By Risa Ravitz

While health tech is driving efficiency, it is not gaining traction like we expected. With many patients still hesitant to fully trust tech over humans, and the risk to human lives that could come from a software failure or misdiagnosis, this comes as no surprise.

Disparities exist between traditional healthcare processes and health tech adoption, but work must be done to close this gap. Let's take a look into how solution providers and healthcare professionals can overcome this hurdle and build trust in the innovations of the future.

Test, test, test
While a system failure or software malfunction may have wide-reaching consequences in industries such as retail or fintech, none of them would be quite as serious as those caused by the same error in health technology. Hence, anything that's intended to be deployed in a hospital needs to be tested extensively as faulty systems can have serious life or death consequences.

An unfriendly user-interface or a faulty Electronic Health Records (EHR) can cause delays or even lead to life-threatening situations. In 2013, IBM, along with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, developed a new Oncology Expert Advisor system with the aim to cure cancer. In 2018, a review of IBM's internal documents found that the system was making faulty and dangerous cancer treatment advice.

According to research published in The New England Journal of Medicine, confidence in American medical leaders has dropped from more than 75% in 1966 to just 34% today. So it's imperative that the technology doctors use should be well tested and work well.

It is no wonder that physicians only trust technology after peer review of research. Peer review involves subjecting your work to outside experts in the same field. When it comes to convincing physicians to adopt their products, health and biotech companies must be ready to face scrutiny and peer review of their research. These companies must consistently present measured and quantified evidence of the reliability of their technology, if they are to persuade a community of scientists.

Bridge the old and the new
While health tech can drive productivity and save on costs, that's not all that's required for a positive healthcare experience. Certain "human" aspects of healthcare are still very much needed. For example, if a patient has to be given bad news after a test, no screen or phone call can match the reassuring tone of a doctor.

Such incidents frustrate patients and leave physicians less confident of technology. Ultimately, a patient surrounded by the latest in medical devices still needs human attention to get better.

Health tech must find ways to include old workflows in new digitally-aided processes, so that implementation is an evolution and the human touch is not lost.

Use health tech solutions to inform and enhance decision-making
Data gathered by health tech solutions has the power to drive productivity and efficiency in healthcare processes to new heights. At the same time, healthcare systems are constantly adapting to new practice standards, scientific findings, and service and reimbursement models.

As changes in technology and healthcare continue, there are growing opportunities to usher in technologies to support clinical decision-making. However, health tech is not a solve-all black box that you should just blindly trust. Different medical situations require different ways to leverage the technology available. Companies are looking at how AI can help diagnose reading X-rays -- for example, AI is helping doctors find breast cancer on mammograms correctly-- but these systems have not yet been widely tested.

There is a need to understand what an organization and, more specifically, the physicians are trying to accomplish with healthcare technology. Clinical and health IT leaders of health organizations like CIOs (Chief Information Officers) and CMIOs (Chief Medical Information Officers) need to ensure that the technology deployed is highly optimized for ideal performance. At the same time, it must also be optimized to meet the specific needs of the organization.

For example, does the physician need technology that regularly captures details of the case at hand? Or do they want clinical decision support tools that allow physicians to access the data of a particular patient with a particular problem, so that they can better analyze a patient's present condition and prescribe the most relevant treatment? Or do they want algorithms to double check their work, i.e. to make sure they didn't forget something? Technology can potentially augment all of these processes and make healthcare more efficient and safe.

Telehealth - A way to build patient trust
The use of telehealth, through which patients can have remote consultations with their physicians, is on the rise. This includes video chat, remote-monitoring tools, and health mobile apps. Telehealth allows doctors to build trust while leveraging technology, as they still provide patients with human interaction through the use of video.

Moreover, with wearables and remote tracking to support their expectations and behaviors, patients are taking more ownership of their health. This way, they are more involved in the process of healthcare and understand physician instructions better.

This in turn allows healthcare providers to work with meaningful, real-time patient data that facilitates improved care and intervention. The telehealth market is projected to grow almost 30% by 2023 because of many factors, including less waiting time for patients, available insurance coverage, and an overall shortage of healthcare providers.

One reason that health tech is slow to being adopted is because trust is still an obstacle. To build trust, the need is not just for efficiency, but also for consistency in efficiency. For physicians to trust tech, it should be well tested and aid in clinical decision making. Certain aspects of tech, such as telehealth, are proving successful in building trust. Also, the 'human touch' of medicine will always remain significant, so the old and the new systems must co-exist.


About the author: Risa Ravitz is the founder of Modern Migraine MD.