SET FOR THE NEXT NORMAL?

Similar to the industrial revolution that transformed production and shifted mass populations two centuries ago, the digital revolution has had sweeping changes in the way people communicate, conduct business, and even how they receive and provide services across all industries.

In healthcare, major market forces are dramatically changing the landscape of an industry that has historically been deliberate and methodical in its adaptation to change.

According to Peter Kanda, CIO, Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital, the disruptive dynamics and digital technologies unleashed into the healthcare space have set up an unprecedented environment for creating industry leaders.

Far Reaching Impacts

Recently nominated the Top 10 East Africa CIO of the Year Award, Kanda asserts that now, more than ever before, the healthcare industry has an opportunity to deliberately invest and adopt more thoughtful product development and supply-chain lifecycle management practices to not only survive but also grow.

“In barely a generation, digitalization has almost completely transformed modern life, with far reaching impacts that we seemingly now take for granted,” observed Kanda adding that in healthcare, the industry should brace for another next normal.

Having grown through the ranks to become the CIO in mid-January 2019 after joining the Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital in July of 2013 as a Systems and database developer,

Kanda notes that the healthcare industry is transforming faster than was anticipated. The unprecedented COVID-19 has accelerated the tempo of a wave of change more inclined on digitalization.

Speed and Agility

With a core target segment of 0-21 years, Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital nonetheless serves a growing profile of patients, among them adults requiring dental services and others queued for vaccination.

Holding the belief that although the healthcare sector may have over the years moved slowly in its response to the digital disruption, his proclaim that rewards will be significant for those who respond to this market with speed and agility will win resonates with the macro-trends that are disrupting healthcare’s status quo. Passionate about using IT to advance and enhance positive intelligent outcomes Kanda considers that people driven innovations are increasingly asserting influence over the market. The entrance of nontraditional players to the marketplace, digitally native innovators eager to test-drive their expertise in the healthcare domain are a gamechanger.

Pace of Innovation

Since safe, effective delivery of therapy and ensuring optimal patient care have long been the primary concerns of the healthcare industry, which has as a result, dragged digital transformation, the industry must now awaken to blend what has over the years considered as a product development and lifecycle management.

Lately the sector driven forward by a conservative and steady pace befitting the fulfilment of these concerns that has resulted in product lifecycles stretching out to as long as 10-15 years.

Today, the industry is increasingly experiencing a reliance on a wedding of technology into the product and healthcare system mix that is altering the traditional product lifecycle expectations. This new dynamic is here to stay and requires management going forward. There is much to learn from consumer technology, particularly within the automotive and transportation markets

Accessible and Affordable Healthcare

Soon after Kanda’s nomination in 2019 among the Top 10 contesting for the prestigious East Africa CIO of the Year Award, he said; “It humbles to be nominated to compete among my fellow industry colleagues in this great profession. I first I would like to thank the team I worked with, the management and the board for unwavering support. I am privileged to work in the healthcare sector at a time such as this motivates me to want to solve problems that will make healthcare accessible and affordable.”

Among the Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital projects, Kanda presented for review to five major projects having segmented them on what the health facility wanted to achieve. These were Email Migration to Cloud, Nextgen Firewall Migration, Managed Network Migration, Migration to Navision and Migration HMIS infrastructure. These activities had a huge impact on the organization reducing the number of calls that the ICT team were facing on a daily basis.