黑料吃瓜群网

Digital platforms provide the healthcare industry with great opportunities to empower the patient.

Health informatics is about more than just data 鈥� it鈥檚 an opportunity to empower the patient.

That鈥檚 the view of industry specialist Alexandra Ehrlich, who says health care would do well to follow the lead of the retail and banking sectors when it comes to embracing digital platforms.

Australia was already taking a step in the right direction with the national digital health My Health Record system, she said.

US-based Ehrlich, a biostatistician and a Principal Solution Consultant with Oracle Health Sciences, visited Australia for the recent digital health, e-health and health informatics conference HIC 2019.

She was a finalist in the Health Informatics Society of Australia鈥檚 (HISA) digital health awards.

Her nomination in the 鈥楧on Walker award 鈥� Industry鈥� category recognised her work in data management, CX (customer experience) solutions and artificial intelligence supporting patient experience, as well as a White House AI (artificial intelligence) challenge on clinical trial matching.

At HIC 2019, Ehrlich was a guest speaker and panellist in a workshop on 鈥楶ersonalising precision medicine: Bringing the consumer perspective to precision medicine鈥�.

Ehrlich鈥檚 presentation discussed the challenges and opportunities technology addresses in capturing pivotal health, environmental and socioeconomic data for patients.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really about decision support,鈥� she said after the conference.

鈥淧roviders, what they want technology to do is help them get the right information at the right time.

鈥淎nd often information has been implemented just to collect data.

鈥淜eeping the providers in mind really allows us to keep in mind what they find valuable when doing that job.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really being able to use that as a tool.

鈥淚n precision medicine especially there鈥檚 a lot of information that comes from a lot of different places that鈥檚 hard to make sense of.鈥�

Being able to integrate that into a platform that was easy to interact with was key, Ehrlich said.

A topic of concern, highlighted at HIC 2019, among healthcare professionals was how the industry was leveraging innovative technologies.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think clinicians are concerned they鈥檙e going to be replaced but they鈥檙e going to be overridden,鈥� Ehrlich said.

鈥淲e talked about, at the precision medicine seminar, we had a really good discussion about how to utilise AI today.

鈥淥ne of the best cases we found connected that to the White House and the project we had around resource allocation.

鈥淯sing AI to get patients to the right resources.

鈥淚t was decision making, it wasn鈥檛 diagnosing.鈥�

Ehrlich said a large part of this was focusing on the patient or consumer view, and considering what information they needed to make healthcare decisions.

鈥淲hen a patient is sick or my child is sick, I鈥檓 trying to decide where to take them. Do I want to take them to the emergency room, do I want to take them to a GP?鈥� she said.

鈥淭hat data is there, that information is there.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really the consumer experience part.

鈥淲e do this with retail, we do this with banking.鈥�

Ehrlich said the kinds of digital tools employed in the retail and banking sectors were a nice fit for health care.

鈥淎t Oracle, we鈥檙e lucky we have a large portfolio across industries, we鈥檙e able to use our best parts from other industries and bring them in in a thoughtful way,鈥� she said.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 part of my goal being here [in Australia] was to connect with what鈥檚 going on in the healthcare field here.鈥�

Looking at My Health Record 鈥� how the project has been received and the next steps now that implementation is well underway 鈥� was a part of that work.

Ehrlich said a big focus was on how to maximise the technological investment for the benefit of the patient.

鈥淚 think what was really interesting to me was the different levels of conversations that are happening here around how to empower the patient.

鈥淏ecause the way the system is set up and through a project like My Health Record, there鈥檚 such an opportunity to empower the patient and connect to their health care.

鈥淏ut in the US, because of the way we鈥檙e set up, we鈥檙e not quite there yet.鈥�

Ehrlich said a staged implementation of My Health Record was the right approach.

鈥淚 think the logical next step 鈥� [is] to discuss the level of detail we want in the record.

鈥淭hat has to be driven by what we find beneficial for the patients.

鈥淚 think there鈥檚 going to be a period of let鈥檚 experience this and see what works and what doesn鈥檛.

鈥淔rom there I think the next step will be what new data needs to be in there in order to impact care.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 really about remaining patient-centric and really creating a process that keeps them front and centre.

鈥淚 think we all acknowledge that.

鈥淏ut because of the way we鈥檝e been operating for a long time, especially with technology, we haven鈥檛 really created a standard methodology to do that.

鈥淚 think that鈥檚 where the opportunity is to stop, take a deep breath and say, in order for this investment to be really beneficial and in order to be cognisant, we have to say the patient is really front and centre.鈥�

Oracle Health Sciences Principal Solution Consultant and biostatistician Alexandra Ehrlich.

Top image credit: 漏stock.adobe.com/au/tonefotografia