Health 3.0- The Smart Approach to Healthcare
Abstract
“Prevention is better than cure”! The proverb had never been more relevant than now, especially for US healthcare, as the emphasis is on preventive healthcare rather than curative. As the scene of healthcare is shifting towards a patient-focused approach, the development of improved and unique healthcare approach has become a challenge. The new “Third Generation Healthcare” also known as “Health 3.0” is now concentrating on finding unconventional ways and methods to increase the health consciousness in the patients through patient engagement strategies. The Health 3.0 is focusing on making healthcare more accessible, fast, and affordable. This piece is an attempt to provide insights about the Health 3.0 and how it can influence and change the present day healthcare scenario.
Keywords
Web 3.0, Digital Healing, Patient Engagement Strategic Model, mHealth, Big Data Analytics, Gamification
At a Glance
- Introduction
- Attributes of Health 3.0
- Difference between Health 2.0 and Health 3.0
- Fundamentals of Health 3.0
- Objectives of Health 3.0
- List of Important Conferences related to Health 3.0
- Health 3.0 on Patient Safety, Patient Outcome, Technology, and Quality
- Patient Engagement with Health 3.0
- Vital Plug-ins of the Strategic Model
- Present Health 3.0 Scenario
- Trends in Health 3.0
- Summary
Introduction
Let’s imagine a web tool that’s a combination of physician social networking site, artificial intelligence based knowledge platform and online EMR accessing web-based portal, say something like a mix of “Doximity-Modernizing Medicine-Motherknows.” Such web tools would be the face of “the next generation healthcare”. This single tool can provide all the patient-related health information with possible treatment suggestions supported by medical literature. If the physician wants the option for case discussion and consultation with other physicians anywhere in the world, it will be just a click away!
The “Third Generation Web” or the “Semantic Web” was rightfully termed as the “Web 3.0” by John Markoff in 2006. The Web 3.0 version of the internet signifies a revolution of the web- more analytical, inter connected and high level of machine reasoning, making the web experience more realistic for the user.
The blending of Web 3.0 idea with healthcare is termed as “Health 3.0”; it is a health-centric approach that will allow the patients to access an improved healthcare facility. The idea of Health 3.0 is not only to make the healthcare more accessible and user-friendly, but also to make the patient more responsible for their own health.
Attributes of Health 3.0
- Smart digital healing
- Self health motivator
- Interactive healthcare collaboration
- Smart predictive personalized health information
Difference between Health 2.0 and Health 3.0
Fundamentals of Health 3.0
The Health 3.0 is one of the cutting-edge health care approaches with two vital considerations- a better user web experience and an improved healthcare system. The Health 3.0 is dependent on the “fusion-retrieval” approach where the web 3.0 tools will be able to retrieve the entire patient’s health related information from the medical records and medical transaction history; it will then combine this information and provide precise health information to the healthcare professionals. This will aid the physicians to make swift and accurate clinical decisions. The Health 3.0 will change the current healthcare scenario with the help of Health Information Technology in a very unique yet efficient manner.
Objectives of Health 3.0
- Advanced networked Telemedicine portals will assist the healthcare professionals to reach out to many patients in remote areas, making the healthcare more accessible. The networked telemedicine will also allow the healthcare service providers to monitor post treatment recovery of patients.
- Virtual support groups can provide mental support and also may build a platform for helping the patients to share and discuss health related concerns with each other.
- Concise health information from the medical records and connected web mesh will be accessible to the physicians helping in error-free clinical decision-making.
- Self-health accountability amongst the patients will be increased with the introduction of unique approaches like gamification and Capital District Physicians Health Plan (CDPHP) Life Points.
List of Important Conferences related to Health 3.0
- Big Data & Analytics in Healthcare Summit, May 11-12, Philadelphia, 2016
- HiMSS – 2016, Feb 29 – Mar 4, 2016, Sands Expo, Las Vegas, NV
- Chief Analytics Officer Forum East Coast, January 26th – 27th, NY
- Gartner Business Intelligence & Analytics Summit, March 2016, Grapevine.
- Annual CHL Leadership Conference, Health 3.0, May 2013, UC Berkeley Campus, Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA
Health 3.0 on Patient Safety, Patient Outcome, Technology, and Quality
The face of healthcare is changing drastically; with the new health information technologies entering the market, the focus of healthcare is shifting towards patient-centric approach. The Health 3.0 approach can revolutionize the healthcare as the focus now is to increase the security and quality level of healthcare services along with the reduction of expenditure. All the new technology aids like telemedicine, online health communities, and healthcare apps are making the healthcare system less complex and more accessible.
| Health 3.0 Based Projects | Project Description |
| I Saved a Life! | Online app for tracking and providing alerts for blood donation. |
| Nourish Interactive | Online health and nutrition Interactive portal designed for kids. |
| Food Hero | An internet based gaming portal for children developed for “Apps for Health Kids” competition organized by US first Lady Michelle Obama. The kids can become “Food Hero” by taking healthy food and by performing a series of physical activities. |
| Mango Health | Online app designed for tracking medication adherence. The patient earns points after taking medicine each time. |
Patient Engagement with Health 3.0
The brisk growth of Health Information Technology (HIT) and healthcare based social networking has started a “New Era” of patient health centric services. As the situation of healthcare is constantly changing and with the emergence of life threatening diseases, the problems and expenses for health care are also increasing. The new “Smart Third Generation Healthcare” is having a unique approach about boosting the health consciousness amongst the patients and to instigate the implementation of a healthy lifestyle. The aim of healthcare is shifting from disease treatment to disease prevention by promoting new self-health accountability approaches. To extend the self-health accountability of patients, it is important to deduce the facts related to patient behavior and to upgrade the strategic model.
Source: www2.deloitte.com
Vital Plug-ins of the Strategic Model
- The integration of new health information technology based apps and remote monitoring systems for making healthcare more accessible.
- Strategic models should be based on the behavioral statistic of the patients.
- The strategic model should be planned keeping the patient behavioral changes in mind.
- Swayers like social networking sites, healthcare apps, virtual health communities, etc. should be integrated to influence and enhance the patient engagement.
Present Health 3.0 Scenario
The advancement of Health Information Technology has made a gateway for innovative ideas to be implemented in healthcare. As, the trend of social networking is becoming “in Vogue” among the population, the usage of social networking as a platform to encourage and motivate patients regarding self-health engagement is increasing.
The networked telemedicine and virtual support groups are the excellent source for the patients to discuss health-related problems and get real-time counseling. According to healthcare analysts, 40% of the US population found the usage of social media for health and fitness more effective. One such example of virtual health community is H3PO.
The popularity of Smartphone based healthcare is increasing rapidly amongst the people and according to the market forecast, the Smartphone-based virtual health communities can bring the “Next Big Wave” in the healthcare scenario.
According to Center for Disaster Control (CDC), about 610,000 people die in the US every year because of heart disease and the healthcare expenditure is $300 billion per year.
The heart disease can be because of several factors like changing lifestyle, stress, high cholesterol, obesity, and diabetes, etc. The Health 3.0 based approach can create a big change in this situation. Let’s explain this with the help of a scenario.
“A person is diagnosed with heart disease. After consulting with the physician, he signed up for a new virtual community “MyHeart,” an advanced virtual community started by a group of physicians. The person’s Smartphone is synched in with the “MyHeart” virtual community. The person only has to upload his body measurement and other vitals like blood pressure, sugar level, etc. once in a week that can be easily tracked by the physician and accordingly a personalized diet plan will be sent to the person every day. If necessary, the person can discuss his health issues with other users or member physicians and seek for real time counseling. The physician can track the person’s health condition and can give appropriate suggestions.”
Just imagine, if such hypothetical virtual community becomes reality, how much impact it will have on the life of a patient and also over the healthcare scenario.
Trends in Health 3.0
1. mHealth
The craze for mobile-based healthcare is increasing day by day. According to research performed by Pew Research Center, 58% of total US population owns Smartphone and out of that 19% users use healthcare apps for tracking health data or fitness level. In today’s advanced world, the use of Mobile Health by people is changing and making the healthcare more convenient, accessible, and cost effective. The patient care is becoming easy and smooth for the healthcare professionals and as the concept Health 3.0 is getting involved, mobile virtual communities, interactive mobile health games, and healthcare apps together are becoming part of the big picture.
| Healthcare Apps | App Description |
| iTriage | A free healthcare app that works in a 360o angle as, it let the user performs several activities like check for several disease conditions, connect to healthcare professionals and counseling all in a secure manner. |
| Microsoft’s Health Vault | App to keep health record safely and all the other health and fitness data can be safely shared with healthcare professionals. |
| PingMD | A social networking site for healthcare professionals, allowing them to connect with each other and discuss critical cases and, if necessary, secure image and video sharing is possible. |
| Rev up | Healthcare app – one stop solution for health and fitness- As it connects the users to a team of experts from fitness, health, and nutrition background and also allow you to update the personal health data that can be monitored by the experts. |
| Vida Health Coach | An iPhone app that assigns a health coach to the user per week with a minimal charge of $15. It provides services like telemedicine, fitness monitoring and online counseling to the users. |
2. Big Data Analytics
As the healthcare industry is getting big, it is facing several challenges ranging from new emerging fatal diseases to increasing federal laws, healthcare and patient health information security. And as the health organizations are growing the amount of big data is accumulating. But, with a slight shift in the point of view, we can see that big data is a “Gold Mine of Information.” The introduction of Health 3.0 led to the market for big data analytics, as the main aim is to offer a high quality, less expensive patient-centered healthcare. Analysis of the health data will allow predicting the risk potentials and identifying the risk patterns. The insight of information gathered from the big data analytics will help the healthcare industry to understand and identify the existent gaps and flaws in the healthcare system and work upon it. The big data analytics also help the organization to do research and develop more effective drugs. In future, it may also aid in the fields like pharmacogenomics and personalized medicines.
3. Digital Healing
According to research done by National Institute of Health (NIH), 53.5% of patients use the Internet for gathering health related information. The usage of internet by the patients to find answers for the health issues, assistance for coping with the problem, mental support and relief and help to decide the next step for overcoming the problem. The introduction of Health 3.0 is allowing the patients to be part of online virtual health communities, to discuss and share their problems with the other patients or physicians.
4. Gamification
The healthcare sector is “changing gears” towards a new preventative health care approach. Innovative approaches like gamification of healthcare are getting popular amongst the patients. The gamification of healthcare can serve the purpose of encouraging the patient engagement and self-health accountability. Gamification can turn boring and involves tedious exercise to make it into fun filled activities.
| Health Games | Game Description |
| Reflexion Health | Help the patients to do exercise by following instructions given by a virtual instructor and the integrated motion sensor will monitor the patient’s performance that can be easily tracked by the physicians. |
| Zombies Run! | A virtual running game that engages the patient as the patient get immersed in the game world and become part of the story and performs physical activities to win the game. |
| Asthma Hero | An app developed by Cohero health for the young asthma patient for medication adherence. The app is synched in with the Bluetooth integrated inhaler that monitors the medication adherence of the patient and even provides medication reminders to the patient, and the physicians can track the stored using the Internet. |
| Evo | A cool diagnostic set of games developed by Akili, to detect Alzheimer’s disease. The games test the player’s response against cognitive interference and based on the result it can predict the patient’s condition. |
| EveryMove | A free online gaming program that allows the user to set the goals and after completion of each goal the patients get rewards from the health insurers or health organizations. |
Summing Up
The outlook of healthcare is changing towards a more personalized form of health care leading to the demand of a more collaborative and innovative approaches amongst the healthcare providers. New methods like gamification and virtual health networking sites are getting interspersed with the conventional medicine practice. The approach of healthcare is radically shifting towards betterment, and it is crucial to understand the concept of Health 3.0 and to work with it, to make the future of healthcare industry vivid!
References
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