How embracing digital transformation in healthcare can help improve citizen health post pandemic

EY partnered with Imperial College London’s Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI) and YouGov, to undertake a research into the use of digital technologies and data solutions in the Health and Social Sector (HSS) landscape. The research aims to understand how HSS providers have used digital solutions during the COVID-19 crisis and how they anticipate service delivery altering in the future. The objective of the study was also to gain insights on how several Health and Human Services (HHS) providers have unlocked the power of digital to redesign services and delivered effective and focused solutions, which led to better health outcomes for citizens and patients.

The report is based on a YouGov survey with responses from 2,243 health and human services professionals in six countries – India, Australia, Italy, UAE, UK, US. The number of respondents in India was 359.The findings reveal that the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital solutions and brought about a substantial shift in the attitudes of HSS professionals with respect to using technology in their everyday work. Interestingly, India has witnessed one of the highest adoptions of digital technologies by HSS organizations among the countries surveyed.

India success story with digital technologies and data solutions

• Phone and video consultations have seen the greatest uptake across all tech solutions, with phone consultations being offered by 86% of HHS organizations and video consultations available from 83% of organizations.
• The public sector organisations in India preferred digital tools for self-help (92% organisations) and online self-assessment tools (89% organisations) over phone consultation and video consultation.
• 69% of respondents in India reported that their capability to deliver service had improved since the pandemic owing to employing a broader range of digital and analytical solutions
• Three fourth of the respondents reported positive experiences with digital technologies and data solutions, leading to better collaboration and efficiency in the operating model.

Key challenges in HHS and barriers to technology adoption

According to the survey, organizations continue to face several challenges such as maintaining safety and wellbeing of staff, maintaining access to care, operating within the budget, and managing workforce capacity while they respond to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Privacy concerns, ethical concerns about using digital technology and loss of human interaction are some of the major barriers preventing rapid adoption of technologies in India. Nearly 40% of the respondents from India listed ethics and privacy concerns as one of the most prevalent barriers significantly higher than other countries in our sample, with only 11% of UK respondents and 20% of US respondents, respectively, citing this as a main barrier.

Widespread technology use will continue in the future

• 75% of respondents from India indicated that they plan to further invest in digital solutions and technologies over the next 3 years and that the level of investment will be more than 50% as compared to the previous 3 years.
• Regarding the future, mental health services are more likely to report planned investments in AI-powered diagnostic solutions over the next three years in India, at 81%, compared with 77% and 76% for physical health services and social services respectively.

The vital question now is, are we prepared to address the key pre-COVID and post-COVID barriers highlighted in the survey? Some of the pre-COVID barriers include the ability to protect an individual’s identity and personal information, ethical concerns about the use of technology, while post-COVID barriers include lack of adequate financial resources to acquire needed tools, technologies and equipment. Will we continue with the top enablers for digital adoption during the COVID period such as rapid development of strategic plan for digital adoption and improving service users’ proficiency to use the tools?

The focus now should be on putting in place the right processes, digital tools and skills that are required to meet the medical needs of a post-pandemic world, and to prepare for any future health crises.