patients with multiple chronic conditions in their home. The partnership is a great indication of the potential for new models of care enabled by connected health technology and personalised behavioural change approaches to improve the health and wellbeing of chronically ill patients.

Enabling collaboration between clinicians and patients

Topping the list of innovations that healthcare professionals believe will have a positive impact on people taking care of their health isn’t a solution designed for patients to use — it’s for the healthcare professionals themselves. An impressive 32% of physicians surveyed ranked accessible, secure information-sharing platforms between healthcare professionals as having the most impact^[iv].

This comes as no surprise, since patients often see multiple specialists and have various tests and procedures performed in different areas of the hospital. This makes it hard for the various physicians to collaborate and get a fully integrated view of how to manage an individual patient’s health. At the same time, patients are burdened with having to recall their care journey and test results. Both would benefit from a more collaborative and holistic approach to care.

At Philips, we’re committed to streamline the ways clinicians share knowledge, in real time and all the time. And we’re using advanced analytics to illuminate the full picture of the patient to deliver more personalised and actionable insights. At the end of the day, our core focus is to break the boundaries standing in the way of organsing healthcare around the patient to deliver better outcomes. And if those outcomes can be achieved by finding smarter ways to provide the right care in the right place at the right time and minimise hospital stays, everyone benefits.

There’s no limit to what we can do together. Because today health knows no bounds, and neither should healthcare.

www.philips.com/nobounds

[i]Cohen, S. and Yu, W. The Concentration and Persistence in the Level of Health Expenditures over Time: Estimates for the U.S. Population, 2008–2009. Statistical Brief #354. January 2012. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD

[ii]https://www.usa.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/news/press/2015/20150405_Philips_Telehealth.html

[iii]When asked what innovation in healthcare technology they think will have the most positive impact on citizens in their country taking care of their health, 20% of cardiologists voted for “greater access to doctors remotely”. Source: https://www.futurehealthindex.com/report/2017/

[iv]When asked what innovation in healthcare technology they think will have the most positive impact on citizens in their country taking care of their health, 32% of cardiologists voted for “accessible, secure information sharing platforms between healthcare professionals”. Source: https://www.futurehealthindex.com/report/2017/