2007 was a big year for technology – Twitter launched, Facebook finally found its way out of university campuses, and the term quantified-self was first coined. Two years later in 2009 the first FitBit was launched.
So where are we now; might these technological advances changed the way doctors treat patients in the future?
Moving from reactive to proactive healthcare
Largely healthcare systems are made up of intermittent and episodic data; patient records are updated when they visit a doctor for some reason, and then they lay dormant until the patient’s next bout of ill-health.
With technology we are beginning to bridge those gaps; clinicians are able to look at the stats of their patient via wearable devices remotely. Across North America clinicians are now beginning to provide consultations via Skype or FaceTime to provide care to those in remote rural areas that don’t have access to healthcare facilities. Once these new initiatives are integrated into routine practice, the electronic health record (EHR) becomes a unique insight to the patient’s overall health and wellbeing.
Gathering good quality data
The ability to capture Real-Word Data (RWD) from patients is critical, but it’s futile if we are not able to clean that data up to generate valuable Real-World Evidence (RWE) in a useable format.
At Ignite Data we’ve harnessed data found in the patient EHR to allow our customers to enhance data quality from large global studies. This is a huge step forward. Using technology, doctors can access the EHR to fill gaps in patient data, minimise missing outcome data, and ultimately provide you with automated collection of both retrospective and prospective data across all UK healthcare settings.
Progressing from good quality data to to intelligence-based medicine
Evidence-based medicine is a concept embraced by clinicians and patients alike, but technology allows us to take this one step further; intelligence-based medicine. Tech allows us to create a feedback loop from patients back to researchers and pharma companies – providing a way for patients to become partners in the future of their healthcare systems without them ever having to go to the effort of engaging.
RWE is capable of producing a platform for doctors and pharma to build ideas from. Sophisticated data handling techniques such as those used at Ignite Data allow us to see where care is falling down; highlighting opportunities for pharma to develop treatments designed to meet the needs of patients.
The benefits that technology can bring to the healthcare system are huge; and here at Ignite Data we’ve already began changing the way pharma companies gather outcome data and recruit participants; improving efficiency, and saving money.
Heidi Gardner
