Building a Smart Healthcare Ecosystem

A Case Study by IBM

About IBM
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), incorporated on June 16, 1911, is a
technology company. The Company operates through five segments: Cognitive Solutions,
Global Business Services (GBS), Technology Services & Cloud Platforms, Systems and Global
Financing.

Cognitive Solutions:
The Cognitive Solutions segment delivers a spectrum of capabilities, from descriptive,
predictive and prescriptive analytics to cognitive systems. Cognitive Solutions includes Watson,
a cognitive computing platform that has the ability to interact in natural language, process big
data, and learn from interactions with people and computers.

Global Business Services:

The GBS segment provides clients with consulting, application management services and global
process services. The portfolio of GBS services is backed by its globally integrated delivery
network and integration with IBM solutions and services, including Watson, cloud, blockchain
and Technology Services.

Technology Services & Cloud Platforms:

The Technology Services & Cloud Platforms segment provides information technology (IT)
infrastructure services. It delivers a portfolio of cloud, project-based, outsourcing and other
managed services focused on clients' enterprise IT infrastructure environments. The portfolio
includes a set of hybrid cloud services and solutions to assist clients in building and running
enterprise IT environments that utilize public and private clouds and traditional IT

Systems:
The Systems segment provides clients with infrastructure technologies. It offers a range of
systems designed to address computing capacity, security and performance needs of
businesses, hyperscale cloud service providers and scientific computing organizations. The
portfolio includes z Systems, an enterprise platform for integrating data, transactions and
insight, and Power Systems, a system designed from the ground up for big data and analytics,
optimized for scale-out cloud and Linux.

Global Financing:
The Global Financing segment includes client financing, commercial financing, and
remanufacturing and remarketing. Client financing offers lease, installment payment plan and
loan financing to end users and internal clients. Commercial financing offers short-term

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inventory and accounts receivable financing to suppliers, distributors and remarketers of IBM
and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) products.

Case Overview
The health industry is unique with its own set of challenges that vary across developed and
emerging markets. Challenges like growing populations, chronic disease burden, longer life
spans, strained budgets, compliance, technology silos, medical advances and cyber threats
burden the industry where needs are infinite while resources are mostly finite.

In India, with limited resources and close to 850 million people living in remote, rural areas,
much of the population lacks access to quality healthcare. On the other end of the spectrum, in
developed markets, ageing populations mean health organizations need to empower aged
patients and assist them and their loved ones to be more informed about their health.

What solutions could be implemented, particularly in an Indian context, to transform the

present ‘sick care’ system from simply attending to needy patients to improving care outcomes,
promoting population wellness and harnessing data, thereby placing the most important person
i.e. the patient itself, in the centre of the care continuum?

Futuristic Roadmap of the Patient Journey

Unfortunately, the present patient journey is often complicated and overwhelming. There are
many steps from the time the patient discovers illness to receiving care and follow up care to
the stage they are satisfied with the service. Throughout this journey which can often be an
emotional one for the patient and family members, they interact with different care providers
and moves to various locations. There is often no single point to tie the journey for improved
access, and efficient and continued engagement throughout the care continuum.

Problem Statement
Devise a roadmap with short and medium-term goals which focuses on the patient “journey”:
1. At home even before entering the hospital
2. Within the hospital
3. Movement across hospitals
4. After exiting the hospital along with consideration for follow up care

Emphasize on the technologies that are relevant across this care continuum and the
recommendations on how they can seamlessly integrate between applications, medical facilities,
communication and physical infrastructure to create real-time standards based interactive
digital information and collaboration environment across the care continuum.

Format
 The case analysis document must be in MS Word/PDF format (.doc/.docx/.pdf)
 Must not exceed 2000 words (excluding exhibits and excel sheets)
 Font Type: Arial/ Calibri with text size of 11

Appendix
 IBM Watson Health
 The Digital Hospital Evolution

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 Manipal Hospitals adopts Watson for Oncology, Powering the New Era of Cognitive
Healthcare in India
 Apollo Hospitals Adopts IBM Watson for Oncology and IBM Watson for Genomics to Help
Physicians Make Data-Driven Cancer Care Decisions

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