An increasing number of entrepreneurs and innovators are tackling challenges in healthcare, but many of these solutions will never make it to market. It is critical to lay the right foundation by applying the principles of discovery and validation early in the process of innovation in healthcare technology.
Understanding the Basics of Discovery and Validation
Innovation thought leaders like Steve Blank have lauded the importance of discovery and validation. During the discovery phase, innovators gather data to substantiate market needs by talking to potential customers and other stakeholders. This data forms the first iteration of a business model.
Despite being informed by data, the business model also contains numerous assumptions. During validation, experiments are designed to test assumptions and reduce uncertainty. Often, experiments yield new insights and inform business model pivots while requiring innovators to conduct additional discovery. Innovators must collect enough data to feel confident about their assumptions without getting caught in an endless loop of testing.
This constant churn of trying to make sense of data helps get early stage healthcare innovations off the ground. For those in the healthcare field, the experience can be taxing. So-called “innovation fatigue” can set in fast, particularly for team members who don’t realize they’re embarking on a marathon instead of a sprint.
The pressures on healthcare organizations and employees make them even more susceptible to fatigue. Is it any wonder so many of them skip validation altogether? It might be tempting to make definitive decisions after an involved discovery excursion, but that won’t help stakeholders in the long run. Not testing after gathering insights can lead teams down an expensive road by building a solution and going to market prematurely.
Still, plenty of well-meaning healthcare innovators believe validation is not essential. Sometimes, it’s because they believe in the mythos of overnight success; they underestimate the time and resources required to explore and de-risk early stage opportunities, ultimately failing to anticipate the iterative nature of discovery and validation. Other times, they become overly confident in what they’ve seen and achieved during discovery and think no further iteration or learning is necessary.
To be sure, discovery gives healthcare innovation teams the knowledge to extract and shape a preliminary idea and begin to identify underlying risk quickly. Nevertheless, discovery alone means very little in practice. Validation is required if healthcare technology innovators really want to design experiments that will help resolve uncertainties, reduce risks, and pinpoint whether a hypothesized solution should persist, pivot, or perish.
Ultimately, organizations that lack a clear bridge from discovery to validation will see high-potential opportunities linger in their innovation pipelines. They never move because no one’s sure what to do with them. Eventually, these opportunities may fade away — meaning the healthcare system (and the people it serves) suffers.
We’re living in a world where consumers demand more from every transaction. Exceptional service is no longer a nice-to-have — it has become the status quo. Whether it’s a traveler paying for an Uber through an app or a patient receiving emergency department service, people want and have come to expect great service.
The healthcare industry is working to quickly adapt and meet these expectations as they come, often leading to a disheartening or unpleasant experience for patients. Why? There are complex infrastructure challenges in healthcare.
For example, consider the patient billing process: It may have stumbling blocks that can lead to friction, such as surprise at the final price when the medical bill arrives, limited bill payment options, insurance denials, or reduced coverages. These problems tend to come after patients receive clinical care, adding more stress on top of an already stressful situation. Essentially, people receive the care and treatment they deserve but could feel blindsided later because of a lack of price transparency.
That said, providers may not be in a position to have patient-focused financial conversations at every point of the journey from pre-registration through post-discharge. Often, providers are just as in the dark about what a procedure may ultimately cost patients out of pocket because data often is siloed within different systems. And even when those systems try to communicate, they don’t necessarily speak the same “language.”
Is the task of reinventing American healthcare billing a major undertaking? Sure. But improving the patient experience is still doable. It just requires every entity involved — from third-party payers to insurance companies to physicians’ offices — to treat patients while considering their perspectives and needs.
How to Overcome Barriers in Healthcare
Tackling this challenge now is key for a few reasons. First, providers will be able to more clearly empower patients to make the best decisions for themselves and their families. When healthcare providers operate with patient needs in mind, consumers feel less confused, more curious, and better equipped to make crucial health decisions.
Providers that offer simple billing and upfront costs analyses may also reduce patient noncompliance and nonpayment. When patients understand their financial obligations before receiving services, they can make better choices and plan ahead. The result? Healthcare providers will be able to stay in business and thrive.
With the advantages of taking a more patient-centered approach in mind, healthcare providers can take steps to make that approach a reality.
By Jamison Utter, director of product evangelism, Medigate.
Jamison Utter
Last year (2020) was a year of chaos, and one that demonstrated why robust cybersecurity is an essential priority for all healthcare organizations. From COVID-19 disruptions to rapidly increasing networks of managed and unmanaged devices, it’s never been more important to secure the critical infrastructure that forms the basis of clinical care.
This is easier said than done- after all, the growing reliance on digital platforms has opened opportunities for increased attacks and raised questions about data collection and privacy. Threats like Ryuk and other high-profile breaches made a notable impact on the industry’s understanding of cybersecurity, not only for their monetary implications, but the significant operational disruptions that these incidents caused. On a national level, we’re seeing care networks expanding alongside access to telehealth services and the implementation of remote patient monitoring tools– with significant amounts of PHI being broadcast and analyzed each day.
When looking at these trends, there are two immediate realizations that all healthcare leaders should understand: 1) the rate of attacks is only going to increase as healthcare operations become smarter and more connected and 2) we need a better solution that works alongside clinical practitioners, biomed departments and organizational leaders even as it protects them from malicious attackers. For many of these concerns, the answer is Zero Trust, or more specifically, Clinical Zero Trust (CZT), that is uniquely attuned to the needs of the healthcare industry.
What Is Clinical Zero Trust?
Zero Trust represents the concept of “trust nothing, verify everything” in terms of cybersecurity. It has since grown to represent a networking approach that centers the design and application of IT networks around the identity and access rights of users and their data. Clinical Zero Trust applies this same idea but to the cyber and physical environment of healthcare organizations.
Think of CZT as a strategy and not a technology; it is an end goal rather than a feature or ability. Cyber protections like firewalls and end-point security solutions make up some of the offerings that help create a CZT environment. A typical healthcare organization has a security system that prioritizes protecting devices and data– CZT shifts the focus to protect physical workflows, which are made up of the people and processes involved in delivering care.
This means the protected surface extends to the physical world, including everything associated with administering a procedure or delivering care. At first glance, it seems like an impossible task to protect physical things with cyber technologies, but in reality, when you look at the clinical setting holistically it makes it easier to identify interdependencies and develop strategies that will effectively protect the physical, business and digital processes to drive optimal patient outcomes.
The start of the global pandemic put incredible stress on the numerous healthcare heroes as well as their facilities, and the industry at large. Medical professionals, already faced with inordinate pressure under normal circumstances, have been working nonstop to perform heroic work day in and day out since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
One thing this crisis has clearly illustrated is the need for medical professionals to have access to the latest tools that provide the greatest degree of flexibility, efficiency, and mobility. These tools certainly include the IT backbone underpinning healthcare facilities big and small, from the networks and software to the new wave of smaller, mobile devices.
Two areas of IT have seen tremendous uptake in the healthcare industry as it has adapted to the crisis, the first being through the accelerated shift to telemedicine. Telemedicine allows patients to get almost instant medical attention without the concerns of traveling to a doctor’s office or hospital during the coronavirus outbreak. Indeed, the telemedicine market is expected to swell to $155.1 billion by 2027 in large part due to the pandemic.
Overall, telemedicine is an efficient way for providers to see the highest possible number of patients at a lower cost with shorter waiting times. Doctors can schedule more appointments than they would during normal rounds while still maintaining a quality practice that offers individualized attention to each case.
Additionally, telehealth visits can be recorded, allowing clinicians to document progress and share information with relevant specialists on the go. Telemedicine fosters collaboration by combining high-speed internet and high-definition video for communication between colleagues who are sometimes seeing hundreds of people a day because of the coronavirus.
The healthcare industry has seen one of the most significant growth spurts in the last two centuries. Now more than ever, we fall back on the medical sector in our times of crisis. We saw how vital the industry is for us during the pandemic and what role medical health officials play in keeping the general population safe and healthy.
As important as they are, the non-medical community’s unsung heroes also need to be given attention sometimes. Without non-clinical officers’ expertise, the industry would not have grown and thrived the way it currently is. Management and administration are areas of the healthcare sector that we might not even consider. Doctors and nurses act as the industry’s faces. These officials streamline the general public’s process to seek medical treatment. Let’s not forget the non-clinical roles of staff in securing the administration of medical facilities.
This article will focus on healthcare opportunities in the sector and how to prepare yourself for non-clinical roles.
Community health worker
One of the most up and coming career choice for non-clinical healthcare officials is that of a community healthcare worker. These individuals look at specific at-risk populations and work with them in the community. One of the most common responsibilities which society bestows on these individuals is to educate the community.
If you are looking to enter the medical field, this would be the time to gain an education in the related discipline of your choosing. With technology at our disposal today, one can take advantage of online learning like never before. Sit at home and pursue your online general studies bachelor degree. With such a degree, several avenues open up to you, and you have a choice as to which career path you want to pursue in the future.
The population worldwide is aging. According to the UN, by 2050, one in six people in the world will be over the age of 65, up from one in 11 in 2019. Given that “aging” is a big and growing sector, it cannot be ignored by the software development industry. All efforts to address the aging economy and the needs of older people are called “Age-Tech.”
By analogy with “FinTech,” the term “Age-Tech” covers digital enablement of the longevity economy like FinTech shook up finance industry, including mobile payments, money transfers, loans, fundraising, asset management, etc.
“We can think of four categories of digital-enablement in Age-Tech: services purchased by older people; services purchased on behalf of older people; services traded between older and younger people; and services delivered to future older people,” says Dominic Endicott, venture capitalist and Age-Tech expert.
Whether it is a product aimed at increasing mental stimulation of our grannies or just an app to coordinate who of the family members will drive an older family member to a medical appointment, these experiences fall into the Age-Tech concept.
While news about vaccines is mostly dominated by COVID-19 right now, work is continuing to find a vaccine that can protect against different types of cancer. The latest development comes from Anixa Biosciences (ANIX:NASDAQ) and Cleveland Clinic, which has developed a breast cancer vaccine that could stop this deadly disease in its tracks.
After being in development for over a decade, the team has been given FDA approval to begin human trials, following a 100% success rate in animal trials. With breast cancer being the most common type of cancer in women worldwide, this news could have a positive outcome in the fight against the disease, as well as other types of cancer.
Breast cancer rates continue to grow worldwide
Breast cancer rates are continuing to grow, with more than 2 million cases reported every year. Survival rates have continued to improve over the years, with the five-year survival rate for a stage 1 or 2 breast cancer diagnosis being 80% and 90% in some parts of the world.
Work is ongoing to develop new treatments and a potential cure, whereas another approach has been to develop a vaccine that could prevent cancer from developing in the first place.
By Ken Perez, vice president of healthcare policy, Omnicell, Inc.
Ken Perez
A record 158 million Americans voted in the 2020 presidential election, a staggering increase of 17% versus 2016. Joe Biden garnered 81.3 million votes, while Donald Trump received 74.2 million—both more than any U.S. presidential candidate in history. In the Electoral College, Biden received 306 votes, while Trump got 236.
In the U.S. Senate Georgia runoff elections, Democrat Jon Ossoff defeated Republican incumbent David Perdue, 50.5% to 49.5%, and Democrat Raphael Warnock prevailed over Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler, 50.9% to 49.1%.
The Democrats’ sweep of the two Georgia runoff elections resulted in a 50-50 split between the Democrats and the Republicans in the Senate. Because Vice President Kamala Harris serves as president of the Senate and holds the tie-breaking vote, the Democrats are the majority party in the upper chamber, allowing Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to become the Senate Majority Leader and giving the Democrats the chairmanships of the Senate’s 24 current committees.
In the House, the Republicans registered a net gain of 11 seats, narrowing the Democratic majority to 10 seats. Currently, the Democrats have 221 representatives, the Republicans have 211, and there are three vacancies.
With Biden’s win, the Democrats’ sweep of the U.S. Senate Georgia runoff elections, and the Democrats’ retention of their majority in the House, the Democrats have control of the White House and majorities in both chambers of Congress for the first time since 2010.
As for the judicial branch, with Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation by the Senate on Oct. 26, 2020, there are six conservatives and three liberals on the Supreme Court.
Citing former President Barack Obama’s famous triumphal statement in 2009, “Elections have consequences,” many Democrats view their control of both the executive and legislative branches as a clear mandate to aggressively pursue their agenda. Some from the progressive wing of the Democratic party are urging Biden to “go big” and use his “honeymoon” period to drive his most aggressive reforms, including a public option plan, expanding Medicaid, enhancing the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplaces, lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 60, and promoting unionization and collective bargaining for healthcare workers.
Others, including moderate Democrats, advocate pursuit of a less-ambitious, more moderate bipartisan agenda, including reversal of many of former President Donald Trump’s executive orders, supporting telehealth, promoting value-based care and alternative payment models, increasing price transparency, and somehow tackling prescription drug prices.
Whether the aggressive or moderate scenario will come to pass will be largely determined by several factors.
First is the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. In Biden’s inauguration speech, he rightly said, “Our work begins with getting COVID under control.” It is job one for the Biden administration for 2021 and perhaps 2022. It is not an overstatement to say that most everything—the nation’s public health, economic recovery, and the political climate in the nation’s capital—hinges on the success of the coronavirus vaccine rollout.
The healthcare industry has seen one of the most significant growth spurts in the last two centuries. Now more than ever, we fall back on the medical sector in our times of crisis. We saw how vital the industry is for us during the pandemic and what role medical health officials play in keeping the general population safe and healthy.
