By Ravi Behara, PhD
Smartwatches can monitor our daily physical activity and exercise regimes, while glucose monitoring devices can measure our blood sugar level without a finger prick and communicate this information to care providers. Managing wellness and illness is becoming more digital, personal, and mobile. This is just the tip of the iceberg representing an enormous transformation currently going on in healthcare.
Digital health refers to the use of information and communications technologies in healthcare to deliver patient care in acute, chronic, and preventative contexts. It also includes applying these technologies to self-care and promoting wellness with the increased consumerization of healthcare. These include, among many others, technologies that focus on an individual such as wearable devices and personal medicine, those that address remote care such as mobile health solutions and telehealth, and those that support clinicians in making better decisions using decision support systems driven by artificial intelligence. While the focus is usually more on the technologies involved, it is essentially the use of near-ubiquitous digital information to develop treatments, diagnose conditions, deliver care, and actively monitor an individual’s and a population’s health and well-being.
These changes have not come about only because of advanced technologies but the realization over two decades ago which was brought into sharp focus by the Institute of Medicine reports, that delivering safe and quality care is a priority. This was followed by a concerted effort by the federal government to move the national healthcare information infrastructure into the 21st century. The long-term positive impacts of policy, technology, and investment are unmistakable when we compare it to where healthcare was at the turn of the century. But like all transformations, it is neither linear nor without significant challenges. In addition, we are in the midst of the 4th industrial revolution. Healthcare, like every other industry, is going through upheaval and transformation due to this. Rethinking the possibilities in healthcare for individuals, organizations, and communities using Digital Health is imperative.
Zipline, the largest drone delivery provider in the world, developed its systems originally providing medical drone delivery service for the Rwandan government starting in 2016. It now delivers more than 75% of blood supply in the country outside the capital city. Zipline’s drone delivery services have resulted in a 67% reduction in blood wastage across Rwanda, and more importantly resulted in a 51% reduction of in-hospital maternal deaths due to postpartum hemorrhage. More recently, in 2022, Zipline became the first company to receive FAA approval for long range drone delivery in the U.S., and now delivers to customers in Arkansas, Utah and North Carolina. The company partners with Walmart, Pfizer, and medical centers such as Cleveland Clinic and Michigan Medicine. Walmart will begin home delivery with Zipline in the entire metro Dallas-Fort Worth area this year. It will soon be operating across all states in the U.S.
These changes are further being accelerated by the sudden emergence of generative AI in everyone’s consciousness since the launch of OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT in November 2022. It became the fastest-growing consumer computer application in history by reaching an estimated 100 million monthly active users in just two months. It generated 1.63 billion visits in February 2024. But ChatGPT and other Large Language Models (LLMs) have become the foundational models for a variety of applications. Microsoft, working with OpenAI, is bringing this advanced AI to users through Copilot, adding intelligence to its productivity products Microsoft 365 apps. Specifically, Microsoft is launching a variety of AI solutions in healthcare to support clinical, administrative and operational, and consumer decision making and workflows. Initial results from implementations show significant reduction in provider burnout and reduced cognitive burden, reduced time spent on documentation and higher job satisfaction. But an all-important metric of shorter time-to-intervention has dramatically improved, thereby leading to better patient care and outcomes.
The Executive Education Programs at Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business is responding to this technology driven societal transformation by providing a variety of learning opportunities. Specifically in healthcare, we will be launching a Digital Health certificate program this Fall. The certificate program will provide participants with a strong foundation in understanding established and emerging digital health technologies, help develop provider and workflow centric strategies to successfully deploy such solutions while managing the challenges in their implementation and provide guidance for measuring and monitoring the efficacy of their use in improving clinical and business outcomes. Specifically, the program will explore digital health solutions and technologies including mobile health, Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), Software as a Medical Device (SaMD), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning, blockchain, and digital twins. In addition, organizational challenges including cybersecurity, technology governance, and cultural transformation will also be addressed.
Dr. Ravi Behara is Professor, IT & Operations Management Department, College of Business, Florida Atlantic University.
