Leading the Way: Why the Platform Approach Is the Future of Telemedicine

The market for telemedicine is growing and more and more digital solutions are being implemented by clinics and healthcare facilities. The challenge is that each new tool increases the complexity for doctors, patients and administrators. In addition, heterogeneous solutions and the resulting lack of interfaces often block efficient patient care. Vice versa, what advantages does a digital platform provide for the healthcare sector?

The statistics speak for themselves: Almost a third of doctors in Germany are over 54 years old and many will retire from their medical professions in the coming years. According to calculations by the Central Institute for Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (Zi), there is also an average annual shortage of almost 2,500 doctors in Germany to maintain the current level of medical care until 2040. In addition, many clinics are under pressure to reduce costs and are threatened with closure.

The only way to counter the trend of rising costs and the escalating shortage of skilled workers is through consistent digitalisation – both within healthcare facilities and with other service providers. Time is of the essence, as 22 million people in Germany today are aged 60 and over, which is more than one in four. By 2050, their share will rise to around 38 per cent, and the demand for medical care will increase enormously.

For us, telemedicine is no longer an option, but the best answer to many challenges in the healthcare sector.

Isolated Solutions Are No Improvement

Many healthcare facilities have heard the call and moved forward with digitalisation in recent years. Sometimes with disappointing experiences: Unfortunately, our observations show that many small tools require much more effort than a one-size-fits-all solution. One example: Around 80 solutions are certified for patient consultations in Germany. However, they are usually only optimised for this one use case. In order to support additional use cases such as teleconsultations or tumour conferences, further special tools have to be purchased, which increases the number of options.

Why Isolated Solutions Fail

The collection of software leads to a construct of independent stand-alone solutions within hospitals, their networks and between different healthcare facilities, which prevents efficient integration and blocks smooth, digitalised healthcare. This is due to a lack of interfaces for efficient, automated data exchange, duplicate data entries that lead to inconsistencies and errors, as well as different user interfaces that slow down a productive user experience. As a result, many tools are no longer used after the pilot phase.

Telemedicine Requires Standardisation

However, a fragmented environment is unsustainable in consideration of the increasing demand for telemedicine and the evolving legal requirements. Hospitals are facing major challenges:

• How can we integrate multiple isolated systems into clinical workflows?
• How can we ensure high user adoption with an intuitive and seamless user experience?
• How can we ensure security and compliance across multiple applications?
• How can we effectively manage administration, support and licence costs?

Our telemedicine expert Tobias Kusch advises:

Therefore, the answer lies in a comprehensive telemedicine strategy that focuses on standardisation, interoperability and scalability.

Set the Right Course for the Future

Our clear recommendation for healthcare organisations is to rely on trustworthy and established technology providers that offer high-performance, secure, scalable and, above all, certified platforms. This is the only way you can position yourself to meet the future requirements and growing demand for telemedicine.

In addition, a telemedicine solution from a single source enables efficient digital healthcare through

• High scalability with the best possible quality
• Security measures and certificates for use with sensitive patient data
• Standardised and intuitive user interfaces for medical staff and patients
• Integration via standardised interfaces
• The right degree of platform standardisation and individualisation for specific use cases
• Investment security and support from reliable providers such as Cisco

Connected IT for Connected Medicine

Telemedicine will lead to a paradigm shift for all players in the healthcare sector, as it is essential for the medical care of the future. Fewer doctors, fewer hospitals and limited budgets make it necessary for the productivity of so-called service providers to increase and for gaps in care to be closed efficiently. Good labour productivity means achieving a higher performance with the same effort. This can only succeed if we avoid the mistake of isolated solutions in digitalisation and consistently focus on a platform strategy.

Gender Disclaimer

The masculine form used in this document always refers to female, male and diverse persons at the same time. Multiple designations are generally avoided in favour of better readability.