Open ROADS Research

HEALTH  

 
 

IMPLEMENTING THE ROADS

EXPERIENCE WITHIN HEALTH

How people are discussing the elements of the

ROADS experience around Health

November 2016
    

INTRODUCTION

An increasing amount of pressure is being placed on health infrastructures, as

the population continues to age and expand. In this day and age, digital
technology is being seen as the solution that can alleviate this pressure by the
enhancement of customer care and efficiency.

Digital technology has significantly transformed the health industry. The use of
ROADS-enabling-technology is evolving the way we care for patients. It has been
shifted from a one-person health management and diagnosis process to an all-
online, on-demand engagement that happens from the comfort of the patient’s
home. Real-time data capabilities act as a preventive measure by allowing
patients to track their health via IoT tools and applications. In the realm of DIY and
Social, the demand for doctors is being reduced as patients can now leverage
global health networks.

This paper is designed to capture the voices of people around the world and
better understand how they are discussing the elements of the ROADS
experience (Real-time, On-Demand, All-Online, Do-it-Yourself, Social) across the
health industry. This helps to identify trends that are affecting your customers’
behavior and how new operating models will affect your industry.

We’ve analyzed over 600,000+ conversations in English over the past 6 months
globally looking at the different elements of ROADS, analyzing platforms such as
Twitter, Blogs, Forums, News sites and more. We then condensed all that data
into key findings.

In this document you’ll find a snapshot of some of the key findings that has been
  

REAL-TIME  

Real-time technology is helping doctors and other medical professionals take customer care to the next level by
allowing them to access important information in real-time to better treat the patients. People also are enjoying
real-time health statistics, as they look towards living healthier lives and getting the most out of their exercise
routines.

The key topics around real-time include:

HEALTH DATA
Real-time health data is helping doctors make informed decisions and
apply enhanced care. With the development of new data sources and
predictive analytics capabilities, they can now gain access to real-time
analysis instead of solely relying on their experience. It is essential for
hospitals to install a stable and secure local network across the entire
compound for the implementation of these capabilities for their doctors.

“Big heal th care d ata may improve patient care and generate knowledge to
assess effectiveness of treatments in real- ti me to predict outcomes.”
@nisargpatel90

FITNESS TRACKING
With an increasing number of people using fitness apps and devices
such as Fitbit or ChronoBurn, there are a lot of discussions around how
people are sharing the real-time data they get from their devices. Those
who are more serious about health and fitness are looking for a more
constant connection source that would allow them to track their
movements.

“When will I be allowed to sync my #Fit bi t steps with #PokemonGO so I can

get credit for hitting 10km and hatch these eggs in real ti me?”
@linsey_jayne

REMOTE MONITORING
Real-time monitoring of patient in rural towns or older patients that have
mobility issues is becoming a way to reduce the stress of those people
who need to travel to check-ins with their doctors. Doctors are using
such networks to keep tabs on their patients and ensuring that there
are no urgent issues.

“Remote p ati ent m on itorin g making huge difference in rural american,

serving patients more effectively +providing cost savings #Solutions2020”
@techemout
ON-DEMAND  

Currently, ‘On-Demand’ technology is a huge topic in the health industry and it is still growing in popularity.
Patients are looking to tailor their health management according to what they need and when they need it. The
improvement in connectivity now allows people to be selective of the type of engagement they want with their
doctor, allowing options such as home consultations.

The key topics around on-demand include:

ON-DEMAND TELEHEALTH
Telehealth is being talked about as one of the key drivers of on-demand
health. The industry sees video consultation between a doctor and
patient via smartphone, tablet or desktop computer as quicker, easier
and less expensive options to patient management. A highly reliable,
secure, and stable connection is require for optimal patient experience;
there also needs to be sufficient data capacity as continuous monitoring
of temperature and blood pressure needs to maintained.

“Doctors on demand are as near as your tablet or smartphone via

@VancouverSun http://ow.ly/6Avn100gt4s #telehealth #ehealth”
@ewjirvine

ON-DEMAND PLATFORMS
With more people looking towards having higher flexibility, on-demand
platforms are becoming more popular as they allow the people to
undertake self-care. These platforms range across diagnosis,
treatments and support for the management of on-going illnesses. It
is critical to ensure that these platforms do not have any downtime as
the people would rely on them on a daily basis.

“Are you wondering when p lat form s will massively disrupt the heal th
sector? Keep an eye on p lat form s like Medicast”
@nikleger

ON-DEMAND DOCTOR
With the proliferation of on-demand everything, there has been a
number of on-demand doctor/nursing apps. Heal and Pager are
two of the current popular services that take an Uber-style approach
to health whereby patients are provided with on-demand house
calls. For these applications to be effective, timeliness of the data
required to ensure people can track their doctor is pertinent.

“Heal: "Bringing doctors to patients for on-d ema nd house calls"

http://tcrn.ch/2dBYZc8 #heal thca re #startup”
@Paulgalow
 ALL-ONLINE    

As the health industry becomes increasingly connected, people are seeing the benefits of having better
diagnosis, less pressure placed on hospital staff and the ability to access medical records from multiple
destinations. With the help of cloud computing, the industry is moving towards providing a seamless medical
experience that is not limited by the wall of a doctor’s office.

Key topics driving all-online conversations include:

mHEALTH
Whether it’s through a tablet in a hospital or via a mobile phone during a
house call, mHealth (mobile health) allows the doctors to access a wealth
of patient knowledge in the palm of their hands. Operators such as DT and
AT&T see this as a major opportunity for them to develop their own apps
to increase adoption and ensure they can continue providing customer
value.

“Is Pharma Ready to Realize the Value of m Heal th? http://bit.ly/2eryDx1 ?

#m healt h”
@dmetcalf

INTERNET OF THINGS
IoT is one of the top discussions within the health industry. IoT has gone
as far as the invention of “connected stitches” which sends data on the
recovery process of a patient’s wound to doctors. The increased usage
of IoT has to be supported by secure and reliable networks as hospitals
cannot risk having any downtime or outages during the transfer of
medical records.

“The Internet of Things is transforming heal th ca re, but there's one huge risk |
#IoT #Hea lthca re #RT http://bit.ly/2eUCpwI”
@Ronald_vanLoon

ONLINE HEALTH RECORDS

With a steady stream of new health services, people look forward to being
able to manage and control their own health records while having the
capability to share the data when needed. This raises questions around
“who can you trust your medical data?”. Security is a major concern across
multiple touch-points in the customer journey; companies need to think
about how they can make their services secure and how they plan to
communicate this to their customers.

“The #RedCross security breech should make us all look closer at gov current
desire for onli ne heal th record s & security implications #auspol”
@aimee_maree
 DO-IT-YOURSELF  

With the high cost of surgery and medicines, there is a growing number of people discussing ways that they can
create their own DIY health options. Whether it’s utilizing entrepreneurial, coding or engineering capabilities, people
are actively exploring ways where they can support the pressure that is being placed on the health system through
the use of digital technology.

Key topics driving do-it-yourself conversations include:

HOSPITAL AT HOME
People are actively looking to extend the hospital to their homes with
DIY health solutions; this includes robots that have the ability to
undertake surgery. While it might take some time for this technology
to be fully adopted, there is currently an active group of individuals
who are developing prototypes to further explore this solution.
Remote surgeries will require high-speed Internet access with a
stable connection due to the risk involved in this service solution.

“The state of British heal thca re? Lancashire man performs DIY operation on
himself to remove suture”
@Julian_Littler

HEALTH APIs
There is huge potential in the space of Health API technology, whereby
developers and organizations have access to game changing streams of
data that can transform the health industry. There are many barriers
around data sensitivity that have yet to be overcome, however
companies like AT&T has already begun exploring this area with their
mHealth API platform. Openness is key to making this a reality.

“APIs, not just #tech. Fundamental to patient experience and integrating the
#heal th eco-system. https://t.co/Ce8B9gPaZY”
@jpetrassi

MEDICINE ATMs
South Africa and India are now exploring self-service ATMs for
medicine distribution. This technology will reduce a significant amount
of pressure on public health system while providing people with quick
and easy access to health services.

“Self-service medicine-dispensing machine launched at International AIDS

Conference in South Africa #MedTech”
@MikeStoker
SOCIAL  

Due to the sensitive nature of the industry and the desire for patient privacy, social conversations are mainly about
preventative health activities such as exercise and fitness, as people are actively looking to share their successes.
Social data is used in the research of health conditions and to monitor health trends among the broader population
as it is full of insights however this is done without being too pervasive.

Key topics driving social conversations include:

FITNESS COMPETITION
IoT products are creating social fitness communities online through
products like FitBit and Apple iWatch. People are actively sharing the
amount of exercise they have undertaken with their friends. They
compete on objectives such as who has traveled the furthest in the
week. You can acquire new customers while keeping existing ones
by providing people with the opportunity to share their successes with
your products.

“Yay! Finally won a @fi tb it Workweek Hustle com peti ti on against

@dedcena! Only by 1.3k steps, so it was close. #sphpm”
@PennyRobaus

SOCIAL DATA FOR HEALTH

Social data helps doctors and researchers identify public health concerns
and support them in making better decisions. Social analytics is being
used to analyze sentiments while NLP (Natural Language Processing) is
used to analyze conversation patterns in order to better understand the
behavior of patients. Social sentiment and NLP personality insights can
help you better understand how the people feel when they interact with
your organization.

“#SocialMedia twitter d ata can characterize social #heal th effects to improve

#publichealth  http://reut.rs/2dWRaTz http://bit.ly/2dWSHcr”
@DrAiLynTan

HEALTH EVENTS
Industry networking events such as IFA event in Berlin or Medicine X by
Stanford University are driving significant amount of conversation
surrounding the social space. The people are sharing exciting
development of health technology discussed at the various conferences
and becoming personal advocates for the organizations present. It is
essential for you to do a good job of sharing your new innovations
successfully so as to increase the chances of adoptions and acquisition
of new customers.

“See how Philips showcased the future of heal th at IFA 2015 in B erli n”
@Marilien
  

CONCLUSION

As the industry goes through digital transformation, there are significant amounts
of opportunities within the Health industry where organizations can deliver the
ROADS experience. Established players will be looking to technology providers
and start-ups to support their efforts in gaining greater efficiencies across
diagnosis, treatments and patient management.

As the industry moves towards all-online and on-demand, trust and security will
be a major concern which have to be resolved in order for the industry to truly
embrace this transformation. New smaller players who are looking to enter the
market with exciting innovations that have the potential to disrupt the industry may
find strong headwinds as the regulatory systems is currently struggling to keep up
with the pace of the rapidly changing environment. This provides the more
established players with the opportunity to partner up and support the
implementation of these innovations and receive the benefits as they align
themselves with transformational technologies.

The benefits of a health system that can deliver a ROADS experience are
exponential for health providers and the people all around the world. For this to
become a reality, established players should partner up with the new innovative
players and strive towards pushing the boundaries of the health industry.