The Asean region is developing fast and
lifestyles are changing, but healthcare services are not keeping pace and the
sector will be stretched
Southeast
Asia is home to more than 600 million people – a population bigger than that of
the European Union or North America. It had a combined GDP of $2.4tn in 2013
and is projected to be the world’s fourth largest economy by 2050.
Yet,
according to a report by Deloitte, there is a sad reality about this region as
far as healthcare is concerned: “Health is a striking example where least
progress has been made in Asia, despite the high economic growth and great
success in poverty reduction.”
Consistent
economic growth since the 1970s has increased the average life expectancy in
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). In 2012, average life
expectancy was 73 years – an increase of eight years since 1990.
However,
the region faces many health challenges. By 2020, citizens above 65 will number
46 million – 7.8% of the total Asean population. Meanwhile, chronic diseases
such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases are
becoming more prevalent due to sedentary lifestyles as Asean nations get
richer. Asia-Pacific is predicted to have the greatest number of NCD
(non-communicable, or non-infectious, diseases) deaths by 2020.
Can Asean countries address these mounting health
challenges? The answer is yes, according to the Deloitte report, with the aid
of technology such as digital healthcare delivery systems, wearable and mobile
health applications, and business intelligence (BI) tools.
How BI can improve healthcare delivery
“Just
like other organisations, hospitals and clinics are overflowing with data, be
it operations and financial data or quality metrics and patient information,”
said JY Pook, senior vice-president, Apac, at visual analytics company Tableau.
“Data in
general is an underutilised asset if it is not being leveraged to solve an
organisation’s challenges and lead to meaningful insights. The same goes for
the healthcare industry that can utilise data to reduce costs, enhance quality
and improve the overall patient experience. This is especially crucial for
Asia, as an ageing population, growing life expectancy and a larger middle
class have increased the demands for healthcare in the region.”
According
to healthcare research agency HIMSS Asia-Pacific, BI is about past and current
data that can help organisations decide what to do about present operational
concerns. Hospitals can use BI to gain insights from customer, financial and
operational data to make more informed decisions, resulting in more efficiency,
effectiveness and cost savings.
Harnessing the value of patient data
Deloitte
predicted in its report that Asean countries will have implemented electronic
medical records and advanced hospital information systems by 2020.
This
healthcare data will be used for many purposes, including to improve outcomes
of healthcare services and drug effectiveness, to use big data to advance
national health insurance, and to co-operate with regional bodies to allow
regional surveillance of health risk factors.
In its
report, Deloitte made the following observations for Asean nations, based on
current technology trends:
Information
and communications technology will become more pervasive in healthcare.
Big data
will be used for population health management.
The
industry will employ the secondary use of electronic medical record
(EMR)/electronic health record (EHR) data, next-generation sequencing (NGS)
informatics and analytics, medical imaging and informatics, and remote patient
monitoring.
Electronic
health records and advanced hospital information systems will be in place.
New
measurements will be developed to encourage the shift to electronic medical
records and other e-vital statistics.
The
health sector will have the right data for monitoring and evaluating health
services and for improving disease surveillance across borders.
Technology
will offer valuable opportunities to provide cost-efficient solutions for
health service delivery.
Asean
will leapfrog to new technology applications in mobile and e-health.
Some
new-world technologies are already at work in the Asean region. For example,
Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Hospital has deployed social integrated networks,
using iPhone apps and Facebook. These applications connect with potential
customers, and drive traffic to the hospital website for appointment bookings.
In hospital
payments, the InfoComm Development Authority of Singapore has initiated a
near-field communications (NFC) roll-out plan that allows medication to be
purchased via NFC-enabled phones.
Deloitte
reported that some countries are piloting wireless health trackers which rely
on big data. These pilots are believed to be effective as the mobile
penetration rate across Asia is already 82% and growing.
BI is already making a difference
“A large
number of healthcare companies – particularly those in the retail healthcare
space, such as pharmacies – are increasingly using BI, transforming aggregated
raw data, and using it as a powerful tool to drive business decisions,” said
Snehal Patel, director of corporate strategy at MyDoc.
“The role
of data analytics is, in turn, driving the next iterations of product
development. Mining and running analytical processing on all data amassed by
healthcare companies is, however, still something of a novelty in Asian
markets.”
According
to Patel, who is a qualified medical doctor, large corporations, including
insurance companies, are already helping to incentivise customers to share
their health data in exchange for discounts.
One
example is AIA’s Vitality programme. It transitioned from being a pure
wellness, incentive-driven programme to a science-backed one that offers
consumers more personalisation in their plans. It also serves as a great
example of an initiative born from the company’s own collected data.
According to Tableau’s Pook, the healthcare industry has
become one of the main beneficiaries of BI. For example, Intellipharm in
Australia is using BI to help more than 4,000 pharmacies make intelligent,
data-driven decisions, by taking huge volumes of data and representing them in
a meaningful format.
Allergan,
a multi-specialty healthcare company that operates in more than 100 countries,
providing treatment options for patients in eye care, neurosciences, obesity
intervention, medical aesthetics, medical dermatology and urologics, has been
using BI tools to improve speed, efficiency and insight into the business.
“Ultimately,
healthcare practitioners in Asia and all over the world are realising more and
more that the sheer volume of data they have access to will only be of use to
them with the help of BI tools. It is also the answer to help them advance
within the industry,” said Pook.
“In the
near future, we will also see a greater shift towards smart healthcare, with
the region’s smart city/nation initiatives in place. Consumers will have more
access to their healthcare information, through smart devices and e-learning or
apps, and healthcare institutions will focus even more on data collection and
analytics. Healthcare in Asia will only continue to improve with technology and
BI,” he concluded.
Zafar
Anjum
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