Speaking on health sector evolution following the Federal Election on 18 May he said:
“Right now, we are helping our health sector clients reimagine the future. The same impact of Amazon on retail and logistics, Uber on transport and food delivery, will transform the health sector sooner than we expect."
According to Mr Evans, Australian health care is on what he calls, ‘the cusp of connectivity’ – a future where health care will be significantly enabled by technology – connecting people, care providers and information – in a way that is centred entirely around the needs, convenience and experience of the consumer.
This will impact every aspect of the health care service chain, not just through use of apps and devices, but other areas, such as the way patient-doctor interactions will occur, the location services will be provided – home or hospital, how you receive medication and other consumables, sharing of health information, artificial intelligence assisted diagnosis and robotics to deliver treatment.
This reimagined model of care is equally applicable to aged and disability care, perhaps with even more imperative for change and to seek cost effective solutions given some of the concerns currently before the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.
The future is exciting, as these solutions will close the gap between services that are available to people in the cities but less so to regional and remote communities. This will better enable our world-class health system to be accessible by everybody, regardless of location.
He points to five areas where the sector is witnessing rapid change right now:
- Home Health - mobile health apps and trackers that deliver access to high quality information and remote home monitoring. We will shortly see patients who input their own data and questions to liaise with an actual ‘Google Doctor’ – this may be a doctor or nurse practitioner located anywhere in the world or be done by algorithms supported by artificial intelligence.
- Health Trackers – the arrival of connected health technology where devices such as smart watches can track signs and symptoms with data analysis to provide information and feedback to the consumer, or with permission send alerts to a third party provider. When connected to your health care providers and your health records, this truly is a connected world of health.
- Telemedicine – Teleconference via Skype or some other technology to replace many of the traditional face-to-face doctor-patient consultations. Connected to Health Trackers this will provide real time vital sign information, access to all available health information, with the ability of the doctor to provide electronic prescriptions and referrals.
- Mobile Health Workforce – To address cases where Telemedicine is not enough, a device enabled health care professional will come to you. This may not necessarily be a general practitioner, but may be a professional working under the direction of a medical practitioner who is at a central location. For certain health care and surgical procedures, the health care team may come to you in order to deliver the service and/or after care in your home.
- Air Drop – prescription drugs and other consumables can be delivered by autonomous vehicle or drone. The Royal Flying Doctor Service is currently looking at drones to overcome the tyranny of distance, read more.
The opportunity exists for a provider on its own or in partnership to bring all of these things together, for a "one stop shop", in a seamless and consumer centric way.
“Inherent in these rapidly emerging technologies are both challenges and opportunities for the health care sector in Australia,” said Shane Evans. “In legal terms, MinterEllison is experiencing increasing demand to advise on patient safety, insurance, liability, privacy and management of health information, cyber security, workforce reform, contracts and navigation of existing regulation that has not caught up with the pace of change and impact of digital disruption. These are vital parts of getting the modelling and management right.”
On the risk side, Shane Evans said he saw three key areas of immediate focus:
1. Change Resistance - the reluctance of organisations to embrace change and move away from traditional models and bricks and mortar could be a major impediment to future success.
“Australia is moving into a new paradigm for health care delivery where the focus is on the patient and patient centricity,” he said. “That means people will be spending longer at home and less time in hospital in the future. In turn, that impacts the traditional hospital model that has driven health care delivery for more than a century."
"It would be a danger to believe that health care is special or different, and so immune from the forces of change that are impacting other industries. This is simply not the case"
2. Technology Downtime - the consistency and reliability of technology was a second key area of concern where the decentralised model of home care also gives rise to more in home risk.
“When you are in an environment such as a hospital where there are qualified practitioners immediately on hand, technology fails will have effective workarounds. Services that move out of this environment must recognise and manage this risk as a key area of concern in designing future delivery models for the health sector.”
3. Workforce Transformation - the health workforce of the future will look much different to the current workforce.
"The skills required of the health workforce of the future will be radically different to the current skills sets. There will be new skills required and some will no longer exist. This starts with education and training, which will have to forward plan to ensure the workforce is ready, because if it is not then others will find ways to fill the gaps".
