16 / 27
Page 45
allied
academies
August 27-28, 2018 | London, UK
International Conference on
Healthcare and Health Management
Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery
Joint Event
&
Journal of Public Health Policy and Planning | Volume: 2
Health digitization & the internet of things: Impact on Next Generation human health & well-being on
a global scale
Joseph Tan
McMaster University, Canada
T
he last few decades have been marked with rapidly
changing demographics, major destabilization of global
economies, ongoing environmental disasters and other
unpredictable events, such as the Fukushima accident, global
climate change impacts, ongoing terrorist activities and
warfare. These events emphasize a need for healthcare that is
more cost-effective, affordable, timely, and most importantly,
able to effectively coordinate efforts among different nations,
disciplines and organizations. Traditionally, health service
providers and healthcare workers are often regarded as key
guardians of the health and well-being of global citizens, yet
a need for community-relevant, self-administered healthcare
services is now overwhelming, for the insured as well as the
“non-insured”. In an era of low-costsmart technologies and
wireless communication capabilities, many countries will now
be looking for a new generation of well-trained and engaged
users of these new and innovative e-health technologies. These
users will include both healthcare professionals and patients, as
well as other end users in varying and unpredictable roles, such
as community healthcare workers, family members, military
and non-governmental organizations. These users, large in
numbers and diverse in roles, will now require a certain level
of knowledge and skills when working with these new e-health
technologies, so that the possibility of delivering healthcare
in an unstable context with large-scale effects. Referred to as
e-health informatics competencies, they provide a significant
advantage over wasteful, poorly coordinated and expensive
conventional medical procedures, and hold the potential for
leveling the playing fields in terms of delivering care where
and when it may be most critically needed, especially for
the underserved. Understanding the e-health informatics
competency challenges and trends is therefore a critical step
towards identifying the various roles that could or should be
played to aid policymakers, vendors, and/or researchers in this
age of the Internet of Things. This talk overviews the prevailing
e-health informatics competency challenges and megatrends
in this new era of healthcare. Starting with contributions
of the major reference disciplines to e-health informatics
competencies, the talk will survey current developments,
provide insights on new opportunities and ongoing challenges
arising fromuseof thesenewer technologies. Challenges include
the need for securing networks and infrastructures for lifestyle
changes, automated health monitoring, self-help and more. In
contrast to the centuries old traditional practice of conventional
medicine, the discussion will offer the audience important
directions and insights related to the next phase research,
developments and practices of health digitization and care
models. Among other things, key challenges include knowledge
to translate technology-based competencies into self-care
healthy lifestyle changes and practices, self-empowerment
and accelerative m-health applications. These challenges
include the design of intelligent and appealing interfaces for
medical devices, use of emerging m-health & cloud-based
strategy, the role of innovation ecosystems for operationalizing
the best-of-breed technologies, understanding the influence
of social media, and debating on the value of digital alerts,
monitoring and patient assisted self-care interventions. While
identifying the different e-health informatics competencies,
challenges and trends needed by new generations of patients,
care providers and healthcare workers, I will also provide
critical thoughts and lessons gleaned from a few ongoing
studies conducted at McMaster University and elsewhere. For
example, we are looking at health informatics competencies
for paramedical professionals across all Canadian Provinces,
and the influence of informatics competencies on outcomes in
nursing. Finally, the talk will conclude with the observation that
regardless of how e-health technologies evolve, it will still be
limited within the confines of regulatory policies, sustainable
paradigm changes, the challenge of interoperability, standards,
privacy, security, socio-political, legal and ethical concerns.
e
:
tanjosep@mcmaster.ca