HEALTH
30 September 2019
Sophisticated technology heralds era of predictive, more proactive healthcare
T
echnology is changing our lives through streamlining and automating processes that previously would have been far more expensive and time-consuming. Through enhanced integration and artificial intelligence, health and financial services, human capital and rewards can now better serve beneficiaries and employers alike – often predicting and pre-empting needs before they arise. Technology expert and thought leader on the new digital economy, Herman Singh, points out that the fourth industrial revolution has brought about a fundamental shift in the nature of business and customer expectations. “Information is powerful, and with the rapid acceleration in information technology it is now possible to capture, send, store and process information more easily than ever before and these processes are now virtually instantaneous and increasingly effortless,” he said, speaking at a recent think-tank hosted by health, financial services, human capital risk management and technology solutions investment group, Agility. Jacques Snyman, says that technology underpins “This is changing our lives in phenomenal ways. the powerful intelligent systems Agility has A few years ago, if I wanted to buy a book I would developed, which go further than merely predicting need to get in my car, drive to the bookshop, park risk to proactively assisting companies and the car, physically enter the shop, look for the book individuals reduce the risks they may face. and – assuming I was lucky enough to find it at “If you can measure risk, you can actively manage the first bookshop I visited – stand in a queue and it. As technology advances, we are able to do so pay for it, before driving home. This process could with ever-greater precision. Agility has been a easily take an hour or more,” he added. research- and evelopment-focused company since “Let’s examine the impact technology is having inception, and all data at a granular level has been in value-chain compression. Thanks to the developed to ensure that clinical evidence translates enhancement of technology, I can download entire into stakeholder benefit for patients, funders and books to my personal device in a split employers alike,” Dr Snyman notes. second and technology even predicts “This is evidenced by the most which books I’m likely to be interested recent industry information, which IF YOU CAN in and brings them to my attention shows that Agility’s operating MEASURE before I even ask. subsidiaries’ clients’ patient hospital RISK, YOU “In addition, if we consider the admissions rate per thousand price of a newly printed book and the CAN ACTIVELY beneficiaries was an astounding petrol it took to get it in the past, as 45% less than the industry average. MANAGE IT well as the value of my time – these Furthermore, only 15% of Agility are expenses that are now either members were re-admitted to unnecessary or hugely reduced.” hospital, compared to the industry average of 37%, Singh noted that the convenience and highly indicating the effectiveness of the Agility approach. individualised nature of such interactions has “This is thanks to the superior technology we use, raised customer expectations, which gives rise to whereby the identification of potential risk enables fresh possibilities such as how technology can be pro-active management based on need, rather than used to better serve the needs of the health and want, thereby balancing supply and demand for financial sectors more proactively. enhanced sustainability. This has a unique ability to “Sophisticated technology has brought about a highlight risks by running algorithms, and we are world of change in what is possible – for example, then able to reach out to at-risk members, and offer where an individual’s risk of a heart attack can be the necessary assistance to improve outcomes.” predicted through the application of technology. Agility’s patented Patient Driven CareTM We are constantly creating data, without necessarily programme identifies at-risk members and being aware of it, in our everyday lives. provides individualised clinical management to “Insurance companies can now score risk far pre-empt health risks. Personal health coordinators, better at individual level. Insurance used to be who provide such members with the healthcare about averaging risk-per-bucket of customers, but equivalent of a private banker’s service, ensure with the proliferation of data available and the that at-risk members are managed holistically technology that allows for billions of processes to and receive targeted care to improve their health create meaning and predictions from this data, and, in many cases, mitigate the need for potential it is possible to predict my individual risk – not hospitalisation. the risk of a group of people like me, but my “This is contrary to the market norm whereby individual risk.” members are grouped according to disease, and Director of product development and worldthese categories are managed through a silo-based renowned pharmacologist at the Agility group, Dr approach with numerous contact points for the
member, which can be time-consuming, confusing and frequently leads to multiple points of failure, often at the expense of the individual’s health and productivity,” Dr Snyman explains. “From a group risk and employee benefits perspective, it makes sense to integrate all contributing elements of risk for a more effective, holistic solution – which not only reduces administration costs but can also serve as a basis for negotiating lower group risk premiums, as the efforts to mitigate such risks are both tangible and demonstrable. “Our technologically-powered systems also enable us to provide the same level of service to individuals and employers in remote rural areas, as well as those living in large cities. This ultimately means that irrespective of a client’s geographic location, they can expect the same access and excellent outcomes,” Dr Snyman says. “One of the most powerful implications of the fourth industrial revolution is that technology extends our capacity to protect human health, as our sophisticated agile systems are becoming increasingly adept at predicting and proactively addressing risks for better health outcomes and enhanced productivity,” concludes Dr Snyman.
Dr Jacques Snyman, Director: Product Development, Agility Group
Herman Singh, CEO, Future Advisory
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