While facing rising costs and workforce shortages, healthcare systems across Asia-Pacific have been exploring ways to make healthcare services more accessible by shifting to a data and digital-enabled distributed model of care delivery, a new Philips report found.

FINDINGS

The latest Future Health Index 2023 report by Royal Philips gathered responses from nearly 3,000 healthcare leaders and young professionals in 14 countries.

Based on the report, two-thirds or 66% of respondents said they are "well-equipped to work effectively" with new care delivery models. They expect these models to offer them a better work-life balance and contribute to greater work satisfaction than traditional healthcare models. 

Other identified benefits of a distributed model of care include:

• Increased patient compliance and adherence to treatment

• Improved patient education

• Increased efficiency (such as shorter waiting times, more patients seen) 

• Collaboration with local communities to improve population health and more technologically advanced healthcare 

More than half of respondents shared that they have been providing intensive or critical care (51%) and acute care (62%) virtually or at home, while the rest are planning to follow suit in the near future. 

In rolling out these new care models, having data interpretation skills and the staff's willingness to adopt new technologies were identified as success factors.  

The report highlighted the increased investment by health systems in digital health technologies, mostly digital health records (48%), which enabled their adoption of new care models. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of respondents, particularly those from Singapore, Indonesia, and Australia, are planning to invest in AI in the next three years, with plans to use it to predict outcomes, for clinical decision support, and to integrate diagnostics. 

Meanwhile, most APAC health systems, especially from Indonesia and Singapore, disclosed that they have been using or planning to use digital technologies to reduce the impact of workforce shortages. They identified cloud-based technology, solutions that connect with out-of-hospital settings, and workflow technology like PACS and digital health records as the top three technologies that relieve the impact of the crisis.

Sought for their considerations in choosing a place to work, young health professionals said they would want to work with organisations that are at the forefront of AI and that are guided by new care delivery models. The use of chatbots in pre-admission, the portability of healthcare data, and the ability to access diagnostic capabilities anywhere were also mentioned as technologies that can help raise their satisfaction. 

THE LARGER TREND

Philips has been working closely with its partners in APAC to drive new ways of delivering care. One of its partnerships in the region, the hospital chain Mater in Australia, has recently set up its Neonatal Virtual Care programme, which was delivered by Philips and Teladoc Health. The said programme is now providing 24/7 access to senior neonatologist support in Central Queensland.

ON THE RECORD

"For decades, healthcare has been primarily delivered in centralised facilities like hospitals, but this latest report shows that APAC's healthcare leaders are making bold changes as they navigate unprecedented staff and financial challenges. The good news for patients is that this puts them first. We are seeing a shift towards a distributed model of care delivery in APAC that uses smart and connected digital health technologies and data to bring care closer to patients, at home or in the community, to where they are, anytime-anywhere," Philips APAC CEO and EVP Caroline Clarke said in a statement.