Opinion: Shifting the paradigm toward delivering value with AI in health care

Health care providers everywhere are put under unprecedented pressure by the pandemic to make sense of their work in ways that put patients first, at scale, while working within already challenging and complex work environments.

As health care grows into an ever more multifaceted global business so too is the overwhelming data it generates, but of what practical use is it if the value of that data is locked? How do we shift the paradigm towards achieving actionable data that truly serves and drives value for the patient?

Within this reality, health workers are currently facing two pivotal systemic developments: COVID-19 has rapidly accelerated the global digital transformation toward a digitized, data-driven “future of work,” and there is an ever-increasing adoption of value-based models of care.

For example, in the European Union, almost 65% of health care providers say their organizations increased digitization to support clinicians’ ways of working during 2020, and their expenses on cloud computing increased by 11% from the year before. It was also reported that 75% of consumers now want to work in partnership with providers on care and health goals.

Leaning into the future of work where delivering value is the key outcome takes a major paradigm shift. We can now use artificial intelligence and machine learning to simplify the complex big data at hand without losing the fidelity needed for making complex decisions.

Having all the facets of AI baked into health systems and processes from the outset and not as an afterthought has emerged as an incredibly pivotal driver of positive change and action.

A new report by the International Data Corporation — supported by Vantage Health Technologies on our decade-long transformation into a purpose-driven organization — talks about the value model that is moving away from the old inputs-based approach toward prioritizing improved outcomes, whether they be clinical, financial, or both.

A part of BroadReach group, Vantage focuses on five key outcomes namely better health outcomes, more efficient use of scarce resources, cost savings, improved organizational performance, and more sustainable health systems.

According to McKinsey & Company, much of this shift is being made possible through digital partnerships that drive resilient operational excellence at scale within the health ecosystem.

Looking at financial outcomes, the IDC says the industry recognizes that 20% of the population is responsible for 80% of medical expenses in the system. This 20% is made up mainly of high-risk patients with multiple chronic and other risky conditions who, as a result, face high financial burdens and often migrate between different locations of care.

A value-based health system is a game-changer for these patients, and population health in general, because health care providers are financially incentivized to meet the quality of care standards demanded by the payer, and they are liberated from decision fatigue because they know what the next best action is. This is pivotal because health care organizations worldwide have ranked the inability to efficiently access data among the top three barriers to delivering value, according to the IDC’s research.

A global collaboration to create a scalable AI-led health workflow solution

To enable this value-based transition and solve some of the world’s most complex health challenges — including health care inequity and poor data management — we assembled an elite global team of health and medtech experts in 2010 to build Vantage Health Technologies. The AI-enabled platform was built on the Microsoft suite of applications, and its work is supported by the Microsoft Global Health Care Advisory Board.

Vantage has been able to provide millions of patients with better access to lifesaving medicines and the guidance to get back into care and has helped several governments close big public health gaps and handle crises.

We have supported our sister company, BroadReach Health Development, with large-scale work with the U.S. Agency for International Development across Africa. We also support COVID-19 management in the United States and across 25 African countries, where millions of population screenings and more than 3,000 health facility readiness assessments were conducted.

Our ground-level project teams find it extremely useful to be on the same page and talk to each other via MS Teams every morning to drive timely and informed collective actions. They are no longer faced with dashboards that don't answer their questions. They are guided by advanced AI-driven prescriptive and descriptive analytics that help change patient behavior.

They also receive very practical guidance to transform their health programs, resourcing, systems, and plans at scale. Prescriptive insights via regular emails negate the need for meeting notes, spreadsheets, and “death by monitoring and evaluation.”

Key takeout

No amount of data or insight can cause action or change. Vantage has been able to show that AI and ML can be phenomenally good at guiding meaningful decisions, personalized actions, and collaborative, automated workflows up and down the chain of command, especially where it relates to high-risk patients.

We can change the way each employee works, acts, and collaborates on decisions. We can improve patient outreach, ongoing communication, and education to improve patient experience and create sustainability in the system. What would take an army of people days to think about to make a real impact, gets done by AI within minutes.

We have a future for health care within reach, where the entire system is equipped to take the most impactful actions at scale. This is data democratization and the fourth industrial revolution in action in health care. This is how we pave the way for true health equity and sustainability. Achieving universal health coverage by 2030 will be more likely if we embrace the future of work in health care.