Optimized Healthcare Operations through Innovation and Digitization
To prevent the risk of COVID-19 infection, healthcare organisations are having to limit how many patients come for in-person care. This requires using digital platforms to get ahead of the curve and stratify patients, according to their health needs, to deliver the right care to the right patient at the right time.
BC Platforms is working with Finland’s largest healthcare provider to enable a digitally orchestrated care model for early disease prevention, using technology to prioritise early interventions and deliver them digitally if possible.
Optimize and Coordinate Care Delivery with a Digital Strategy
One of the biggest challenges that healthcare organisations face is managing fragmented clinical data, unruly healthcare operations, and complex research insights. Internal software and manual processing is often insufficient, slow, and error-prone. There is a clear need for automation and digitalization to support efficient processes for better patient care, while maintaining high levels of documentation and quality control.
Not immune to these challenges, the largest healthcare organization in Finland aims to deliver quality care efficiently and cost effectively. In its strategy, this organization recognized that digitalisation of data management is essential to optimise clinical outcomes. This healthcare system was dealing with increasing costs and demands for specialist care as a result of rising population health needs. To support their digitalization journey, they partnered with BC Platforms.
Digitalization drives efficiency through solutions for patient stratification and risk management
BC Platforms’ discovery and research platform provides an end-to-end solution for integrating data from various sources, through a technology platform for intelligent patient stratification. In collaboration with this large healthcare organization, the approach is to integrate 3 different digitally orchestrated care models into efficient clinical processes for patient benefit. This method will leverage the solution to include genomic data along with clinical data, with the goal of adopting polygenic risk scores in everyday clinical practice to inform decision making.
The model is being applied to the prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD). Around 5% of high risk cardiac patients account for most of the mortality, morbidity and costs of treatment in this disease. This project seeks to use integrated data and technology solutions to predict those 5% who are at the highest genetic risk of having a new cardiac event and to triage them into a patient pathway with more intensive monitoring and interventions.
The overarching impact of digitization
Innovative technology solutions allow the latest scientific advancements and experimental data to integrate smoothly into daily clinical practice, enabling the infinite loop between patient care and research discoveries as data on outcomes flows back into the system to inform drug development and treatments.
With BC Platforms’ solution in 2020, the largest healthcare organization in Finland has been able to convert roughly 10% of their visits to telehealth. By the end of 2021, they aim to continue applying this technology to move 20% of their visits to be via telehealth. With digital optimization, the hospital is well on track to achieving this goal.
Generally, public hospitals have a basic mission to treat sick patients. Through digitalization, this organization is going further by practicing medicine with a predictive and preventive approach. Besides improving care, this also reduces costs and the need for in-person visits, factors that are hugely important during a pandemic.