Healthcare Innovation
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The Impact of COVID-19 on Innovation in the Healthcare Sector
Consultancy.nl reports on the results of the first round of Turner’s Healthcare Innovation Monitor, in which we measure the impact of COVID-19-related innovation in the healthcare sector.
The article explains how healthcare administrators, managers, and professionals rated their own institutions across 12 areas of healthcare innovation. You can read the full article below, or at consultancy.nl
The Impact of COVID-19 on Innovation in the Healthcare Sector
Various trends—including an aging population, increasing cost pressures, and changing patient expectations—make Innovation more important than ever in the healthcare landscape. The COVID-19 crisis has only further reinforced this realization. What is the current state of innovation capacity within the healthcare sector?
Turner conducted research into the current state of innovation in the healthcare sector. The consulting firm asked executives, healthcare managers, and healthcare professionals to evaluate their own healthcare institutions in terms of how they perform across 12 sub-areas of innovation. Central to the analysis was the question of how the current COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the innovation priorities of organizations in the sector. Which steps have been accelerated, and which positive developments does the sector want to retain moving forward?
Taken together, the scores of the healthcare institutions surveyed provide an indication of how the sector itself views Innovation. An overview of the scores by subcategory:
Digitization
1. Health Intelligence (DDHC)
Healthcare professionals give health intelligence a 3. Data-driven healthcare still proved to be a bridge too far during the crisis. In fact, because all attention has been focused on acute healthcare and managing the backlog of routine healthcare, there is no attention being paid to data-driven innovations with a somewhat longer-term perspective.
2. Digital channels
The use of new channels, such as video consultations and WhatsApp communication with patients, receives a score of 9. Aside from privacy concerns, healthcare professionals consider digital channels very suitable for continued use after the crisis. They are undergoing learning to differentiate based on patient type and type of care, and adapt the channel accordingly each time.
3. eHealth
Healthcare professionals give e-health a 7 out of 10: new apps such as the COVID-19 screener, as well as those focused on quality of life (QoL) and post-traumatic effects, are being used to diagnose patients and monitor their conditions. Medical tools and apps for diagnosis and information exchange have become indispensable.
Coordination & Efficiency
4. Efficiency
Healthcare professionals give efficiency a 6. During the COVID-19 pandemic, process optimizations such as shortening hospital stays, home-based medication, or “shared-care” pediatric oncology were implemented only to a limited extent. No more than usual—perhaps even less. Healthcare professionals expect this to remain largely the case after the pandemic.
5. Capacity Management
Healthcare professionals rate innovation in capacity management an 8, particularly in the ICU and the organization of a “care reservoir” for routine care using a paging system. This innovation will remain in place to some extent. Once a crisis team is no longer needed, more variables come into play regarding capacity management. Note that catching up on backlogged routine healthcare is not included in this assessment.
6. Medical decision-making
Healthcare professionals rate medical decision-making a 3. Under time pressure and due to a lack of understanding of the new virus, decisions were less well-founded. This will become more robust again after this crisis period.
7. Coordination and alignment
Healthcare professionals give a 7 for coordination and alignment: crisis teams ensure coordination on many fronts (patients, equipment, medication). This is expected to remain only partially.
Operations & Collaboration
8. Interdisciplinary Care and Prevention
Healthcare professionals give a score of 3 for medical content development related to interdisciplinary care. There was more interdisciplinary consultation, but a more holistic approach to healthcare (lifestyle, prevention) remained underemphasized. Although many foundations and app developers are working on this, it lacks scale. This innovation is still in its infancy.
9. Cross-institutional innovation and learning
Healthcare professionals gave a score of 3 for collaborative learning. This is because, aside from nationally mandated coordination mechanisms, each institution had to figure things out on its own. Under pressure from the coronavirus, there has not been a massive increase in cross-institutional initiatives or in learning from each other’s innovations. People do not expect much from this. Or, as one internist sighed: “Healthcare is Healthcare.”
10. Decision-making (organizational)
Healthcare professionals give (organizational) decision-making an 8. They observed faster decisions due to greater solidarity and less bureaucracy, the formation of crisis teams, the establishment of planning dashboards, and continuous information provision with a relevant ecosystem. As soon as the shared focus and priority fade, individual interests, viewpoints, and organizational boundaries once again come into play in the decision-making process.
11. Care Chain Optimization/JZOJP
Healthcare professionals give care chain optimization a score of 8. For example, a new balance was found in the care chain between healthcare institutions and nursing homes. The rapid decision-making regarding reimbursement for digital consultations between nursing homes and medical centers was also viewed positively. This will remain limited in scope, primarily because funding streams constrain collaboration. Under the pressure of the pandemic, more was possible (“we’ll figure out the costs later”) than in normal times.
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