An ageing world in a major economic global crisis — How could we Do More With Less?
Our world is facing social and demographic evolution which might compromise the sustainability of current healthcare service organization in developed countries. The world is ageing, the prevalence of cancers and neurodegenerative diseases will be on sharp rise, and metabolic syndrome is the current pandemic.
Demographics of healthcare professionals evolve with aspirations to a more balanced work/life balance. Some economists think the world should get used to secular stagnation of low GDP growth. Population expectations are on the rise — better health, well-being, fair access, zero risk culture. New treatments are extremely expensive. In that context, the supply of high quality healthcare service is less and less sustainable.
Patients are routed within a complex structure from acute/short stay units to rehabilitation/medium stay to long stay units. Organization of acute care is centered on specialization, but ageing patients present syndromes requiring integrated care. A lot of time and energy is spent finding downstream beds. Highly skilled professionals do administrative work instead of clinical work.
While most industries address competition by incremental improvements, cloud services were designed to Do More With Less. Embracing cloud services architectural patterns — resource mutualization, self-service, managed services, elasticity, global reach — and applying this to healthcare services architecture might bring new perspectives. The healthcare IT market is atomic, with low interoperability and scarce innovation budgets. The sustainability of healthcare services should leverage digital revolution for ecosystem optimization and rationalization.