Comment: What does the Industrial Internet mean for healthcare?

In this article, KARL BLIGHT. General manager for GE Healthcare UK & Ireland, explains what the Industrial Internet means for the healthcare marketplace

The global healthcare system is facing unprecedented challenges, with demographic changes increasing demand and financial constraints forcing clinicians to do more with less. It is thus extremely important that we are able to both implement efficiencies while also widening patient access.

As demands on the global healthcare system increase and resources get scarcer, it is imperative that we identify and implement more efficient ways of providing high quality healthcare, for more people, at lower cost

The Industrial Internet which sees a synthesis of intelligent machines and big data analytics is a catalyst for such a productivity revolution and there is perhaps no other sector that could benefit more from such a revolution than healthcare. As demands on the global healthcare system increase and resources get scarcer, it is imperative that we identify and implement more efficient ways of providing high-quality healthcare, for more people, at lower cost.

The Industrial Internet can be applied to the world of global healthcare in a number of ways to help enable safe, efficient operations and improved productivity. In fact, it has been estimated that a 1% reduction in healthcare system inefficiencies around the world could lead to a significant $63billion saving over 15 years.

Arguably, the healthcare sector is the last major sector to be transformed by Big Data. By analysing data healthcare can move away from the short-term and inefficient treating of each health event in isolation to a more patient-centric and sustainable approach that takes longer-term factors into consideration. As more and more healthcare data is collected and analysed clinicians will have greater access to information that can assist them in making the most-appropriate decision.

For example, a key application for big data analysis is in the sphere of personalised medicine. By enabling the identification of individuals that are prone to certain diseases it can help to determine which treatments they are likely to respond to. This places a new interpretation on the concept of a drug being just 20% effective, for example. It doesn’t necessarily mean it is only effective 20% of the time. Instead, it could be 100% effective with 20% of patients. Being able to match the right patient to the right drug can therefore drive clinical productivity, ultimately achieving improved health outcomes and wider access to appropriate healthcare for patients.

By analysing data healthcare can move away from the short-term and inefficient treating of each health event in isolation to a more patient-centric and sustainable approach that takes longer-term factors into consideration

The Industrial Internet is also seen in data simulation tools that draw upon game theory to help healthcare professionals make the optimal use of scarce resources. By understanding future demographic, economic and epidemiological trends, we can help predict the demands that will be placed on health services and help planners build hospitals in the right place for the right price and fill them with the right equipment so that the most people can live longer and have better lives. Such a system is currently being tested in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh that has used big data analytics to help it simulate the expansion of cardiovascular disease diagnosis and treatment to best identify where to locate treatment centres. As much of the developing world faces similar challenges, the potential for big data widening patient access in these areas is an enticing one for political decision makers.

Resource allocation on a smaller scale is also an important driver in achieving 1% efficiencies across healthcare. Reducing the time patients spend in hospitals by eliminating unnecessary repeat tests and increasing adherence to hospital protocols, while also monitoring patients once they are discharged to prevent readmission, are all important aspects of promoting productivity.