Piers Ford

This HIMSS APAC CEO Summit speaker shares how Bumrungrad International Hospital responded to COVID-19 to deliver an exceptional experience for its domestic patients.

Hospital executive minds have understandably been distracted since the start of 2020, but the impact of the emergence of SarsCoV2 has not been limited to its physical toll. It has also torn into data security defences and exposed patient privacy, as explored in the latest issue of HIMSS Insights.

The round-the-clock response of the NHS’s internal and external digital health community to COVID-19 has been more than impressive. But the ad hoc and rapid arrival of so many new applications also raises concerns about compliance and standardisation – and the role of the very unit that is supposed to be directing the operation.

Learning from the pandemic quickly, in order to take the digital health standard forward globally, was the sentiment voiced by leading stakeholders in a recent World Health Assembly virtual panel hosted by HIMSS.

The HIMSS chief clinical officer says technology can be used more effectively to plan for healthcare provision in a second wave of the pandemic and beyond – and that we should not shy away from a proper discussion about the role data is set to play.

A new tool from Draper & Dash exploits global, national and local data to help hospitals to plan more effectively for their own COVID-19 peaks – and prepare for the long-term impact of the pandemic.

While European governments look to digital health technology for ways to speed up their containment strategies, the long-term view is that the COVID-19 emergency will generate new approaches to sharing healthcare data once the pandemic has passed.

As state and federal legislation in the US and elsewhere tries to catch up with the digital health economy, the patient at the center of that economy might struggle to know just how private their data actually is.

Former NHSX digital development director Sam Shah is set to play a key role in advancing UK interests in healthcare technology on the global stage.

The monetisation of patient data is set to be one of the biggest drivers of new business models across the healthcare landscape – and ownership of that data can give patients the power to shape the kind of healthcare they want.