With the ongoing transition to value-based care, the importance of
technology is growing, for patient engagement increase, data management for
informed decision-making and introduction of more effective treatments.
However, the advancement of all these is complicated by limited resources and
lack of reimbursement. Such are the conclusions of the third annual Top of Mind
for Top Health Systems survey from the Center for Connected Medicine (CCM)
conducted in partnership with KLAS Research.
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The survey took place from May through August 2019. 70 leaders (chief
information officers, executives and directors) at 65 health systems across the
USA shared their views on three focus areas: patient engagement, data aggregation and
analytics, and precision medicine.
Patient Engagement
There is a growing tendency for patients to expect a
digital experience in healthcare on a level similar to those offered in more
technologically advanced industries. Specifically, patient portals, which are commonly an
extension of the electronic health record, are the dominant technology for engaging with
patients (this said by 82% of respondents).
However, the adoption levels are still low. On average, only 35% of patients
have adopted the available technologies. Furthermore, 46% of executives consider
patients to be the biggest obstacle on the path to increased adoption of
patient engagement technologies.
Lack
of reimbursement is another major challenge. For example, in telemedicine,
which together with patient portals is one of the dominant technologies for
patient engagement, payer buy-in is insufficient, the respondents said.
Still, investment
in patient engagement technologies is growing, with priority being given to telemedicine
(80%), patient portals (70%) and remote patient monitoring (57%).
Data Aggregation and Analytics
According to the report, the ability to manage multiple
sources of data is a top priority for health systems on their way to
value-based care, improved efficiency and reduced expenses.
So far, on average 71% of data from clinical sources are
integrated, the report indicates, with the average share for all patient data
(eg claims and other non-clinical data) integrated being 61%.
Here, however, limited funding and resources are again named as a major impediment to
complete data aggregation: this opinion was expressed by 44% of respondents.
Similar share also mentioned technical barriers, such as poor data normalisation (44%) and
lack of data standards (40%). Intentional data blocking is often named as a
hurdle by small healthcare organisations, with IT vendors being held
responsible for lack of standards and interoperability, according to about a half
of survey respondents.
Precision Medicine
Despite precision medicine attracting increased interest
from health systems, issues such as high entry barriers, uncertain finding
models, reimbursement
and return on investment are regarded as prohibitive by the respondents.
Due to
difficulties associated with the market entry, only 12% of those interviewed – mostly
larger organisations – have adopted the precision medicine technology
(particularly, in oncology) on what can be called a mature level. In the
meantime, for nearly 70%, deployment of precision medicine is still very
low or non-existent.
The
fee-for-service or out-of-pocket payment models are the most common sources of
funding for precision medicine. Getting payers to reimburse and earning a
return on investment, on the other hand, are still a challenge. Nevertheless, a
major shift is expected: 73% of respondents believe that in two years’ time value-based
payments will be the primary payment model for such cases.
Full
report can be downloaded here.
Source: Center for Connected Medicine
Image credit: iStock
