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Digital Health: a people-centric approach

    • Meeting in digital format
    • 11 May 2021

          Digital medicine is having a major impact on both economies and health. The introduction of healthcare technologies – not least in consideration of the changing epidemiological framework, the ageing of the population and the growing incidence of chronic pathologies and related changes in treatment needs – could lead to significant savings for national healthcare systems.  At the same time it could open up important opportunities in terms of new services and the associated creation of economic value.

          From the clinical standpoint, the widespread adoption of digital technologies – along with a revision of clinical practices and overall reorganization of health services to be developed in close collaboration with healthcare providers – would offer some significant opportunities for improving results and the health of the population. This could be achieved through innovation and development in the areas of diagnostics, treatment and pre- and post-operative monitoring at both individual and population levels.

          Indeed, the digital technologies available in the healthcare sector could facilitate an evolution in services that would place greater emphasis on risk evaluation, monitoring, early diagnosis and the formulation of effective prevention strategies for maintaining optimal health for as long as possible.

          Additionally, digital technologies make possible the design of more personalized treatments by modulating the “patient pathway” so as to maximize positive therapeutic results.

          Key to triggering these deep innovations is the development of infrastructure and processes capable of ensuring clinics’ access to data, as well as both security and privacy and the ability to use them in research and development. The availability of massive amounts of open, anonymous, interoperable data could open up important opportunities for research and innovation through new possibilities for public/private collaboration. Such innovation could lead to major improvements on fronts ranging from precision and personalized medicine to new prevention strategies, new personalized drug treatments, new models for the management of chronic pathologies and even the elimination of genetic diseases.

          Nevertheless, the development of innovative models for the collection and management of health data – including those generated by patients wearing wearable devices and environmental sensors – sets some significant challenges from the point of view of ethics and transparency. It is going to be important to develop new digital health literacy programs to foster citizens’ deeper understanding of the importance of data and the opportunities offered by digital medicine. It is also going to be necessary to design new models for incentivizing and involving citizens in managing their personal health data. This would allow for the creation of individual “digital twins” that would facilitate research and improve prevention and treatment. That is why patients and citizens must have a central role in this reform program, assisted by health professionals capable of guiding them in the autonomous management of their data.

          Finally, it is going to be necessary to remove the organizational and cultural barriers that continue to impede data management, to contribute to isolation and inefficiency and that are incompatible with a pathway to innovation capable of seizing every opportunity offered by digital technology. Models for continuing collaboration between public and private sectors, networks of skills and resources, the full involvement of healthcare providers, and new interactive doctor/patient models are all prerequisites for the full development not only of the medicine of the future but of an already possible present.

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