Could COVID-19 help to level the playing field for patients?

Author
Teun Schutte
Publication Date
1 September 2021

Could COVID-19 help to level the playing field for patients?

It’s hard to believe that any positives could come out of the COVID-19 pandemic — but there may be a silver lining when it comes to patient care. While this time has posed many unique logistical challenges for businesses, it has also brought attention to the ever-increasing need for more accessible digital services.

Access to healthcares is not always equally divided. These sources of inequality, often referred to as the social determinants of health, are pre-existing circumstances that have a dramatic impact on an individual’s ability to receive the care they need. The global pandemic has exacerbated some of these core issues, as closures and stay-at-home orders placed additional burdens on patients but it has also brought with it new tools that could make it easier to obtain information, self monitor, or remotely access medical professionals. 

Understanding the Social Determinants of Health

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the social determinants of health are non-medical factors that influence health outcomes. Conditions such as where someone was born, level of education, race, gender, age, and access to transportation are all examples of social determinants of health that have a profound impact on a person’s overall well-being.

Prior to the adoption of digital services, there were few ways to mitigate these barriers and provide more equitable care to everyone. And while the industry was making strides to implement more digitally accessible services before the pandemic, the large-scale shutdowns of this event truly pushed this effort into hyperdrive.

COVID-19, Technology, and Increased Accessibility

As the pandemic brought about closures and stay-at-home orders, many businesses had to be quick on their feet with implementing widespread digital services for their clients. Here is what new research on this topic is showing:

  • COVID-19 has had a direct impact on the speed of adoption of digital tools by consumers. On average, it is estimated that COVID-19 has caused a global adoption acceleration of 7 years for services that are offered either partially or completely in a digital manner.
  • In a survey conducted by Mobiquity, it was found that across all age groups there has been a noticeable increase in digital behaviors like searching the internet for information about chronic illnesses and using health management apps to control medical conditions. 
  • Digital services like telehealth and online communications have also steeply increased as a result of the pandemic. According to the CDC, the use of telehealth medical services increased by 154% during the initial shutdowns in March 2020. After this massive boom, many patients are hoping these digital services are here to stay. “My 80-year-old mother now prefers using telehealth options for her doctor appointments,” explained Scott Synder, founder of Mobiquity during a digital disruption seminar. This increase in accessibility is shattering traditional barriers to care and changing people’s behaviors when it comes to getting access to the services they need.

So, it is clear that these advancements in digital services are one way to massively increase the availability of services to a wider subset of people. When traditional life sciences services offer many accessibility barriers, digital services can help people reach the care they need to get earlier diagnoses, better treatment, and more comprehensive services.

“We are just in the dial-up era of digital adoption when it comes to bettering access to care,” explained Cris de Luca, global head of digital investments for Sanofi Ventures during a Mobiquity industry webinar. “COVID-19 has definitely added additional demand for everything to move digital.”

Building a Better Future With Life-Changing Technology

This rapid growth in the digital life sciences space has opened the door to a ton of life-changing technology. Now more accessible than ever before, digital services allow patients to have more control over their health information, support, and care. Some areas where technology is reducing traditional medical barriers include:

1. Increased Ability to Self-Assess, Diagnose and Monitor Medical Conditions from Home

Advances in digital technology are making disease self assessment, diagnosis and monitoring easier than ever before. Portable at-home ECG monitors, vital monitoring smartwatches, and mobile apps that connect directly to fitness trainers are just a few examples of accessible technology that can have a positive impact on an individual’s overall health. Increased adoption of these technologies has a dual benefit - moving services out of a healthcare facility can reduce pressure on the healthcare system via less unnecessary patient volume and will allow a wider range of people from all walks of life to get better access to the medical care and support they need.

2. Easier Participation in Digital Clinical Trials

Clinical trials for new drugs and rehabilitation technology are essential components to continual medical advancements. By offering more accessible options for participation in these trials, digital options help to increase the number of participants and better maintain compliance throughout the trial. These trials are the beginning steps to life science advancement to improve care for all future generations.

3. Digital Tools Help with Adherence 

Staying on track with prescribed medical regimes and care is not always the easiest task. Digital tools like medication reminders and tracking have been very accessible and helpful resources to help high-risk non-compliance patients stay on track with their treatment. Digital tools are an ideal solution for any health recommendation or treatment that requires a change to a patient's daily patterns and habits because they can offer the personalized reinforcement needed to build a permanent habit. This can include tracking services like voice journaling, step counting, calorie trackers, reminders to hydrate, and more are helping people monitor their habits to live healthier and happier lifestyles.

As the pandemic has been able to prove, digital services are the future of life sciences services. Able to be accessible to a wider audience of people, life sciences businesses need to continue to build their digital footprint to better tackle traditional health disparities caused by the social determinants of health.

About Mobiquity

At Mobiquity, we are proud to be leaders in digital consultancy. We love working with companies of all sizes in the life science space to facilitate conversations and growth in the development of life-changing digital technologies.

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Teun Schutte

As an expert in digital healthcare and organizational excellence, Teun Schutte is the Managing Consultant of Digital Strategy Healthcare, Mobiquity. Teun has an established career in healthcare, with a specialism in respiratory health. Beginning his career at GlaxoSmithKline, he spent over 13 years at the organization and worked across 6 different roles. Teun joined the company as a Clinical Research Manager and rose through the ranks to become the Head of Sales and Marketing for Respiratory. Teun has worked on developing digital health solutions, such as the deployment of the MyAsthma application, a COPD coach, and he was integral to the transformation of GSK towards empowerment and digitalization. In 2015 Teun completed Nyenrode Business University in Amsterdam in Healthcare Innovation and Management which further strengthened his expertise in health innovation. Teun joined Mobiquity in 2016 to strengthen the team with his healthcare strategy and digital experience. He has worked with the Princess Maxima Center for Pediatric Oncology to redefine the patient pathway from the perspective of the family. He created a digital assistant for pain management and worked in many more disease areas to design and validate digital opportunities, always with delivering value to all users value in mind. In his free time, Teun undertakes voluntary work for the Personalised Healthcare Catalyst Alliance where he has created multi-stakeholder journeys and projects for rheumatoid arthritis and depression, such as “HelpYourFriendsHelp” - a project which activates the social network for people with mental challenges. He is also a volunteer for “Het Longfonds” – a Dutch non-profit which tackles chronic lung diseases. Teun is an authority on using digital technologies to create human-centric healthcare solutions, multi-stakeholder design, respiratory healthcare solutions, realigning the patient pathway from various stakeholder perspectives, and reimagining financial well-being as part of every healthcare strategy.

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