4 keys to the digital transformation (with success) of the health system: Julio Mayol's formula

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Let's imagine a more efficient healthcare system. A system where the time and energy that you are going to invest in your health are optimal. Where it is possible to have the information of the surgeon who is going to operate on you and the chances of recovery that this operation obtains in the medium term. 

That is what Julio Mayol , one of the most influential personalities in health and innovation in our country, investigates and proposes . "What we have had so far is good because we won in rights. But how do we approach the digital transformation of the health system to respond to this current society with new needs? ».

This was one of the keys that Mayol, surgeon and medical and innovation director at the San Carlos Clinical Hospital, pointed out on January 28 in Tenerife during the conference entitled "eHealth and biomedical technology: Medicine 2.0". 

So far we have won in rights. But how do we approach the digital transformation of the healthcare system to respond to this current society with new needs?

This appointment with health, which was held thanks to the support of the Presidency of the Government of the Canary Islands of Tenerife, intended to make an approach to the future of medicine. What possibilities can citizensprovide a better system? How do you know where it is interesting to invest in this new approach? There are no waits here. No turns. But yes a recipe : the keys to the digitization of the health system?

Towards a new business model

“Let's start with an example: my hip hurts and I can't walk. They operate on me 3 years later. 6 months later I am perfect. 6 months later my hip hurts again and I can't walk, "said the expert. What has happened here? The time, money and energy wasted for this is immense. And, as a consequence, he concluded, "doing more tests and spending more on more operations does not achieve higher quality."

And for this, he made an analysis of the value formula of the health system:  "The value must be something that gratifies managers, professionals, but above all, citizens." Its formula is Value: "More health benefits with less damage, multiplied by the results and experience of the patients."

We generate a lot of waste and redundancy in the system, which makes it inefficient. The difficult thing in Health is finding where

With all this analysis, how could the process be handled differently and improve the business model? The expert proposed that “we have to pay for complete care cycles and the experience that the patient perceives of the care. In Anglo-Saxon models this is starting to develop. "

Think out of the box

“We generate a lot of waste and redundancy in the system, which makes it inefficient. The difficult thing in Health is finding where ".   This warned the health expert is one of the main challenges for the digital transformation of the system.

"We also find the inequalities and inequities of the system: normally those who need it most are those who receive the least," added Mayol.

The third problem for a change in mentality lies in the usefulness of the information available. The expert noted “all hospitals have an obligation to report to the ministry and communities what happens to hospitalized patients and ambulatory patients. The results of each hospital are known, but no one makes decisions based on these data . ” 

For Mayol, the greatest consequence is the dehumanization of the service : "the public is being denied public information and the practice of medicine is being dehumanized."

Adaptation to the  changing context

Citizens do not have the same needs as they did 20 years ago. The expert analyzed it with an example: a patient who had surgery for a hernia could spend 2 weeks in the hospital. Now the patient does not want to be hospitalized for two days. "How to transfer the care from the hospital to the patient's house?" He asked himself. "It would be possible to put the tools and the assistance flow in a virtual way to respond to this need," he offered as a solution.

The key for the specialist is to “spend time explaining complex things in a simple and understandable way to the patient. It is necessary to understand that it is not a whim of the professionals ”. And here digitization can make the information channel much more effective.

Regarding the digitization of this system, he indicated that "there are many applications and tools to analyze what they say and what they think from Melbourne to Alaska." This, stressed the surgeon, will help make strategic decisions such  as what to investigate or what knowledge to share with the citizen.

Where do we want to go?

The future of medicine involves understanding the objectives that we want to pursue. "Do we want to improve the treatment of the disease or do we want to promote healthy lifestyles? What do we dedicate more to cardiovascular or cancer ? », Asked those attending the meeting.

For any sector in any country you have to have a strategic vision.  "The knowledge base is very good, but the flow of that information must be improved in order to make better decisions," said Mayol.

It is not that we lie, it is because the scientific approach is methodologically incorrect. As it is published more and more, but that knowledge that is there has been useless

The prevention is one of the issues that the expert considers where you can innovate, "we warn too little, spend a lot of little treat and prevent. It doesn't matter if it is Germany, Italy, France or the USA. For example, the US spends 18% of its GDP on Health and has the same results as Albania ”, he warned.

Deconstructing the system

Says Richard Horton , editor of the medical journal  The Lancet , approximately 50% of what we publish is false and 50% useless , it is difficult to know which is which.

In Mayol's opinion, “it is not because we lie, it is because the scientific approach is methodologically incorrect. As it is published more and more, since doctors measure us for that, but that knowledge that is there has been useless ”.

For the surgeon, awarded for his professional work in R & D & I at national and international level , healthcare is to help people and to explain the available information, and it is there where it is possible to innovate through the digitization of the system and understand where the concept is really headed .

In the absence of a clear ' diagnosis ', the question remains whether our 'state of health' is up to the task of making this imagined model a reality