HEALTHCARE INSIGHT: HEALTH TECHNOLOGY E-claims can be an important starting point for the digitisation of health systems at a national scale.
China-based Ping An Good Doctor came from providing online medical consultations to becoming China’s largest healthcare platform.
as this sounds, e-claims can be an important starting point for the digitisation of health systems at a national scale. The rise of e-claims demonstrates the underlying benefit that technology has provided through the creation, management, and harmonisation of large databases, setting the stage for powerful data analytics and increasingly AI-driven decisionmaking. Following this example, many countries can leverage e-claims as a practical starting point to provide their citizens with meaningful and relevant personal data,” he says. Bitter pills to swallow The Asian healthtech industry exceeded $6.3b in funding in 2018, making it the second-largest digital health ecosystem in the world, surpassed only by the US. Despite the boom in healthtech funding, Asian startups also have to grapple with a slew of challenges, including inconsistent domestic regulations, concerns about privacy, and lack of technical support. “The biggest challenge faced by healthtech companies is scalability, often challenged by the hyperlocalisation seen within each market. Specifically, you have a diverse consumer base with different levels of digital literacy and lifestyles consuming healthcare services in different ways and relying on different models of financing and 18
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reimbursements. In many markets, government schemes and private insurance offerings are not yet set up to cover healthtech services. “We also observe an absence of regulation updates to reflect and support healthtech trends— innovators run considerable risk of unintentionally violating local regulations when penetrating new markets,” Mistry adds. To remedy these issues, Mistry notes that companies should direct resources on building a comprehensive information bank on consumer needs in each local market and the regulatory landscape affecting healthcare decisions. Companies should also seek out dedicated test environments such as regulatory sandboxes, engage regulatory consultants and internal champions, define key success metrics early on, and team up with partners experienced in commercialising successful experiments and proofs of concept. Singapore, for instance, has launched a regulatory sandbox to better understand new innovative services, including telemedicine. It has even introduced an online course to guide doctors on designing and delivering telemedicine services that prioritise patient safety and welfare. With the regulatory sandbox, policymakers can review an effective, efficient and appropriate way to support innovation, whilst delivering care that prioritises
patient safety and welfare. Another key issue is overcoming the human response to new technology deployed within the healthcare system. “Surprisingly, the use of clinical decision-support technology or artificial intelligence to address patients’ needs isn’t the key challenge. Oftentimes, healthcare providers observe improved care and reduced overall costs when deploying learning systems to pinpoint health issues in diagnostic settings,” Shuchi says. “If the users themselves don’t embrace healthtech or understand the value it offers, they are not likely to accept any change. Savvy innovators in ASEAN countries and elsewhere are recognising that invention is not enough. It will take ongoing education and continued technical support to make significant strides in this area,” he adds. Ensuring privacy and security Safeguarding patient privacy is another obstacle that many healthtech firms face. “One of the biggest stumbling blocks to advanced clinical research and patient care is ensuring individual privacy,” Shuchi says. He explains that for instance, people with serious chronic illnesses are often eager to share personal data with drug developers. “They are hoping for a quid pro quo, that a treatment will be found sooner. This is understandably a very critical matter to these patients. That said, there needs to be defined guidelines around this exchange of information. Healthtech companies must take the lead in this conversation and address the needs of the people they seek to mobilise‒people with serious health concerns‒as well as ethical and legal regulations. I cannot stress enough the importance of setting the right environment for change,” he notes. To address this problem, Finn Asia’s report stresses that national governments should craft robust cybersecurity and privacy laws that evolve with technological advances. Governments should invest in national digital health metadata and data standards, and ensure that
