Redefining the patient journey: the role of hospitals in the future

This episode features:

• Dr. Shez Partovi, Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer at Royal Philips
• Dr. Zubin Daruwalla, Health Industries Leader at PwC Singapore
• Dr. Harish Pillai, Chief Executive Officer at Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings in the Philippines

An efficient, patient-centered healthcare system is one that delivers the right care, at the right time, in the right place. This requires care to be organized seamlessly around people’s health journey, across disciplines and across settings - connecting people, data and technology.

Smart hospitals play a pivotal role in the smart and connected healthcare ecosystem of the future. By embedding digital technologies into every aspect of care delivery, hospitals can improve operational efficiencies, deliver clinical excellence, and provide seamless end-to-end patient experiences both within and beyond hospital walls.

Lessons learned from the pandemic present an opportunity to rethink how, and where care can be delivered to those that need it most, challenging today’s notion of hospitals as de facto healthcare providers.

Healthcare does not need to be defined by the walls in which it takes place. Through effective data integration, AI-enabled clinical decision support tools, and wearables, the physical proximity between the healthcare consumer and their provider is no longer a limiting factor for high quality care.

Thanks to remote patient monitoring, virtual collaboration, and other emerging digital technologies, much of the routine care that has traditionally been delivered in hospitals can move into lower-cost settings, reserving hospitals for acutely ill patients while delivering continuous and preventative care to the rest of the patient population. In this way, care becomes more accessible and convenient for the patient and less expensive for the provider to deliver.

Over time, we envision that this will result in the emergence of smart ecosystems of care, in which secure digital infrastructures and technologies seamlessly connect the hospital to the home and the community. Rather than being tied to one central location, healthcare will become a distributed network. New care delivery models – including virtual care, mobile care, and walk-in care – will bring care closer to the patient.

Healthcare Redefined is a series commissioned by Philips through the Economist Impact. The program explores the vital issues driving digital change and innovation in the healthcare sector in the Asia-Pacific region.

From leveraging digital health technologies and adopting new models of care, to addressing challenges related to workforce shortages and the impact of the climate crisis; the series will explore the opportunities driven by digital transformation to redefine the future of healthcare delivery in the Asia-Pacific region, while building sustainable and resilient health systems.

 
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