By VINCE KURAITIS, GIRISH MURALIDHARAN & JODY RANCK
This entry is an element 3 of three within the collection Platforming Healthcare — The Long View. This essay is the subsequent within the collection entitled “Platforming Healthcare — the Lengthy View”. The collection presents a 30-12 months Framework for Platforming Healthcare. An up to date v2.0 of a graphic depicting this 30-12 months Framework is proven under.
This entry is an element 3 of three within the collection Platforming Healthcare — The Long View. This essay is the subsequent within the collection entitled “Platforming Healthcare — the Lengthy View”. The collection presents a 30-12 months Framework for Platforming Healthcare. An up to date v2.0 of a graphic depicting this 30-12 months Framework is proven above.
In the present day’s publish 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 Developments
- 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 can embrace evaluation of the Mayo Clinic Platform.
Healthcare is fragmented. Knowledge will not be standardized and has existed in silos. Sufferers and clinicians have disjointed experiences. Cost constructions create conflicting incentives.
Digital Well being Information (EHRs) had been as soon as touted as the important thing resolution for remodeling healthcare to a contemporary, digitally-enabled trade. But, they proceed to frustrate clinicians with poor UI/UX and largely fulfill a main position as a system of file to doc claims submissions.
Latest technological and enterprise traits have begun remodeling 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 trade
- Requirements-compliant knowledge fashions and APIs throughout numerous options are permitting third-party integrations so as to add new performance
- Worth-based care (VBC) and value-based fee (VBP) fashions incentivize bettering high quality fairly than maximizing fee-for-service volumes
- AI’s emergence and adoption in healthcare fuels the necessity for extra – and higher – knowledge and knowledge liquidity.
- New rivals in healthcare (Large Tech, Large Retail, digital well being ventures) compete based mostly on bettering affected person expertise, advancing VBC and VBP fashions, and built-in knowledge 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 previous blog post on this collection — “Past Consciousness: Understanding the Magnitude of Level Resolution Fatigue in Healthcare”.
The traits 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 probably the most cost-effective and technically environment friendly technique 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 file (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 hundreds of different digital well being platforms that fluctuate extremely in operate.
The DHP Reference Structure is illustrated in a blog post by Better. Notice that UDHPs are depicted as “sitting on prime” of EHRs and different siloed sources of well being knowledge:
Gartner continues to replace its market experiences 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 publish, Altera is providing a complimentary copy of Gartner’s 2024 report on UDHPs.
This weblog publish 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 realize a extra technical perspective.
Gartner additionally offers an up to date (however not exhaustive) list of UDHPs:
- AWS HealthLake by Amazon Net 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 Scientific 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 simply 5% penetrated and that UDHP adoption will take 5 to 10 years.
As of right this moment, the capabilities of UDHP choices should not 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 under on “Enterprise and Strategic Implications of UDHPs”.
It’s attainable that UDHP adoption will transfer extra shortly in international locations outdoors the U.S. Within the U.S., Epic and Cerner have a lock on well being programs and try to develop into UDHPs themselves.
Within the appendix on the finish of the publish, we’ve supplied an inventory of sources to clarify UDHPs additional.
UDHPs promise a spread of potential worth propositions:
- Bettering medical care and unifying presently fragmented affected person and clinician experiences
- Overcoming the constraints of right this moment’s EHRs, e.g.,
- Standardizing knowledge fashions throughout EHRs and digital well being apps
- Facilitating bi-directional knowledge move
- Supplying low code/no code instruments to handle workflow and processes throughout care groups, together with sufferers
- Creating marketplaces for modern third social gathering apps
- Capturing new, modern sources of knowledge, e.g., regarding social determinants of well being, patient-generated knowledge, psychographic knowledge, and many others.
- Providing modular, composable architectures
- Enabling a typical infrastructure to unify right this moment’s disparate point-solution choices
- Offering aggressive benefit. We’ll focus on this extra extensively under.
We’ll present a few case research for example how UDHPs are being developed and deployed:
- A vendor case research of the ServiceNow UDHP
- A healthcare supplier case research on UDHP deployment – the Mayo Clinic Platform
We invite different UDHP distributors to contribute a substantive visitor publish describing their providing and the way clients deploy it. (Write to Vince vincek@bhtinfo for particulars.)
Case Examine: 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 research 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 below, ServiceNow’s digital well being platform is structured to combine a number of healthcare workflows whereas guaranteeing compliance and safety. The platform is constructed on a multi-layered structure that features:
- Knowledge Layer: A centralized repository for structured and unstructured healthcare knowledge, guaranteeing accessibility and accuracy throughout programs.
- Safety Layer: Gives compliance frameworks and safety controls to guard delicate affected person data and cling to regulatory requirements.
- Utility Layer: Hosts numerous 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 programs.
The layered strategy allows healthcare organizations to combine current IT programs 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 enable organizations to automate and optimize processes past customary 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 practising.
- Coordinates IT Provisioning: Robotically assigns required programs entry, together with EHR permissions and safe messaging platforms.
- Tracks Onboarding Progress: Gives real-time visibility to HR and division managers, decreasing administrative delays.
By implementing a structured digital workflow, healthcare organizations can speed up onboarding occasions, cut 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 handle operational inefficiencies and enhance service supply. The next examples spotlight how UDHP capabilities have been utilized in numerous healthcare settings.
- Novant Well being: Lowering Administrative Bottlenecks
Novant Health applied ServiceNow to streamline IT service administration and automate healthcare workflows. By leveraging UDHP capabilities, the group improved system uptime and diminished delays in affected person care brought on by IT-related points. Automated workflows ensured that clinicians had quick entry to essential programs, decreasing time spent on administrative requests.
- Sentara Healthcare: Digital Workflow Optimization
Sentara Healthcare used ServiceNow’s digital workflows to combine numerous 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, decreasing errors and bettering general affected person service coordination.
Conclusion
ServiceNow’s UDHP illustrates the potential of digital platforms in optimizing healthcare workflows, bettering operational effectivity, and guaranteeing compliance. By leveraging structured knowledge, 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 crucial position in bridging gaps between conventional healthcare IT programs 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 Blog, the place this publish 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 a long time.Dr. Jody Ranck is a researcher with over 30 years of expertise in international and home US well being expertise and lined AI, knowledge analytics, and SDoH with Chilmark Analysis.
