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The emerging field of digital medicine could make healthcare more collaborative than ever before

Digital Medicine: A Collaborative Model of Healthcare Delivery

By Colby Conway on Jul 18, 2017
image of a hacker Medicine and healthcare delivery could completely change as we know it. There have been many technological advances in the medical field, but perhaps digital medicine could turn out to be the biggest game changer of them all. This sort of practice would allow the doctor and patient to be more in tune with one another and promote a collaborative environment. In an article published on the Specialty Pharmacy Times, Dr. Joseph Kvedar, Vice President of Connected Health at Partners HealthCare, said that “digital medicine allows us to get into your life in a personal way, deliver interventions continuously, and inspire you to be healthy in a way an office-based practice can’t.”

Anastasius Moumtzoglou, executive board member of the European Society for Quality in HealthCare (ESQH) and president of the Hellenic Society for Quality & Safety in HealthCare (HSQSH), sees digital medicine as a collaborative means of health care delivery. Moumtzoglou,editor-in-chief of IGI Global’s International Journal of Reliable and Quality E-Healthcare (IJRQEH) states:

“Digital medicine and digital health keep shaping their goal as they are linked to the cultural barrier that exists between technology and healthcare. However, from my point of view, the purpose of digital medicine and digital health is to promote self-care and a co-diagnosis, co-care, collaborative model of health care delivery. In this model, the physician is a partner and advisor while the patient is an informed participant, an active responsibility-taker, the owner, director and coordinator of his health data. Moreover, the provider-patient encounter involves conscious patients, performing self-testing and self-tracking activities and doctors approaching the doctor-patient relationship from a neuroscientist perspective and co-interpreting the results.”

The principal characteristic of digital medicine is that the traditional method of health care (face-to-face contact with a doctor) can be replaced by health care from a distance, through technological means. However, as Moumtzoglou states:

“It is empowering people to track, improve, and manage their health while also helping to cut down inefficiency in healthcare delivery, increase access, and quality and contribute to more personalized and precise medicine.”

Technologies like artificial intelligence and virtual/augmented reality are helping expand the possibilities of digital medicine, including health plans and practice.

“It has already revolutionized several areas starting from the design of therapy plans through the assistance in repetitive jobs to medication management, and drug creation,” says Moumtzoglou. “The medical virtual reality is a field with interesting possibilities; including operation watching, relaxation of chronic patients, making children feel at home, help physicians experience life as an elderly, and speeding up recovery after a stroke.”

This sort of collaborative model of health care surely seems like it could be beneficial, but that isn’t to say there aren’t concerns about digital medicine.

“Digital medicine involves patient-reported data which lack objective validation and include biases arising from variable data sampling schedules,” says Moumtzoglou. “Overall, concerns include privacy, confidentiality, security, trust, autonomy, and equity issues.”

Of the concerns Moumtzoglou provides, privacy and confidentiality seem to be the two big factors that contribute to the uneasiness with digital medicine. The FDA has even released a number of documents about the agency’s thoughts on digital medicine and digital health. In a story on Wired, it was reported that the FDA has proposed rules that addresses "software as a medical device," which would include medical apps. Currently, these sort of apps “remain largely unregulated.”

image of a hacker There’s an app for everything, and while these apps will presumably make this technology simpler for all parties involved, they are at the forefront of the concerns with digital medicine. The sharing of medical records across numerous platforms is worrisome enough, but the recent increase in cyber attacks are not easing society’s apprehensions. Moumtzoglou explains the reason for concern.

“The viewpoint is that any developer can release a health or medical app, which conforms to the guidelines required by the publishing app store. In this context, several studies identifying significant problems with the medical accuracy of apps’ content have been published. They argue that many developers do not nominate specific medical experts in contributing to the content. They also contend that developers are vague in their attribution of authorship while there are conflicts of interest and legal and regulation difficulties.”

Where it will go and how effective it can become is a general unknown. However, what is known is that it will continue to advance. Effective implementation might be difficult to achieve, but if society and health care professionals alike can adapt to personalization rather than standardization, the opportunities for digital medicine are endless.

“Regarding effectiveness, the degree it achieves its objectives and the extent to which the targeted problems are solved remains to be seen,” says Moumtzoglou. “However, regarding efficiency, it leads to a more sustainable healthcare system by reducing the current financial and human resources pressures.”
IGI Global would like to thank Anastasius Moumtzoglou for taking time out of his busy schedule to discuss the emerging field of digital medicine. Please take a moment to view some of his titles below.
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