The “IT” in Healthcare IT
Bringing Together Science, Innovation and Patients Through Technology.
March 4, 2014 – Several weeks ago, I sat with my dad in the waiting room at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas as he underwent cancer treatment. I felt firsthand how the confusion, the fear, and the sheer complexity of healthcare can overwhelm patients and family members and influence decisions that could mean the difference between a good or a bad outcome.
When my dad was diagnosed, he and I struggled through a series of questions: What are the differences in types of radiation treatment? Are there trials for new drugs? And perhaps most important of all, how long and how well might he live on any particular treatment plan? Even with the breadth of available resources, we were left to aggregate and link data ourselves. From there, we weighed various treatment options, evaluating the trade-offs for each. The process felt arduous and linear.
Our experience was certainly not unique. Many are faced with the same linear system and difficult questions.
Fortunately, we are in the middle of a revolution in healthcare that is fundamentally changing this experience – driven by information technology (IT).
The promise of Healthcare IT is to change a linear information pattern into a learning system including R&D, diagnosis, and treatment information and decisions.
Consider that ten years ago, the most sophisticated piece of technology in many physicians’ offices was a fax machine, and less than 10 percent had even a “basic” Electronic Health Record (EHR) system (based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Center for Health Statistics surveys). Five to seven years ago, “Big Data” was measured in gigabytes or perhaps terabytes, and very few of the problems in healthcare relied on datasets of this size. And until very recently, “mobile technology” and “healthcare” had few intersections beyond a few lifestyle and well-being apps.
Today, 78 percent of physicians in the United States have an EHR system of some sort with more than 48 percent (and rising rapidly) having at least “basic” functionality. “Big Data” in healthcare is measured in petabytes (and beyond), pushing the envelope of existing analytic tools and methods. Read Big Data and the Big C for more about the role of “Big Data” in the treatment of cancer.
And in just the past year, the first wave of clinically-validated mobile health tools have come online, including the first FDA-approved mobile app for diabetes and an FDA-approved over-the-counter electrocardiogram that fits onto an iPhone. Together, these changes – collectively known as “Healthcare IT” – are poised to transform every aspect of healthcare.
Although everyone stands to benefit from Healthcare IT, nowhere is the potential impact greater than on patients. Mobile technologies and social networks are just the tip of the iceberg and a fantastic start to empowering patients to better engage their physicians, better connect with one another, and better manage their own health journey. But it’s paramount, in my mind, that as we take IT platforms to the next level, we ensure the needs of patients are at the center of each enhancement. We must work alongside patients and the medical community – their input will help guarantee real, meaningful IT solutions.
Impact on patients and their families is a priority within our own walls, where IT teams are working on, at last count, 15 major or strategic Healthcare IT initiatives across the Roche Group.
We are finding faster, more effective technology-driven approaches to identifying patients and supporting them through clinical trials. We are exploring mobile health technologies and evaluating how to use new forms of health data from online communities. And we continue to use diverse types of healthcare data to illustrate the value our medicines bring to patients.
For me, using technology to transform healthcare is not an academic exercise or merely a professional aspiration. It is personal.
As I was sitting with my dad thinking through what to do next, I was thinking, “We can make this experience better – a lot better.”
And we are. We’re focusing on doing now what patients need next.
IT leaders across Genentech and Roche are addressing the opportunities and challenges presented by the rapid changes in Healthcare IT. By embracing powerful new types of data (genomic, clinical and outcomes, etc.), analytical/visualization tools, mobile technology, and online communities, we are enabling delivery of life-saving medicines and personalized healthcare to patients around the world.
I’m grateful to play a role in turning this vision into a reality both within our company and in the healthcare system as a whole. And I look forward to the day when patients, like my dad, come to the best treatment path(s) for them in the fastest way possible.