'Digital Transformation' Is a Must

ROSEMONT, ILL. — Health care providers' ability to continue to improve patient safety and quality hinges on their embrace of digital technology, according to medical economist Jeffrey C. Bauer, Ph.D.

“We've reached the limits of the human mind to process all the information that's out there, and we have absolutely passed the limits of the paper trail. I cannot see progress without moving to a total digital transformation,” Dr. Bauer said in a plenary session at the Joint Commission national conference on quality and patient safety.

He called diversification “the defining characteristic of U.S. health care in the foreseeable future” and predicted it would produce more change between 2005 and 2015 than between 1965 and 2005. “The only way we can deal with that complexity … is with data systems. Without the technologies, we won't get there; with the technologies, we can do some really exciting things.”

He noted the following trends as signs of health care diversification:

▸ The shift from “one size fits all” to personalized medicine based on the unparalleled pace of findings in molecular science, genetics, and other medical research.

As an example, Dr. Bauer cited the relatively new discovery that breast cancer is not a single disease but a group of molecularly distinct neoplasms. “We can't give safe, quality care if we can't begin to use all of this information to match the right patient to the right drug,” he said.

The growth of personalized medicine also brings the recognition that many chronic diseases are latent in a person's genetic composition and must be “managed throughout our lifetime, not only when they appear in an acute state,” said Dr. Bauer, who is a management consulting partner with Affiliated Computer Services, Inc., Dallas.

▸ The increasing viability of remote medicine could provide a workable answer to the growing shortage of health care professionals.

“We cannot produce physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, and occupational therapists fast enough to meet the shortages we've got in this country,” he said. “What we need is the informatics and the digital transformation work processes that very much have to be tied to safe and appropriate care.”

▸ Demographic changes, including the potential for about half the U.S. population by 2040 to be made up of people born in other countries, could be accompanied by a “host of new genetic conditions and different cultural practices.” Rather than breaking down medical data merely by race, researchers and providers will need to understand the complex demographics of disease patterns within races (for example, differences in cancer incidence among Asian-American subgroups, such as Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese populations).

“We need technology to keep up with that information,” he said.

ROSEMONT, ILL. — Health care providers' ability to continue to improve patient safety and quality hinges on their embrace of digital technology, according to medical economist Jeffrey C. Bauer, Ph.D.

“We've reached the limits of the human mind to process all the information that's out there, and we have absolutely passed the limits of the paper trail. I cannot see progress without moving to a total digital transformation,” Dr. Bauer said in a plenary session at the Joint Commission national conference on quality and patient safety.

He called diversification “the defining characteristic of U.S. health care in the foreseeable future” and predicted it would produce more change between 2005 and 2015 than between 1965 and 2005. “The only way we can deal with that complexity … is with data systems. Without the technologies, we won't get there; with the technologies, we can do some really exciting things.”

He noted the following trends as signs of health care diversification:

▸ The shift from “one size fits all” to personalized medicine based on the unparalleled pace of findings in molecular science, genetics, and other medical research.

As an example, Dr. Bauer cited the relatively new discovery that breast cancer is not a single disease but a group of molecularly distinct neoplasms. “We can't give safe, quality care if we can't begin to use all of this information to match the right patient to the right drug,” he said.

The growth of personalized medicine also brings the recognition that many chronic diseases are latent in a person's genetic composition and must be “managed throughout our lifetime, not only when they appear in an acute state,” said Dr. Bauer, who is a management consulting partner with Affiliated Computer Services, Inc., Dallas.

▸ The increasing viability of remote medicine could provide a workable answer to the growing shortage of health care professionals.

“We cannot produce physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, and occupational therapists fast enough to meet the shortages we've got in this country,” he said. “What we need is the informatics and the digital transformation work processes that very much have to be tied to safe and appropriate care.”

▸ Demographic changes, including the potential for about half the U.S. population by 2040 to be made up of people born in other countries, could be accompanied by a “host of new genetic conditions and different cultural practices.” Rather than breaking down medical data merely by race, researchers and providers will need to understand the complex demographics of disease patterns within races (for example, differences in cancer incidence among Asian-American subgroups, such as Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese populations).

“We need technology to keep up with that information,” he said.

ROSEMONT, ILL. — Health care providers' ability to continue to improve patient safety and quality hinges on their embrace of digital technology, according to medical economist Jeffrey C. Bauer, Ph.D.

“We've reached the limits of the human mind to process all the information that's out there, and we have absolutely passed the limits of the paper trail. I cannot see progress without moving to a total digital transformation,” Dr. Bauer said in a plenary session at the Joint Commission national conference on quality and patient safety.

He called diversification “the defining characteristic of U.S. health care in the foreseeable future” and predicted it would produce more change between 2005 and 2015 than between 1965 and 2005. “The only way we can deal with that complexity … is with data systems. Without the technologies, we won't get there; with the technologies, we can do some really exciting things.”

He noted the following trends as signs of health care diversification:

▸ The shift from “one size fits all” to personalized medicine based on the unparalleled pace of findings in molecular science, genetics, and other medical research.

As an example, Dr. Bauer cited the relatively new discovery that breast cancer is not a single disease but a group of molecularly distinct neoplasms. “We can't give safe, quality care if we can't begin to use all of this information to match the right patient to the right drug,” he said.

The growth of personalized medicine also brings the recognition that many chronic diseases are latent in a person's genetic composition and must be “managed throughout our lifetime, not only when they appear in an acute state,” said Dr. Bauer, who is a management consulting partner with Affiliated Computer Services, Inc., Dallas.

▸ The increasing viability of remote medicine could provide a workable answer to the growing shortage of health care professionals.

“We cannot produce physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, and occupational therapists fast enough to meet the shortages we've got in this country,” he said. “What we need is the informatics and the digital transformation work processes that very much have to be tied to safe and appropriate care.”

▸ Demographic changes, including the potential for about half the U.S. population by 2040 to be made up of people born in other countries, could be accompanied by a “host of new genetic conditions and different cultural practices.” Rather than breaking down medical data merely by race, researchers and providers will need to understand the complex demographics of disease patterns within races (for example, differences in cancer incidence among Asian-American subgroups, such as Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese populations).

“We need technology to keep up with that information,” he said.