By VINCE KURAITIS, GIRISH MURALIDHARAN & JODY RANCK
This entry is an element 3 of three within the sequence Platforming Healthcare — The Lengthy View. This essay is the subsequent within the sequence entitled “Platforming Healthcare — the Lengthy View”. The sequence presents a 30-Yr Framework for Platforming Healthcare. An up to date v2.0 of a graphic depicting this 30-Yr Framework is proven beneath.
This entry is an element 3 of three within the sequence Platforming Healthcare — The Lengthy View. This essay is the subsequent within the sequence entitled “Platforming Healthcare — the Lengthy View”. The sequence presents a 30-Yr Framework for Platforming Healthcare. An up to date v2.0 of a graphic depicting this 30-Yr Framework is proven above.
In the present day’s submit will describe and focus on a possible successor to the EHR period — Unified Digital Well being Platforms (UDHPs). Right here’s an outline:
- Background and Environmental Tendencies
- Gartner’s Key Function in Characterizing the UDHP Motion
- UDHP Worth Propositions
- Examples of UDHPs
Later this week THCB will run the second part which is able to embody evaluation of the Mayo Clinic Platform.
Healthcare is fragmented. Knowledge just isn’t standardized and has existed in silos. Sufferers and clinicians have disjointed experiences. Cost constructions create conflicting incentives.
Digital Well being Data (EHRs) had been as soon as touted as the important thing resolution for reworking healthcare to a contemporary, digitally-enabled business. But, they proceed to frustrate clinicians with poor UI/UX and largely fulfill a main function as a system of report to doc claims submissions.
Latest technological and enterprise tendencies have begun reworking healthcare right into a extra unified and built-in expertise:
- HITECH (within the U.S.) drove the adoption of digital well being information throughout the business
- Requirements-compliant information fashions and APIs throughout varied options are permitting third-party integrations so as to add new performance
- Worth-based care (VBC) and value-based cost (VBP) fashions incentivize bettering high quality relatively than maximizing fee-for-service volumes
- AI’s emergence and adoption in healthcare fuels the necessity for extra – and higher – information and information liquidity.
- New opponents in healthcare (Large Tech, Large Retail, digital well being ventures) compete primarily based on bettering affected person expertise, advancing VBC and VBP fashions, and built-in information and analytics
- Accessible cloud computing infrastructure is enabling a plethora of **-as-a-Service enterprise fashions
Healthcare organizations need built-in options, no more level options. See the earlier weblog submit on this sequence — “Past Consciousness: Understanding the Magnitude of Level Resolution Fatigue in Healthcare”.
The tendencies and forces listed above open the door and create the necessity for a brand new class of enterprise software program – Unified Digital Well being Platforms (UDHPs).
A December 2022 Gartner Market Information report characterised the long-term potential:
The DHP shift will emerge as essentially the most cost-effective and technically environment friendly method to scale new digital capabilities inside and throughout well being ecosystems and can, over time, substitute the dominant period of the monolithic digital well being report (EHR).
Whereas Gartner makes use of the time period “Digital Well being Platform (DHP), we use the time period “Unified Digital Well being Platform” as a result of 1) it’s extra descriptive of the structure and its capabilities, and a pair of) it distinguishes UDHPs from the 1000’s of different digital well being platforms that adjust extremely in perform.
The DHP Reference Structure is illustrated in a weblog submit by Higher. Be aware that UDHPs are depicted as “sitting on high” of EHRs and different siloed sources of well being information:
Gartner continues to replace its market stories on UDHPs. An April 2024 replace is entitled: “Innovation Perception: Digital Well being Platforms Speed up Transformation”. As of the date of publishing this weblog submit, Altera is providing a complimentary copy of Gartner’s 2024 report on UDHPs.
This weblog submit is meant to focus extra on the enterprise and technique implications of UDHPs. We strongly suggest studying Gartner’s April 2024 report on UDHPs to achieve a extra technical perspective.
Gartner additionally gives an up to date (however not exhaustive) listing of UDHPs:
- AWS HealthLake by Amazon Internet Companies
- Higher Platform by Higher
- DrCloud EHR by EnSoftek
- Engagement Rx by Avidon Well being
- Edison Intelligence Platform by GE Healthcare
- Google Cloud Healthcare Knowledge Engine by Google
- IBM Well being Insights and IBM Watson Annotator for Medical Knowledge by IBM
- Healthshare and Intersystems IRIS for Well being by Intersystems
- Kyruus Join by Kyruus Well being
- Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare by Microsoft
- Miya Precision by Alcidion
- Philips Healthsuite Digital Platform by Philips
- SAS Well being by SAS
- ServiceNow Healthcare and Life Sciences Companies Administration by ServiceNow
We’ll add our personal candidates to the listing:
- Epic EMR by Epic
- Well being Intelligence Platform by vitagroup
- Innovacer Well being Cloud by Innovacer
- Nucleus for Healthcare by NTTDATA
- Oracle Well being EHR by Oracle
- Salesforce Well being Cloud by Salesforce
- SAP Well being Knowledge Companies for FHIR by SAP
- othersTBD?
The UDHP development is in very early phases. In its April 2024 report, Gartner estimates that the market is barely 5% penetrated and that UDHP adoption will take 5 to 10 years.
As of at present, the capabilities of UDHP choices aren’t uniform. In an early market, it isn’t uncommon that early choices from corporations will differ. We’ll focus on some attainable ramifications within the part beneath on “Enterprise and Strategic Implications of UDHPs”.
It’s attainable that UDHP adoption will transfer extra rapidly in nations exterior the U.S. Within the U.S., Epic and Cerner have a lock on well being methods and are trying to change into UDHPs themselves.
Within the appendix on the finish of the submit, we’ve supplied a listing of assets to clarify UDHPs additional.
UDHPs promise a variety of potential worth propositions:
- Enhancing medical care and unifying presently fragmented affected person and clinician experiences
- Overcoming the restrictions of at present’s EHRs, e.g.,
- Standardizing information fashions throughout EHRs and digital well being apps
- Facilitating bi-directional information circulate
- Supplying low code/no code instruments to handle workflow and processes throughout care groups, together with sufferers
- Creating marketplaces for revolutionary third get together apps
- Capturing new, revolutionary sources of knowledge, e.g., regarding social determinants of well being, patient-generated information, psychographic information, and so forth.
- Providing modular, composable architectures
- Enabling a typical infrastructure to unify at present’s disparate point-solution choices
- Offering aggressive benefit. We’ll focus on this extra extensively beneath.
We’ll present a few case research as an instance how UDHPs are being developed and deployed:
- A vendor case examine of the ServiceNow UDHP
- A healthcare supplier case examine on UDHP deployment – the Mayo Clinic Platform
We invite different UDHP distributors to contribute a substantive visitor submit describing their providing and the way clients deploy it. (Write to Vince vincek@bhtinfo for particulars.)
Case Research: ServiceNow’s Unified Digital Well being Platform in Healthcare Operations
One instance of a UDHP in observe is ServiceNow’s digital well being platform. This case examine examines its structure, customization capabilities, and real-world purposes inside healthcare supplier settings.
ServiceNow’s UDHP Structure and Key Parts
As proven within the diagram beneath, ServiceNow’s digital well being platform is structured to combine a number of healthcare workflows whereas making certain compliance and safety. The platform is constructed on a multi-layered structure that features:
- Knowledge Layer: A centralized repository for structured and unstructured healthcare information, making certain accessibility and accuracy throughout methods.
- Safety Layer: Offers compliance frameworks and safety controls to guard delicate affected person info and cling to regulatory requirements.
- Utility Layer: Hosts varied healthcare purposes comparable to digital well being information (EHR), affected person engagement instruments, and supplier workflow administration.
- Infrastructure Layer: Cloud-based and on-premises options to help scalability, availability, and interoperability throughout a number of healthcare methods.
The layered strategy permits healthcare organizations to combine present IT methods whereas adopting new digital well being options.
Customized Workflow Capabilities: Enhancing Operational Effectivity
One of many key benefits of ServiceNow’s UDHP is its functionality to help customized workflows tailor-made to the wants of healthcare suppliers. Customized workflows permit organizations to automate and optimize processes past normal out-of-the-box options.
Instance: Customized Workflow for Clinician Onboarding
A standard problem in healthcare is the complexity of onboarding new clinicians, particularly in giant hospital networks. Conventional onboarding processes contain a number of departments, together with HR, IT, and credentialing groups, usually resulting in inefficiencies.
Utilizing ServiceNow’s workflow automation instruments, a healthcare group can create a custom-made onboarding course of that:
- Automates Credential Verification: Integrates with third-party verification providers to make sure compliance earlier than a clinician begins training.
- Coordinates IT Provisioning: Routinely assigns required methods entry, together with EHR permissions and safe messaging platforms.
- Tracks Onboarding Progress: Offers real-time visibility to HR and division managers, lowering administrative delays.
By implementing a structured digital workflow, healthcare organizations can speed up onboarding instances, scale back administrative workload, and improve compliance monitoring.
Printed Examples of ServiceNow’s UDHP in Healthcare Suppliers
A number of healthcare organizations have deployed ServiceNow’s platform to deal with operational inefficiencies and enhance service supply. The next examples spotlight how UDHP capabilities have been utilized in several healthcare settings.
- Novant Well being: Decreasing Administrative Bottlenecks
Novant Well being carried out ServiceNow to streamline IT service administration and automate healthcare workflows. By leveraging UDHP capabilities, the group improved system uptime and decreased delays in affected person care brought on by IT-related points. Automated workflows ensured that clinicians had speedy entry to obligatory methods, lowering time spent on administrative requests.
- Sentara Healthcare: Digital Workflow Optimization
Sentara Healthcare used ServiceNow’s digital workflows to combine varied operational processes throughout its community of hospitals and outpatient facilities. The platform enabled real-time monitoring of apparatus upkeep requests, employees allocation, and affected person coordination, resulting in elevated effectivity in care supply.
- Elara Caring: Standardizing Processes Throughout A number of Areas
Elara Caring, a house healthcare supplier, confronted challenges in managing affected person referrals, caregiver scheduling, and compliance documentation. By adopting ServiceNow’s UDHP, Elara Caring unified these processes right into a single workflow, lowering errors and bettering total affected person service coordination.
Conclusion
ServiceNow’s UDHP illustrates the potential of digital platforms in optimizing healthcare workflows, bettering operational effectivity, and making certain compliance. By leveraging structured information, automation, and customized workflows, healthcare organizations can adapt the platform to their distinctive operational wants.
As extra healthcare suppliers shift in the direction of digital transformation, UDHPs will play a important function in bridging gaps between conventional healthcare IT methods and rising digital well being improvements.
Vince Kuraitis JD/MBA is an impartial guide with over 35 years’ expertise throughout 150+ healthcare & tech corporations. He publishes The Healthcare Platform Weblog, the place this submit first appeared. Girish Muralidharan was an SVP at GE Healthcare till April 2024 and held a wide range of Government enterprise administration roles throughout Imaging gear, tech enabled providers, digital platforms & options over the past 2 many years.Dr. Jody Ranck is a researcher with over 30 years of expertise in international and home US well being expertise and coated AI, information analytics, and SDoH with Chilmark Analysis.
