The Economics of the Connected Patient

Batami sadan, Vaica Medical, Peres Academic Center, Ramat Gan Academic College, Tel Aviv, Israel (batami.sadan@vaica.com)

The Economics of the Connected Patient

Dr. Batami Sadan, Director, and Co-Founder, Vaica Medical; Chair of the Israeli Association for Medical Informatics (ILAMI); Adjunct professor, Peres Academic Center; Adjunct professor, Ramat Gan Academic College

We are living longer today, yet with increasing age, we are also more likely to live with the chronic condition. Current estimates indicate that approximately 80% of people age 65 and older have at least 1 chronic illness and that the number of older adults with multiple chronic conditions is sizeable. Our aging demographics also foretell a significant increase in caregivers' burden and very high healthcare cost. Four in five health care dollars (78%) are spent on behalf of people with chronic conditions.

During the last decade or so, we’ve watched as a range of technological tsunamis have struck the health industry, from the Internet to social media and now mobile and remote sensor monitoring.

The healthcare industry is going through a major transformation. There are shifts from “pay-per-service” to “pay-per-outcome”, from fragmented to integrated care, and from inpatient to community and home care. These fundamental changes are reshaping the structure and focus on the healthcare delivery system.

NEJM (2009)[1] reported that about 20% of discharged patients return to hospitals within 30 days, 40% of which were due to poor medication compliance.

The VHA[2], after deploying remote monitoring technologies for 17,000 chronically ill patients, reported a 25% reduction in the number of bed days and 20% reduction in hospital admissions.

New England Healthcare Institute[3] estimated that remote patient monitoring could potentially save up to $6.4 billion annually for CHF patients alone, which is $3,700 per patient per year less than with disease management services, or savings of $5,000 per year compared to standard care.

The rapid advances in digital technology are also helping Pharma companies to put patient centricity at the heart of their operations. Patient Engagement is an essential strategy For Pharma. Incorporating Digital Health Technologies into pharma patient support programs has the potential to address many challenges, including patient retention and engagement. It is achieved by continuous monitoring, immediate intervention when required, help educate patients in order to avoid adverse outcomes and keep an open communication line for patients at any time.

The presentation will exhibit the most recent research studies on the role and efficacy of medication compliance monitoring solutions for the chronically ill and for the Pharma patient support programs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Abstract Reference & Short Personal Biography of Presenting Author

Sadan Batami has a Ph.D. in Medical Informatics and Medical Ethics and an MSc. in Information Science. Currently, she is the Co-Founder and director of Vaica Medical and was the CEO of Vaica Medical from 2007-2010. Vaica is a private Israeli company which provides products and technologies designed to improve medication adherence at home among chronically ill, enabling them to stay active at home longer, optimize treatment outcomes and reduce unnecessary hospitalizations. She was the CIO of Haddasah University Hospital for 11 years and VP of Information Technology at MDG, established in 2001 with the goal of improving patient safety by raising the standard of medication management with a closed-loop workflow system for hospital wards.Dr. Sadan is an adjunct professor at Peres Academic Center and the Ramat-Gan Academic college, previously faculty member at Haifa University Israel lecturing Medical Informatics at the School of Public Health. Batami is the Chair of the Israeli Association for Medical Informatics and Israeli representative in IMIA since 1997 and served as Board Member of IMIA as a Treasurer (2001-2007).