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When healthcare organisations seek to innovate, it鈥檚 important that any resultant change is beneficial and adds value, said Innovation Advisor Peter Williams. They need to ask themselves first: 鈥楧o I really need this? Do I have something that can do this now?鈥�

Williams was speaking to AHHB at the recent HIC 2018 digital health conference where he was an industry presenter. Part of Oracle鈥檚 customer success team, Williams tracks trends, developments in health care and advises healthcare customers on how to approach innovation.

When it comes to innovation, he said it is okay for healthcare organisations to look for inspiration from other industries and organisations. 鈥淚nnovation doesn鈥檛 have to be a totally new invention. It can be something we just haven鈥檛 done here,鈥� he said.

Working at the coalface, Williams is privy to the latest industry trends. In his experience, healthcare organisations are seeking four outcomes, often described as the 鈥榪uadruple aim鈥�:

1. A better patient experience.
2. A better clinical experience.
3. Value-based health care lowering cost.
4. Population health 鈥� focused on prevention, early intervention and self-empowerment.

鈥淲e鈥檙e also seeing a lot of interest in operational cost savings, especially through supply chain management of pharmaceuticals, prosthetics and product recalls,鈥� he said.

Leveraging technology in health care

One form of technology being adapted for health care is chat bots. Williams noted that UK charity Turning Point uses chat bots to converse with people with mental health issues. 鈥淪ome people feel more comfortable talking to a chat bot as it鈥檚 non-judgmental,鈥� he said.

The chat bot incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse the conversation, offering the caller advice and the option of speaking with a consultant. If the caller agrees, the system then identifies the most appropriate person for the caller to speak to and connects them.

Chat bots also offer resource benefits to the organisation, saving cost on headcount.

Autonomous databases

Another innovation offering resource benefits is autonomous self-learning databases. 鈥淗ealthcare organisations are often low on cash and skilled database administrators are a scarce resource,鈥� Williams explained.

Rather than invest in a dedicated resource to manage their database, organisations can use a database with built-in automation to perform maintenance tasks such as security patches and upgrades. He cites Oracle鈥檚 Autonomous Database Cloud, saying it is self-driving, self-securing and self-repairing.

Oracle鈥檚 analytics capability also has built-in AI that helps interpret the information within it. 鈥淣ot every clinician is a data scientist. They look at the data and ask: 鈥榃hat am I seeing?鈥� The system produces a narrative that helps explain it to them.鈥�

Managing data

Williams believes that integrating consumer information into healthcare systems is another growth area.

With health information coming in from Fitbits, mobile devices, apps and so forth, healthcare organisations need a way to capture the information and incorporate it into other systems. Noting this trend, Oracle developed the mHealth Connector, which captures this information from the devices and brings it into systems in a standardised and accessible form.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a challenge for healthcare organisations to pull together reams of data from different sources and make it meaningful,鈥� Williams said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the old 鈥榞arbage in, garbage out鈥� scenario.鈥�

He said that as the digital revolution is data driven, it is essential for healthcare organisations to find a way to manage data so that it can be used for operational, clinical and research purposes, while ensuring there is clear governance around the way the content is accessed and handled.

鈥淧aul Keating said 鈥業t鈥檚 the economy, stupid鈥�. Well in this case, 鈥業t鈥檚 the data, stupid鈥�,鈥� Williams said. 鈥淚f the information is right, you get the right decisions, and the right outcomes.鈥�

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