By Shyam Bishen
The amount of data that healthcare churns out with each passing second is almost incomprehensible. By 2020, it was estimated that globally the healthcare sector would generate 2.3 zettabytes of data—that’s 2.3 X 1021 bytes. Equivalent to 2.3 trillion DVDs of data. The ability to harness this vast mass of health data offers the promise of better and more effective treatments and cures while freeing up scant resources, often from already stretched health systems.
India has embraced this opportunity. It emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic with an even more ambitious national digitisation programme. Under its G20 presidency this year, India has ensured that digital health is a priority.
But change is not without challenges. Over the next seven years, the amount of health data the world generates is projected to increase faster than in any other field. How do we create a fair and equitable system that realises the game-changing potential of this vast volume of data to drive better patient outcomes?
The Covid-19 pandemic taught us many digital lessons. In a global crisis, the ability to rapidly collect and understand vast quantities of health data to manage the spread of a virus is critical. Increased telehealth utilisation, contact tracing, outbreak tracking, virus testing and medical research, all generated more health data than many organizations anticipated or were prepared for. But in tandem, healthcare organisations often struggled to find the basic information they needed to support patient care.
Three common themes were critical to the challenges faced. The volume of data, data privacy and interoperability. But, it’s also clear that these three factors can sometimes conflict with each other and finding the right balance is crucial.
With over 2.3 zettabytes of global health data, availability and accessibility of the right data is the first step towards innovations that allow analysis by technologies such as AI. But there are good reasons why health data is often extremely siloed and highly regulated and hard to access. Data privacy is paramount to protect personal information and ensure that it is used in a way that respects individual rights. But, a route to share anonymised information is critical to innovation.
A recent analysis by the World Economic Forum found that a typical hospital produces 50 petabytes per year. This mass of information is comprised of clinical notes, lab tests, medical images, sensor readings, genomics and operational and financial data. Yet, 97% of all global data produced by hospitals each year goes unused. Data is the lifeblood of AI-powered research, narrowing the data source risks and diluting the power of the analysis.
Equally, wearable tech, smartphones, new devices and apps, track, analyse and store massive amounts of data on every aspect of our lives—including health data. India already has the second-largest number of mobile phone users in the world. And by 2026, it’s expected to have a billion smartphone users. Government plans to fiberise all villages by 2025 under the BharatNet programme will inevitably accelerate access to internet-enabled devices.
Such user-generated data can supplement existing clinical data, allowing individuals to monitor chronic conditions at home and improve outcomes by providing early access to data that identifies problems before they become serious. But this also means making sure consent, security, transparency and accountability are hard-wired into any system.
If these challenges of the volume of data and privacy can be overcome, then the third challenge comes into play. Interoperability requires the ‘custodians’ of the data to share accurate, timely information in a secure and controlled manner using a common language, while authorised users of the information, such as providers, should have the ability to pull (or push in some cases) data from multiple sources, integrate and augment that data and expose this data as aggregated information to a broader audience. The problem is there is a lack of common standards for connected health services.
Creating this ‘digital health ecosystem’ is where the G20’s focus lies. The process of bridging the digitally divided world of health systems has strong momentum, with numerous global bodies charting the path and making impressive strides. But there is still a critical need to accelerate and amplify the impact of these efforts. Finding the best solutions will only happen by bringing together organisations from all sectors and all geographies. This means uniting public, private and civil organisations across healthcare, insurance, life sciences, technology, retail and consumer sectors, finance and many other areas. This is what the World Economic Forum does best. And this is why we are preparing to launch a flagship programme dedicated to scaling digital healthcare transformation worldwide.
Our near-term goal is an agreed definition of the challenges and target states and a call to action for industry and governments to act on. Long-term, our focus will be a strategic framework and roadmap addressing all key topics in the field, while carefully prioritising where to focus concrete efforts.
As prime minister Modi outlined ahead of India’s G20 presidency this year, “Digital transformation is the most remarkable change of our era.” Only by working together can we overcome many of the challenges.
The writer is Head, Centre for Health and Healthcare, and member, executive committee, World Economic Forum