Technology: The Double Edged Sword Fitting it all together Unlocking efficiencies

Questions How do we know that technology does and can improve healthcare? How do we know efficiencies and savings will made? Is wireless technology reliable? If we rely entirely on a scientific, medical model rationale can we reflect biopsychosocial principles of consumer empowerment and self determination

Wireless technology for sceptics

Where are the inefficiencies? Historical models of both healthcare delivery and IT design Replication of data gathering and processing Multiple processes in manual and electronic claims Market forces approach to research, development and innovation Many people in many organisations working on the same challenges

Where are all the costs? In the human resource, time, hardware and software In the emotional cost of frustration and risk management In the delays in providing service and decision making Complex administrative processes to support risk management

What are the potentials? For the healthcare user For the provider For the purchaser or funder For the government For the future welfare of the country

The healthcare user A shift from a medical model to a patient centric model Involvement in their own management Increased expectation of their responsibility in the recovery and rehabilitation process

The provider Accurate, real time data Interconnectivity with the rest of the health ecosystem Mobile applications at point of care

The purchaser or funder Ability to aggregate and analyse population health data Correlate funding with outcomes and quality of life measures Monitor and audit performance

The government Have data to support policy and purchasing decisions Monitor workforce patterns and ensure adequate training and development Ensure all the health strategies and priorities are adequately addressed

The country’s future welfare Protect the future generations from preventable illness Support those with chronic conditions or impairments lead full and productive lives Develop a culture of self responsibility in health

The Double Edged Sword Perceived and real risks in highly transportable data – security and privacy Increased skill set in workers could increase wage and salary demands Increased patch protection activity as livelihoods are threatened

The Double Edged Sword Increased client responsibility could reduce dependency on clinicians Business process redesign could threaten workers and lead to resistance or sabotage Some companies may go out of business

What to do? Imaginative, collaborative organisational leadership Respect the health user and their right to be informed and to make their own decisions CPI – Continuous Process Improvement as a way of working – no surprises Inclusion in and recognition for the changes made by the worker

User Inclusion

We need to be very careful! “State-of-the-art is any computer you can’t afford; Obsolete is any computer you own; A microsecond is the time it takes your state-of-the-art computer to become obsolete.”

“We have the technology but there is a whole bucketful of issues that need to be addressed."