Innovating Patient Care: Are We Ready?

Even before COVID-19 hit, technology had begun altering the delivery of medical care in surgeries, operating rooms and beyond. Innovations ranging from wearable health tracking devices, to telemedicine, to robotic surgeries were already becoming more commonplace – promising to make earlier interventions possible, improve patient autonomy and help organisations deliver more efficient, accessible healthcare.

We have been on this trajectory for many years: Between 2009 and 2019, the number of medical technology filings with the European Patent Office (EPO) doubled, while pharma and biotech patent applications were relatively stagnant. In 2017, more than 13,000 patent applications were filed with the EPO in the field of medical technology – more than any other sector in Europe.

Fast-forward to 2020: Could our growing need for MedTech be any clearer or more urgent? The pandemic has demonstrated how technology provides a critical means of connecting people and delivering medical care. At the same time, it has shown us that we need solid foundational elements to support that care – like healthcare apps and interfaces that enable patients to communicate seamlessly with medical professionals, as well as emotionally aware approaches to interacting with patients remotely. But are those elements keeping pace with the technology itself? In our urgency to develop and innovate MedTech in a fast changing world, how does the service surrounding it look in comparison? What risks should organisations monitor and manage as a result?

COVID-19 has thrust many industries years ahead in terms of how they are operating and connecting with people each day and that has been particularly true within the Medical Technology industry. This acceleration has increased the pressure on the many tools supporting those functions and made it all the more important to assess and manage their risks.

Toby Harris

Technology Leader for Travelers Europe

A matter of trust

Trust is a critical factor in positive medical outcomes. Imagine undergoing anaesthesia prior to a surgical procedure, and as you drift out of consciousness you have the sinking feeling that your surgeon won’t complete the surgery competently – or that your follow-up care will be mismanaged. The idea may seem extreme but we’re living in times when machines are increasingly acting in place of humans during similar interactions with patients – and many patients lack trust in the machines and the overall digital experience. Just prior to the pandemic, growth in consumer digital health adoption had stalled after peaking in 2018 – and trust was a major contributing factor. That was a finding of the Accenture 2020 Digital Health Consumer Survey, which was based on research conducted in late 2019. Accenture reviewed its results several months into the pandemic and said that while COVID-19 may have jump-started the adoption of digital health, key themes of their earlier research remained true: “Although consumers are interested in virtual services, a cumbersome digital experience turns them off. Concerns over privacy, security and trust remain, along with difficulty integrating new tools and services into day-to-day clinical workflows.”²

To be sure, the pandemic has forced consumers into digital adoption: For all but the most significant health concerns, consumers have had to adapt to new technology-enabled ways of seeking healthcare advice and receiving medical care (or delay seeking care altogether). Some may even prefer the efficiency of the new approach. But others may perceive these changes as short-term adjustments necessary to protect the community – not as permanent changes. After the pandemic is behind us, these patients may raise their expectations about how their medical care is provided. The people delivering medical care in this new way may not be embracing it fully either, and for different reasons. Medical professionals at all levels may feel that the digitisation of medical care is not working seamlessly with their interactions with patients, or even squeezing them out of their profession altogether. Dr Venkat Reddy, a Consultant Neurodevelopmental Paediatrician, Senior Clinical Adviser and AI lead at the MedTech firm Future Perfect Healthcare, addressed the range of concerns in an industry report: Unfortunately, there has been concern over the use of algorithms due to recent events. Not to mention the negative press about the use, or misuse, of AI by social media giants to gather information and ‘snoop on people.’ There is also still a prevailing belief that AI is going to take away people’s jobs. This is especially in relation to admin staff and in the introduction of robotic process automation which can automatically scan documents, book appointments, and such like. The clinical staff are concerned too, particularly in radiology and pathology where AI is already doing a chunk of work. The final aspect to this mistrust is a concern over safety and the fairness of AI as a tool.³

Patients and medical staff alike must feel comfortable receiving and delivering care in this new environment for it to succeed. When Accenture asked consumers to what extent a bad digital experience with a healthcare provider would ruin their entire experience with that provider, 50 percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed. (On the flip side, 39 percent said a good digital experience would have a major influence on their overall experience with their healthcare provider – and 26 percent said they would be willing to switch to another provider if it meant getting higher-quality digital services.)⁴

If doctors and other medical staff feel technology will soon make their jobs obsolete, they may be less invested in making it work for patients – or they may simply miss the degree of face-to-face patient interaction they once had and be more susceptible to burnout. They may also over-rely on new tech systems and tools, or not fully understand where their role ends and begins, creating potential for errors to slip by. As a December 2020 report from Med-Tech Innovation News indicated: Both the NHS and private companies ostensibly managed security around individuals’ health data with the utmost care. However, when the pandemic accelerated telemedicine to wider providers, many of them turned to reliance on consumer-engineered video collaboration tools, which, from a security perspective, don’t have the required robustness for relaying sensitive personal health information.⁵

In an increasingly connected world, we don’t always adequately understand who we’re connecting to and if they operate under similar standards of security and care.

Preparing for the best outcome

Even as a COVID-19 vaccine promises a long-awaited loosening of restrictions on people’s lives, the reality is that it may take many months – or perhaps years – for life to look like it did before the pandemic. MedTech companies can use this time to fortify their innovations from not only a technical perspective but a human one. They can consider and communicate the positive outcomes that can result from using technology as a tool: How it can help doctors provide medical advice in real time, catch a minor health concern before it becomes a debilitating one, empower patients to take greater control over their healthcare, and improve the overall experience for both patients and medical professionals.

At the same time, MedTech companies can identify future challenges and work to minimise them. As healthcare becomes increasingly digitised, the poorest communities, the elderly and other people who are either less able to use technology or lack access to it may suffer – and it is these groups who are most in need of medical care. The McKinsey report Reimagining Medtech for a COVID-19 world advises companies to engage physicians and patients selectively and thoughtfully to understand new ways to serve them – and then rethink the patient journey and retrain or upskill their sales force and service teams to meet the moment.⁶

Minimising the risk of a poor outcome

Increased digitisation of healthcare will affect all aspects of the patient experience – both regarding the receipt of medical care and the access to information managed behind the scenes. MedTech companies can address patient-facing aspects of medical care by tracing a patient’s experience at each step. Imagine that a patient experienced a health scare due to a problem that a remote-monitoring device didn’t catch. What factors led to that result? Did the patient understand how to use the device as intended? Did the device itself malfunction? How did the healthcare organisation resolve the problem and manage the patient relationship? But the larger risk of broad healthcare digitisation is invisible – or at least difficult to detect. As a Med-Tech Innovation News report indicated, the healthcare sector is an attractive and expanding target for cyber-attacks: According to the ForgeRock Consumer Identity Breach Report 2020 issued earlier this year, the UK healthcare sector was found to be the most-at risk when it comes to cyberattacks. Indeed, a report by Clearswift claimed that 67% of UK healthcare organisations experienced some kind of cyber security incident in 2019 alone. Unfortunately, the outlook is not encouraging. Next year, according to Cybersecurity Ventures, healthcare will suffer two to three times more cyberattacks than the average amount for other industries.⁷

In this environment, healthcare organisations must treat cyber-attacks as inevitable – and educate all personnel on an ongoing basis about how to prevent them and where to report them if one occurs. Having a no-blame culture is critical. Cyber insurance can also provide post-breach service to help an organisation identify and address breaches quickly and with minimal distraction from normal operations.

MedTech innovations are providing critical support for a patient’s medical care, but doctors, medical staff and patients alike need to understand how it use them, how they can enhance the overall outcome and where there is potential for risk. There isn’t as much room for correcting course along the way as there might be in another industry, but risk management planning and insurance cover can help minimise exposures and enable an organisation to more quickly get back on its feet if problems arise.

Toby Harris

Technology Leader for Travelers Europe

Stress testing for success

COVID-19 has changed the landscape for MedTech companies, shrinking the timeline for the rollout of new innovations and creating demand for new technologies. MedTech companies should consider these elements when assessing their risks:

• Connecting with patients, doctors and other medical personnel. Taking steps to collect ongoing feedback from these groups about their healthcare experience – and how the pandemic has changed it – can help identify problems that may generate risks.
• Reflecting the medical mindset. While the COVID-19 vaccine was developed at unprecedented speed and the pace of development is accelerating for MedTech companies in general, other values take priority when the consequences of getting things wrong in medicine are so severe. MedTech companies will go further in building trust in the medical community if they value the development of safe, long-lasting products and services over innovative solutions that can be developed the fastest.
• Finding the right fit. How well does the technology comply with existing healthcare standards and mesh with existing infrastructure?
• Tracing the patient journey. From the moment a patient makes an appointment to when he or she is home recovering from surgery, where is there potential for miscommunication, frustration or a breakdown in trust? How can you address it?
• Integrating in-person and digital care. After the pandemic, healthcare organisations will likely have to manage a larger mix of both. What challenges might this pose to patients and medical professionals?
• Managing a growing supply of data. Medtech companies need to think about how vast amounts of data (which the adoption of 5G will increase) can be organised and formatted, what data is actually needed, and how the data can be synthesized into actionable information.
• Protecting patient privacy. The storage and transfer of patient data raises questions about who can control it. The patient? The healthcare provider? The MedTech company? The government? Understand how patient information can be shared and accessed by different parties and ensure patients have a means of protecting their privacy.
• Prioritising security. Accenture research found that more than 83 percent of consumers have a high degree of trust in hospitals and doctors when it comes to keeping digital healthcare information secure. Only 45 percent of consumers have the same degree of trust in tech companies.⁸ What policies, training protocols and cybersecurity protections can help you bridge that gap?
• Anticipating problems and providing solutions. In the event of a cybersecurity breach, an equipment breakdown or an incorrect use of technology, how can you help the organisation get back on track?

To get in touch with our Medical Technology specialist underwriters, visit our website.

Sources
¹ “The European Medical Technology Industry – in figures 2019.” MedTech Europe, 2019. https://www.medtecheurope.org/resource-library/the-european-medical-technology-industry-in-figures-2019/
² Safavi, Kaveh. “How Can Leaders Make Recent Digital Health Gains Last?” Accenture, August 2020.
https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/health/leaders-make-recent-digital-health-gains-last
³ Reddy, Dr Venkat. “How to build trust with Trusts on artificial intelligence.” Med-Tech Innovation News, 26 October 2020. https://www.med-technews.com/features/how-to-buildtrust-with-trusts-on-artificial-intelligence/?_gl=1*1dvxnx9*_ga*X0dsaGFBbndTWU1MT1ZfU2FxSE5aVlAycllwdmgzOFNON1RUYThjc0FIQmJSRGVaeTNGSm0wYzZUelhBMWlYVQ
⁴ Safavi.
⁵ Brogger, Morten. “The urgent need for watertight security and privacy in telehealth solutions.” Med-Tech Innovation News, 4 December 2020.
https://www.med-technews.com/features/the-urgent-need-for-watertight-security-and-privacy-in-teleh/
⁶ Chadha, Siddartha, et. al. “Reimagining medtech for a COVID-19 world.” McKinsey & Company, 22 April 2020.
https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/pharmaceuticals-and-medical-products/our-insights/reimagining-medtech-for-a-covid-19-world#
⁷ Brogger.
⁸ Safavi