“Continuing advances in digital health technology offer a powerful new toolset to transform how health care is delivered and experienced. However, the digitization of health care is not a simple task; technologies should be implemented only if they will improve care for individuals and the systems that care for them. Thoughtful hybrid approaches will define digitization efforts, and humans—patients, care partners, communities, and clinicians—must be included in these endeavors. Human factors engineering is critical for all technologies and even more so for health-related interventions.”
“Innovation Proliferation
The Veterans Health Administration (VHA), the largest health system in the US, uses thousands of digital health-related applications to care for more than nine million veterans annually across the country. The VHA’s systemwide innovation portfolio is replete with successful digital solutions ready for scale, with the COVID-19 pandemic driving broad adoption of new interoperative tools for information sharing, symptom screening, vaccinations, clinical trials, and clinical care. Flagship in-clinic initiatives include Project CONVERGENCE, a suite of software products to improve the quality and speed of health care delivery, harnessing the capabilities of one of the first 5G-enabled hospitals in the country.”
“The rapid pace of change spurred by the pandemic creates both new opportunities and risks in realizing the potential of digital health innovation. Opportunities include greater access to high-value care for patients, especially for underserved groups and those living in rural areas. Additionally, more and better data are available to support decision making and coordination of care for clinicians. However, these benefits come with the potential costs of needless duplication of effort, collection of conflicting information, and development of burdensome systems…”
“Human-Centered Design
Innovators pursuing digital solutions must keep the end goal in mind. If the purpose of digital health innovation is to better care for people and improve the systems that care for them, human-centered design approaches are critical.”
“Digital health tools must first be user-friendly, personal, and practical. They also must be affordable, easily accessible, and convenient, so that digital innovation advances efforts to democratize health care. Interventions also should be tailored for users’ cultural, physical, and environmental situations, including social determinants of health.”
“The only way to achieve these goals is to engage diverse stakeholders—including patients, providers, and payers—in the development of digital tools and systems. Furthermore, all parties must be involved in decisions about the ownership and use of the data collected, including patients’ access to their own health records…” Read the full article here.
Source: Putting Digital Health Innovation Into Practice: Learning From The VHA – By Ryan J. Vega, Jennifer C. Goldsack, Smit Patel, and Carolyn Clancy – February 22, 2022. Health Affairs.
