Data’s Role in Outcome-Driven, IoT-Enabled Healthcare Economy

The U.S. healthcare economy is in a state of flux, with amassive transformation towards evaluating and monetizingservices based on patient outcomes.

The motivation forthis change is clear: as a nation, we aren’t getting much of a return on investment. According to the Peterson Foundation, the average,annual per capita healthcare cost across developed countries is over $3,800, while the cost in the United States has ballooned to over $9,500. Conversely, U.S. healthcare outcomes are ranked mostly below average.

And a major cause for this disparity is a relative lack of focus on preventative, outcome-based care. The good news is that the U.S. medical community is aware and moving in the direction of outcome-based healthcare. As this model is adopted, it will increasingly result inproviders competing to deliver the best outcomes. Individual doctors, hospitals, and providers will profit according to how well their patients fare. At the macro level, value-drivenserviceswill require analyzing healthcare trends and patterns to discover and standardize outcome improvements across the population.

New healthcare requires new healthcare technology

Particularly for makers of diagnostic devices and equipment, there is increasing pressure to improve end-to-end data acquisition and application. Diagnostic data collectionmust become more sensitive, accurate, longitudinal, and comprehensive. Collected data must be made available to increasingly powerful analytics and deep learning resources, but it must also be safeguarded—including operational data, patient biometrics, and personally identifying information. Data will require anonymization while being authenticated through security models like blockchain. Anddata will need to be responsibly shared across an ecosystem of healthcare networks.

This orchestration of data enables performance outcome to be measured, modified, and measured again—creating a closed loop improvement process. It will also identify and new ways for complementary care to be administered. It will also, of course, enable more accurate diagnosis and direct improvements to care.

Medical device manufacturers are anticipating change

According to a recent survey conducted by life-sciences research firm Axendia, medical device manufacturers are anticipating this transformation towardsdata-driven technologies and economies. When asked how the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) would change their business over the next 5 years, 83% responded that it would require participation in more interconnected healthcare networks.

Data creates opportunity—and risk 

In the same survey, Axendia asked device makers to identify the greatest challenges in bringing smart, connected products to market. The two top answers were:data interoperability with networks and systems of record, and the securing of devices and data.Interoperability across a diverse network ensures data can be fully leveraged to improve performance.Meanwhile, data security also remainsa requirement to protect patient information, safeguard intellectual property, and reduce legal exposure.

Data can benefit device makers, too

While the grand design is to improve patient outcomes, there are some more direct benefits that can be had from embracing a data-driven approach. In other manufacturing sectors, product usage data havelong been playing a key role in several areas, including: