Capturing the potential of mobile business in healthcare

Contributors

Peter Siggins

Mobile business expert, communications, media and entertainment

Peter is the head of PA’s Mobile Business Unit and is highly experienced in delivering major programs and technology-enabled business transformation for the communications and media industries, both in the US and globally. Peter’s areas of specialism focus on growth strategies and establishing new levels of business performance.

Craig Wylie

Mobile business expert, life sciences

Craig is one of PA’s leading experts in life sciences. Over the past 18 years he has guided and led the delivery of complex compliance projects in the supply chain. With his strong background in systems development Craig is actively developing mobile propositions in the life sciences industry.

Klaus Hofenbitzer

Mobile business expert, life sciences

Dr Klaus Hofenbitzer has more than 15 years of experience in the healthcare industry working on medical device and pharmaceutical innovation. For the last few years Klaus focused on issues around connected health, he has worked with clients to develop mobile enabled medical devices to proof patient adherence and wireless monitoring devices. He has also designed concepts to apply mobile technology to the healthcare market.

Mobile Vision

Why is now the right time for mobile business in healthcare?

Peter Siggins:

There are a number of reasons why this the right time for mobile business in healthcare:

1. Shifts in customer expectation as demand to receive access to services in ways convenient to the patient increases

2. Technological innovation within the telecommunications and healthcare sectors that is enabling a number of services to be delivered outside of the care centre

3. Healthcare companies are looking at opportunities to generate new revenue streams

4. The opportunity mobile offers to reduce costs.

What is the promise of mobile business to Healthcare?

Craig Wylie:

The value in mobile business for healthcare falls into three main areas:

1. In order to reduce costs healthcare organizations need to reduce the infrastructure used to provide services. This can be primarily achieved by shifting customer interaction from the hospital to a technological based solution. This relies on the integrated environment where devices talk to servers and the mobile network is the infrastructure that supports this.

2. The non integrated model is the opposite of this where patients with complex diseases want more involvement in the management of their condition. Here there would often be separate equipment all using the mobile network to transmit information between a central server and the patients. This is distinctly different to the integrated model as it generates income rather then saving costs as the user is more prepared to pay for the connection cost

3. With the industry quickly moving to a reimbursement model healthcare providers need to prove that drugs are being taken in accordance with the instructions and that programs are being followed. For example I can see a carbon monoxide monitor that you have to blow into for smoking cessation.

Are we seeing a difference between Europe and the US?

Peter Siggins:

The difference isn’t at a conceptual level but at a physical infrastructure one. Due to the geographic nature of the US coverage and bandwidth can often be sporadic. For healthcare organizations in the US they initially need to be looking at the major metropolitan markets and suburbs for the bulk of their mobile business customers.

Klaus Hofenbitzer:

Another difference is reimbursement. In the US it is very fragmented as each insurance company differs with the added complication of Medicare. This is a distinct threat to mobile business in healthcare as Medicare will ask ‘who pays for these new services?’ In Europe this structure is better defined.

Customer Proposition

Can you give us examples where mobile business can be applied in healthcare?

Klaus Hofenbitzer:

As well as cost reduction information dissemination is another hot topic. For xample the hospital communities are looking to remove the cost, legal and administrative burden of patient records. The issue has always been how to give over patient records in a way that the consumer can manage their health records themselves and provide the information to other health care providers on a needs basis. Mobile business provides the perfect answer.

Craig Wylie:

Compliance around the reimbursement model is where the largest opportunity will lie for mobile business in healthcare. The industry needs an easy method to transfer information from the device over the network to the healthcare company so that they can prove that the patient actually used the treatment accurately. Many companies are looking at mobile technologies as the answer but the inhibiting factor is one of cost. Mobile network providers will have to change the approach to healthcare to create a more attractive basis for service development.

Peter Siggins:

It is important that the healthcare industry isn’t blinkered by its own issues but also looks at the learnings from other sectors to see where the revenue generating opportunities lie. Also, don’t forget that as consumers increasingly ’take control’ of their mobile phones, they will use the initiative to seek out applications, experiment and piece together their own mobile solution to a particular healthcare need.

How do you see mobile business in healthcare developing over the next three years?

Klaus Hofenbitzer:

Government policy that will support this is crucial. In the UK they have put in around £11bn into the development of new technologies including mobile healthcare devices. In the US the Obama government is putting money into the creation of electronic records.

Craig Wylie:

Healthcare monitors, similar in concept to black box flight recorders on planes, could be employed with critically ill patients. For example if a patient has a heart attack at home the most important thing for the paramedics and doctors to know is the nature of the heart attack. As well as supplying information for that condition the same information is enormously useful for the people who are looking at the cause of conditions to help stop it reoccurring.

Business capability

Are there problem areas for this highly regulated industry?

Craig Wylie:

Security of data is paramount in the healthcare sector. The move to mobile business would lead to an increase in the volume of information being transmitted and held in offsite servers (the cloud). PA has worked with a number of financial institutions and there a lot of learnings we can take from this sector. Interestingly mobile communication devices offer greater security then information transmitted over the internet.

What are the changes in strategic thinking that companies need to adopt to ensure success?

Peter Siggins:

We can break this down into two areas:

1. Tactical. Within the healthcare industry there are a number services delivered online that could be more efficiently delivered through the mobile channel.

2. Strategic. Healthcare companies need to embrace open innovation because there are so many possibilities that are potentially ‘game changing’. Looking at this from an organizational and a governance perspective there is a need to push out innovative developments into the enterprise. This is a significant management challenge, particularly finding the right structures to be agile and manage commercial risk.

What is the one key insight that you think people who are looking to enter this market should know?

Peter Siggins:

Recognizing that mobile business in healthcare cannot be achieved alone is the first step. The ecosystem to realize the potential of mobile business is vast but properly engaged and navigated it will deliver significant benefits to cost, revenue, customer satisfaction and research. We have seen mobile network operators, vendors, device manufacturers and most importantly application developers all start to take a very keen interest in this industry. I think that there is a significant source of competitive advantage to engage in those discussions now.

Klaus Hofenbitzer:

Healthcare companies that are going into this space need to ensure that the reimbursement structure is in place. There are a number of pitfalls at the moment to reimbursement. Developments have been taken to market and found that nobody will pay for it. This is one of the biggest threats.

Craig Wylie:

The changes are not just on the healthcare industries side but also with the mobile network operators. There is a challenge around cost. The network access cost is prohibitive if it is aggregated up to all the patients together. The network providers need to look at products and pricing plans understanding that there will be millions more people using the devices. So a small amount of data will make a big amount of money. 

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