The Covid-19 pandemic was undoubtedly one of the greatest healthcare crises in modern history. Not only did it have a catastrophic impact on the healthcare industry, it also produced strong ripple effects felt by countless other sectors and organizations.
As the Winter months once again nip at our heels, the NHS has commenced with the next phase of its Covid-19 booster vaccination program. As part of its extensive rollout, the most vulnerable in society have begun to be offered their next dose. However, concerns have arisen around both volunteer and vaccine shortages, which are threatening to derail the booster program.
In terms of the volunteer shortage, the ‘army’ of supporters who took part during previous vaccine rollouts has dissipated. It’s likely that the influx of volunteers was largely down to those stuck at home and furloughed throughout lockdown. This has sadly dried up as lockdown has ended and people have gone back to work.
Though the shortage of volunteers is undoubtedly concerning, the potential lack of jabs is even more alarming. While the NHS has insisted there are no issues with deliveries and no stock caps placed on individual centers, some pharmacists have warned they do not have enough Covid vaccines.
When it comes to healthcare, the consequences of not having the relevant tools and best practices in place to ensure a smooth delivery of its programs and services are simply too great to risk. To put the best foot forward, healthcare organizations should consider where they are on their Digital Transformation journey. After all, digitalization is key to ensuring that these processes are as streamlined as possible.
Healthcare is lagging behind
Despite the progress healthcare has made over the last number of years, the industry as a whole continues to struggle with the adoption of certain technologies. This is hardly surprising given that time and time again, healthcare is empirically ranked as one of the worst industries for digital maturity, along with industries like agriculture, construction and manufacturing. This hugely impacts both standards and delivery.
The lack of transformation is linked to the way healthcare organizations deal with their data. The healthcare industry is data-rich, but the challenges of poor interoperability plague its systems on a worldwide scale. Issues with data exchange, information sharing, and security deficiencies are the same across the board, and exist at every level between and within systems and organizations. This is largely a symptom of the diversity of organizations in the healthcare system, which pose considerable economic challenges for IT vendors and their customers. There’s also fragmentation of different systems – including the end users, organizations, and offices – which means they do not or often cannot share information with one another.
Essentially, the main barriers to IT adoption in the healthcare industry come down to four key factors:
- Reluctance to share data: Due to a perceived threat to revenue streams and maintaining a competitive advantage
- Dual power structure: Administrative and clinical departments working against one another and hindering IT decision making
- Increasing system complexity: Due, in part, to hospital mergers and acquisition activity
- Cost: Efforts to keep operational costs flat have exacerbated IT departments’ ability to adapt to new processes and technologies
The complexities associated with medical and health data make the situation even more complicated. It makes automation significantly more difficult to implement, compared with traditional data collection. All these factors lead us to question how the healthcare industry can adapt to transformation.
Enterprise Architecture is Leading the Way
People-centric, value-based healthcare depends on interoperability, which enables the flow of information within and across healthcare systems. Information flow based on healthcare system requirements, standard development, and IT implementation systems helps core capabilities to be produced effectively, error-free, and securely. Interoperability is one of the key components to unlocking efficiencies within the health system and can primarily be achieved through the use of Enterprise Architecture.
Results from McKinsey’s 2021 research on Enterprise Architecture and the rapidly changing importance of technology in driving business value concluded that the Enterprise Architecture function “is a core element of the foundation that both enables and accelerates the tech transformation that companies need in order to compete in a digital-first world.”
Enterprise Architecture comprises of three main parts. 1) Helping businesses succeed by identifying and prioritizing strategies. 2) Aligning goals to achieve those strategies. 3) Creating innovative and agile solutions for even the most challenging technology problems. Its value proposition lies in the ability to help an organization exploit disruptive forces – such as automation and digitization – to drive change through optimal performance of core business functions.
To achieve the very best outcome, Enterprise Architecture requires high-level and rigorous thought processes, as well as coordinated, deliberative action among the diverse stakeholders it is designed to help. Enterprise Architects are able to use their extensive knowledge of an organization’s infrastructure to help others in business understand what needs to be done in order to move forward.
To offer the best possible service to its patients, and work in the most efficient manner, further digital transformation in the healthcare industry is essential. Enterprise Architects are the key to unlocking the potential that this transformation can produce – leading to successful and streamlined processes when it comes to initiatives such as the vaccine booster program.
By Dr Jason Lee, The Open Group Healthcare Forum Director