The Democratization of Health Care Is Underway, According to Stanford Medicine’s 2nd Annual Health Trends Report | Information Center
A data explosion is driving further democratization of health care, according to the second annual Health Trends Report released today by Stanford Medicine.
Building on last year’s findings on the emergence and changing role of data in medicine, the latest report takes a deeper look at how the use and sharing of data will transform the research, practice of medicine and the role patients play in their own health care.
This transformation is driven by the growing volume of data available in the healthcare system, as well as new technologies and industry players that are moving medical knowledge from a human scale to a digital scale.
“We are on the cusp of something that has never been possible before – the ability to truly democratize healthcare practice, spreading expertise frictionlessly to where it is needed,” said Lloyd Minor, MD, Dean of the School of Medicine. “Whole areas of expertise, previously siloed, are starting to open up to more people in more places than ever before.
“Clearly we have work to do to make it easier to access, share and protect this incredible amount of data,” he added. “But I’m sure we’re moving towards a future of more preventative, predictive, personalized and accurate care.”
The report reflects a comprehensive review and analysis of existing healthcare research and publicly available data on current and emerging trends facing the healthcare industry, combined with insights from Stanford faculty and external health care experts.
Results
The report identifies three main pillars influencing the democratization of healthcare: smart computing, sharing and data security.
Intelligent Computing: Artificial intelligence and data analytics are rapidly improving as tools for producing large-scale insights from health data. This will likely result in more accurate and efficient healthcare, reducing system costs and eliminating bottlenecks for providers and patients. With the size of the AI healthcare market expected to reach $6.6 billion by 2021, the impact of AI on the medical field will have significant short- and long-term effects. However, as the healthcare industry embraces the potential of AI, it must take certain practical and ethical steps to ensure its safety. Intelligent computing has the potential to make healthcare more personalized, accessible and efficient, but only if the industry is prepared to meet the challenges that come with it.
Share: Information Sharing needs to be improved at a fundamental level to allow data to flow freely between different participants in the system, including healthcare providers, patients, technology providers and insurers. While the healthcare industry still faces challenges in sharing data, exciting advances are being made through collaborations between traditional healthcare players and new market entrants.
Data security: A more open data environment underscores the importance of patient information security, privacy, and security. Ensuring patient data is protected will continue to be a priority as the medical industry realizes the need to become more intentional about information security practices and preparedness. Finding a balance between encouraging innovation and protecting this highly personal information will require cooperation between the medical and technology industries, as well as with government entities that are becoming increasingly involved in digital health regulation.
A version of the report, including the executive summary, is available online.
