Technology to set the pulse racing

Jacobson says there's a New Zealand-developed app that can turn around a blood analysis test in an hour. Photo / Thinkstock

Can technology bring to the healthcare sector the disruptive change and efficiencies that have transformed other industries? Gen-i health sector lead Jo-Ann Jacobson says it can, but there are formidable barriers.

Five technologies are sweeping through private industry and government: fibre-based broadband, the rise of mobile devices, cloud computing, big data and the internet of things. All have a place in healthcare.

Fibre is the most obvious candidate. When government first planned the UFB network, it named healthcare as a priority customer. All urban health centres are to be connected to the network by the end of 2015.

This makes high-definition video-based doctoring a reality. Jacobson says one ENT surgeon working on a link in Hawkes Bay said he could see the membrane in a remote ear better than he could if he were treating the patient in his own office.

The internet of things is seeing a wide range of devices being connected to networks. In healthcare this often means using remote sensors. They don't just monitor people. Gen-i is involved in an air monitoring programme in Christchurch which tests air quality and links this to data collected from inhalers. The information can be used to identify problem areas, improve air quality and ease the strain on people with breathing disorders.

Jacobson sees huge potential for the internet of things with home-based healthcare. Video-doctoring also has a role here, but sensors monitoring patients can do a lot of heavy lifting for health professionals.

A device may check to see if an elderly person is moving around the house in a normal pattern - if not, it can trigger an alarm. Remote heart and temperature monitoring can detect early warnings of problems.

Mobile devices like smartphones also have a role. Jacobson says there's a New Zealand-developed app that can turn around a blood analysis test in an hour. That can make a huge difference.

Though these changes are exciting, the healthcare sector is a relative laggard when it comes to adopting the latest technologies. This has more to do with the structure of existing systems than any luddite tendencies.

Jacobson says healthcare organisations spend more of their IT budgets on infrastructure and keeping systems running than their counterparts in other sectors. On top of this they face problems with funding and all the challenges of maintaining patient privacy and data integrity.

One route around these problems has seen Gen-i buy back infrastructure from healthcare companies and wrap the assets into its own services. Jacobson says that gives capital back to healthcare companies allowing them to invest in, among other things, cloud services.

"Not just any old cloud. It has to meet stringent privacy and security requirements." She says Gen-i's Revera unit is one of three government-certified infrastructure service providers able to tick all the right boxes.

Once infrastructure problems are solved, healthcare providers can look at other innovative approaches. There is a huge potential for big data analysis, making planning, forecasting and healthcare purchasing more efficient.