Michal Kenpovich at the Health Visionaries debate: Modern technologies, information highways will support health and the healthcare system

Michal Kępović took part in the inaugural panel of the Health Visionaries 2023 conference, during which he spoke about modern technologies that can support healthcare management, patient health monitoring, and the creation of, for example, medical services. treatment efficacy analyses, or epidemiological analyses.

Michal Kepovich: Excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic is not only a “Polish feature”: from March 2020 to the present, excess mortality in the EU has been significant: in April 2020 it was about 25%, in November 2020 - 40% . It was also 19 percent higher in December 2022. higher than the pre-pandemic average. Of course, this was influenced not only by the COVID-19 pandemic, but also by other factors. If we look at the so-called Lalonde Factors, i.e. the most important groups of factors affecting health, it is worth noting that not only the healthcare system itself is responsible for how many patients we have. The physical environment and lifestyle account for more than 60% of the increase in incidence. Especially in the case of cancer.

We must lead to a situation where “health management” is not “disease management”. Technology companies such as ours can offer solutions that, among other things, reduce the negative impact of the healthcare system on the environment. This affects, for example, greenhouse gas and carbon dioxide emissions. Health care as a whole is the fifth source of greenhouse gas emissions in the world: it emits more than the aviation or shipbuilding industry. The question is what can be done to reduce this negative impact. We offer and try to support healthcare with compatible solutions created in accordance with the ecodesign methodology: there is even a directive on the creation of medical systems that reduce the harmful impact on the human environment.

Ecodesign means increasing the service life of devices, reusing raw materials, reducing energy consumption and emissions of harmful substances, and reducing the weight of products. These eco-passport-enabled devices help reduce emissions and environmental pollution. These are significant figures, for example, a 30% reduction in energy consumption, which is especially important in an economic crisis, a 40% reduction in the weight of devices, or a 200-fold reduction in helium consumption.

The second thing modern technology can help us with is coordinated care. Care coordinated in primary health care or patient-centered cardiology is a good direction.

From the point of view of technology, it is advisable to use solutions for observation points, i.e. systems that allow diagnosing and treating a patient in the place where the patient and the doctor are located - in the doctor’s office, at home, in the hospital. It is also telemedicine, ie. the use of long-term Holter monitoring, devices that allow for constant monitoring and monitoring of the patient.

Thirdly, this is a matter of innovation - also representing the Polmed Chamber, I will note that we are preparing a report “Digital Medical Devices”, which will be published soon. Digitalization is a vital response to healthcare challenges. Currently, there are more than 2 million different medical devices and about half a million digital medical solutions. This is a very developing area. Thanks to this, we can improve the availability and quality of services. We must remember, however, interoperability between hospitals, building information highways between hospitals. Example from Ontario (Canada): There is a hospital linkage system that serves 14 million patients. Information highways were created between hospitals, allowing the transfer of all patient data - both visual, morphological, and administrative.

I am glad that ABM has developed a project to create a Digital Medicine Center, as this is one of the answers to these challenges. This is extremely important - thanks to the data collected in the data warehouse, which is based on interoperability standards and collects data from hospitals, it is possible to analyze epidemiological trends, the effectiveness of therapy, create clinical maps, and conduct metadata. - analyses.

So, first of all: medical systems don’t have to be harmful; can help protect the natural environment, which is one of the most important in terms of impact on disease. Secondly, it is important to introduce solutions into coordinated care that allow for patient diagnosis “at the bedside” or at home. Third, digital medical devices connected through interoperability can create data warehouses, i.e. databases for epidemiological analyses, clinical trials and meta-analyses.