Guy Lucchi explains how Microsoft Azure-based digital health platforms can improve patients’ healthcare
Caspar Herzberg |
This article was originally published in the Winter 2018 issue of The Record. Subscribe for FREE here to get the next issue delivered directly to your inbox.
What if patients could manage their healthcare experience in the same way that travellers can use one application to book their entire vacation? Just as one can reserve everything from flights to trip insurance and hotels, a patient could use an integrated application to make a doctor’s appointment, order medication or book surgery.
For this to be possible, patients must be able to share personal medical data across healthcare providers via any device at anytime from anywhere, but always in a tightly governed and secure manner.
Unfortunately, this experience is unattainable for most consumers because healthcare data is locked in legacy systems that sit in organisational silos across disparate providers, making it impossible for stakeholders to access essential data. If, for example, a diabetes patient needs urgent access to insulin outside of normal doctors’ hours, they usually have to visit an emergency centre. This is inconvenient for the patient and costly for the healthcare system. A better alternative would be for the patient to give pharmacists controlled one-time access to his or her records, so they could receive their prescription. The patient is happier and there’s no excess cost – a crucial win in an age where people are living longer with more expensive illnesses but have less time to share medical information with providers.
A healthcare provider can move towards this goal, but transforming a single organisation isn’t enough. The above diabetes scenario would be impossible if the healthcare provider couldn’t share the data with the pharmacy. Instead, there needs to be a secure, compliant, integrated digital transformation across the broader health, social and economic network. This is now possible with specialised digital health platforms that run on cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure.
Cloud uses software-defined and purpose-built technology to provide greater flexibility and security when managing data exchange processes. It also enables organisations to leverage technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence and voice integration to provide greater capabilities than those commonly available today.
DXC Technology is collaborating closely with Microsoft and combining the Microsoft Azure cloud platform with relevant healthcare insights to create new healthcare solutions that meet the needs of patients and healthcare providers, while ensuring data security and regulatory compliance. Cloud makes it possible to transform the patient experience, empower caregivers and deliver important savings to the healthcare system.
Guy Lucchi is the cloud portfolio director for Healthcare and Life Sciences at DXC Technology