The healthcare sector has been through one of the most torrid periods in living memory. Hospitals have been repurposed as the last line of defence against Covid-19, placing nearly half those in need of elective care on hold. There is a global shortage of qualified healthcare workers, and this is compounded in an industry faced with an increasing chronic disease burden.
Technology has come forward as enablement towards strengthened health data systems of a battered healthcare sector. For example, Microsoft’s collaboration with FedEx to track vaccine inventory in real time, and artifical intelligence (AI) based chatbot technology that is able to provide personalised answers to questions on Covid-19 and deal with misinformation around the vaccine’s adverse effects upon administration of the jab.
This is just the start of an acceleration of an entirely new approach for the healthcare sector using technological solutions.
Moneyweb found out more from Sikhumbuzo Ngcobo, Public Sector Director at Microsoft South Africa.
1. What are some of the ways that technology is being deployed to assist in a rapid and fair distribution of Covid-19 vaccines?
The Covid-19 pandemic has negatively impacted our health, economy, and livelihoods the world over. Public health non-pharmaceutical interventions such as wearing masks, social distancing, avoiding large gatherings, and washing hands have demonstrated benefit in curbing the spread of infection, but when implemented inconsistently and unevenly have limited effectiveness.
Fortunately, the new year ushers in the arrival of recently approved vaccines, which we know will provide much-needed assistance in relieving the pressure on our healthcare system and frontline workers. This however comes with a new challenge – accelerating the secure and safe distribution of vaccines that can achieve population immunity to communities and help restore a sense of normalcy in our lives.
The World Economic Forum describes logistics around Covid-19 vaccines as The challenge of a lifetime and that to achieve global distribution “technology will play a pivotal role in ensuring the smooth execution along every step of the supply chain and inventory requirements … currently, no platform exists that covers all those visibility needs”.
Technology will be an essential role player in accelerating the distribution of the vaccine and evaluating, using global real-world data, how long the immunity lasts after vaccination to assess reinfection risks and determine if and when revaccination is necessary. More importantly, vaccine administration requires a real-time dashboard to be used for analytics and reporting to track the progress of the vaccine management against the envisaged targets.
The Microsoft Vaccination Management platform includes a growing collection of vaccination-specific solutions from Microsoft and our partner ecosystem.
They are designed to enable and extend an organisation’s vaccination management capability and create end-to-end experiences for citizens, frontline vaccine administrators and healthcare providers. They enable registration and prioritised scheduling of appointments, optimise material management by streamlining automatic replenishment of supplies, allow track-and-trace monitoring of prescriptions and medical supply deliveries, and streamline reporting to help public health systems stay focused on getting the vaccines, resources, and services where and when they’re needed.
Using data and AI solutions can provide actionable insights that enable public health and government officials to make informed policy decisions, define budgetary requirements, determine the requisite resources, and help avoid supply disruption.
Embracing the power of digital we will see medicine becoming preventative as well as more personalised and precise on patient diagnosis. Along with the power of human innovation and strategic partnerships, we can forge support towards the continuity and stability of public health and safety in every country as we work to halt the ravaging impact of the pandemic and prepare for any future public health crisis.
Pre-registration and phased scheduling
Unlike the flu injection, where individuals can simply request and receive one, the Covid-19 vaccine is in limited supply. Vaccinations are being prioritised as per the vulnerability of the identified groups, taking into account that proposed phases require critical mass to scale to more people. While several prioritisation models have been proposed, such as the Fair Priority Model and that which has been outlined by the Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices, the adoption of these and other guidelines has been highly variable and subject to local interpretation.
Pre-registration is not a new concept. It involves registering individuals prior to them fulfilling eligibility criteria. By separating the two processes and enabling pre-registration to take place in advance of scheduling, analytics and AI can be applied to the pre-registration results to help predict which populations require further attention, where they are located, and the types of outreach most likely to increase vaccine registration rates in those communities.
By exploring innovative approaches and leveraging technology, health organisations can impact the timelines for delivering vaccines securely, equitably, and with speed – which will ultimately save lives and help end the pandemic. Microsoft and its partners are committed to doing our part to help the global community deliver vaccinations in a safe, efficient, and prioritised manner.
2. Vaccines are in short supply around the world, and that may leave some vulnerable groups exposed to risk. How can technology solve this problem?
It has to start with partnerships between public and private sector organisations around the world, to deliver vaccines as quickly as possible, but also in a secure and equitable manner.
Globally, our discussions with public health officials and customers have helped us identify a number of imperatives that any vaccine management offering should meet.
These include:
- Purpose-driven solutions designed for fair, equitable, and efficient procurement and distribution of the vaccine.
- Comprehensive use cases that support cold chain supply management and patient/provider/clinic registration followed by phased vaccination scheduling and management with forecasting tools.
- Automated reporting to local, regional, and national agencies related to vaccination progress and capture of potential side effects from the vaccine.
- Leveraging of existing data systems and interoperability standards to facilitate rapid implementation at lower costs. By leveraging interoperability standards, clinical data can be shared in a scalable manner.
- Security, privacy and compliance are non-negotiable characteristics of any platform used by public sector and health entities.
Given the scale and complexity of what is needed, no single government or organisation can solve the vaccine distribution challenge on its own.
Partnerships are essential to meet the challenges ahead.
It will take strategic alliances, an ecosystem of delivery partners, and interoperable technology offerings that are secure, transparent, and can scale to meet global demand.
Data and AI solutions will be especially important to provide insights and enable public health and government officials to make informed decisions about the virus and facilitate cross-agency collaboration, enable remote work, and deliver trusted services without interruption.
3. One of the biggest impacts felt by those afflicted by Covid is isolation from family and friends, and this can deepen an already severe medical condition. Can technology assist here?
The short answer is yes.
Earlier this year, Netcare launched its Family Connect Line Service to connect patients’ next of kin with trained call centre professionals to get updates and feedback on the patient’s status.
Messages between the family and patient are relayed where direct communication isn’t otherwise possible.
Another local example of how technology is ensuring connectedness between patients and their families is from Tygerberg Hospital, which has deployed a robot named Quintin to enable video calls. By making use of a cellphone app, healthcare staff can steer Quintin into the ICU ward and let patients see and talk to their loved ones.
4. According to a health security study, $6.2 billion is lost due to data breaches in the sector each year. Apart from the financial cost, there is the issue of patient privacy. What solutions are being developed to address this issue?
With cybercriminals increasingly targeting health organisations, keeping patient clinical and non-clinical data secure while preserving privacy and maintaining the data’s confidentiality, integrity, and availability should be a key priority for healthcare organisations.
Cybersecurity is more than a firewall that keeps out intruders or prevents data from flowing out, it creates trust and health providers must have proactive cyber-threat intelligence
Any risk of hospital data security breach should be avoided at all costs because the impact can affect the entire operations of a health organisation.
There are six best practices that healthcare organisations can consider:
- Treat cybersecurity as a digital transformation enabler: By shifting cybersecurity’s core purpose from preventing breaches to enabling innovation, healthcare organisations can dramatically narrow the disconnect between security requirements and business needs. This will put them in a better position to safeguard their digital services from cyberattack and engender greater trust in their patients.
- Invest to strengthen fundamentals: Prevent cybersecurity incidents by maintaining the basics, such as strong passwords, multi-factor authentication and efficient patching.
- Use integrated best-of-suite tools: Complexity is a big issue today, with too many cybersecurity solutions in an enterprise causing confusion and difficulties. Simplifying the setup brings better results.
- Continuously assess and review: Check for compliance with security best practices and industry regulations regularly to ensure gaps do not appear over time.
- Leverage cloud as a platform: Through cloud services, healthcare organisations will be able to implement a layered, in-depth cyber-defence strategy across data and networks while enhancing the protection of apps and infrastructure using built-in security services. Some cloud platforms also deliver comprehensive security intelligence by monitoring billions of cloud app events daily. This enables organisations to detect rapidly evolving threats early by identifying abnormal file and user behaviour, allowing them to swiftly respond, investigate and remediate the situation.
- Tap into AI and automation: There are too many moving parts in a healthcare organisation’s digital operation today for IT managers to keep track of. AI and automation will help these organisations extend their cybersecurity capabilities, allowing them to free up more resources and time to focus on their core duties.
Security and compliance remain a strategic priority for healthcare organisations, and the shift to remote work only increases the need for integrated, end-to-end security architecture that reduces both cost and complexity.
5. Given all that we’ve been through in the last year, what kind of a healthcare sector can we envisage two to three years from now, using the tools that are now being developed by Microsoft and others?
If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that no business is immune to a crisis, and no organisation is 100% resilient. Healthcare systems need to be more focused on driving digital transformation that is patient-centric and designed to improve the health outcomes.
According to the World Bank as many as 80% of Africans rely on public health facilities, but these often face shortfalls in both medicines and skills. Furthermore, research has found that despite carrying a huge healthcare load – around 24% of the world’s disease burden – Africa only has 3% of the global health workforce.
We are working with our partners, and public sector stakeholders to find ways to:
(a) create platforms that integrate and digitise patient information for ease of access and to preserve medical histories, and
(b) deliver more digitally driven services where connectivity might otherwise be prohibitive.
The growth in mobile technology
With SA estimated to have 95% smart phone penetration, thereby democratising communication tools on the continent – and pairing this with hyperscale cloud-based infrastructure and tools – we can unlock the full potential of these services.
Through our 4Afrika initiative, and in partnership with access.mobile, we are leveraging amHealth – an affordable, secure and easy-to-use technology that simplifies practice management and improves patient engagement.
Being able to communicate with patients via text, or through a mobile channel, reminding them about post-consultative care or healthcare management issues, doctors are able to build long-standing, trusted relationships with patients while helping them to take ownership of their health.
Turning insights into actions
AI and cloud computing are changing the way healthcare is delivered to communities.
Using big data and analytics, real-time insights are being delivered to enable significant health outcomes and boost the effectiveness of healthcare. Our work with BroadReach Group has most recently resulted in integration of Microsoft Cloud for Health with its Vantage solution to deliver not only integrated capabilities, but also automation, efficiency and deep data functionality that enables healthcare organisations to turn insights into actions – in essence using AI to power human action to save lives, increasing accuracy and objectivity.
Prior to Covid, we had already initiated technology solutions to help digitise and modernise healthcare. One of these was a pilot initiative with the Limpopo Department of Health (DoH) at the Rethabile Clinic in Polokwane in partnership with Mint Group, which has demonstrated the viability of intelligent healthcare at government clinics through the application of AI.
With plans to transform 400 of Limpopo’s clinics into intelligent healthcare facilities, the DoH will address some of the challenges plaguing the Limpopo citizens that are reliant on the public healthcare system.
A video case study is available here.
We see a growing role for mixed reality solutions in healthcare, which enable surgeons to improve medical practice during surgery by merging the real and virtual worlds. Mixed reality superimposes digital visualisations onto physical objects, providing surgeons with visuals of relevant information during procedures, underpinned by providing fast access to complete and secured patient data.
Our HoloLens2 is already being used by surgeons today. We recently hosted a 24-hour holographic surgery, conducting 13 surgeries from 13 different countries, where surgeons were ‘conferenced in’ to assist with a complex procedure. Professor Stephen Roche, Orthopaedic Surgeon at Groote Schuur Hospital, represented South Africa and assisted in three of the 13 surgeries, both here in South Africa as well as two surgeries conducted in France and Germany.
Brought to you by Microsoft South Africa.
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