May 25, 2022

Economist Impact Report Series (part III): Building post-pandemic resilience through technology and innovation

The role of technology and innovation has been at the forefront of discussions and decisions around building resilience in health systems.

“Building post-pandemic resilience through technology and innovation” is the third and final article in the Economist Impact led Roadmap to Resilience report series, commissioned by Philips. It delves into some of the technological shifts and digital health innovations that are changing the healthcare landscape in Australia’s and New Zealand’s health systems.

This article explores the challenges that health systems have faced from conventional health protocols and procedures that are not ready to adapt to new technologies due to resource, infrastructure and capacity constraints. Although we’ve seen clear benefits to health system delivery from the implementation of digital health solutions, the pace and process of adoption are equally as important a consideration for future health system resilience building.

Transitioning from one health service to another, for instance, from aged care to acute care and back again, is quite fraught... Unless we tackle the issue of interoperability – where information is able to follow you from one care setting to another, there will be a limit to what improvements can be made. Ultimately this will remain a significant barrier to achieving the benefits of any digital health strategy.”

Angela Ryan

Vice chair at the Australasian Institute of Digital Health (AIDH)

This article focuses on:

The potential for digital health technologies to improve efficiency, accelerate diagnosis, treatment decision support and enable self-managed care.
Caution to avoid exacerbating existing digital inequities, especially for rural and remote communities
The pace and process of adoption required for future health system resilience building