Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1242957
19 Executive Briefing Bluetooth-enabled respiratory inhalers can share data with their providers. With that information, physicians can determine whether patients have been adherent. If a patient's symptoms are not being controlled with an inhaler, the physician can now assess if it is because the medicine is not working as expected, or because the patient has not been using it. The physician can then make the right decision about whether to change the dosage. "There is a massive amount of data that can now be collected from patients," Holcomb said. "The challenge is to go from collecting data to connecting it. The real breakthrough will be when we can go from data to analytics to insights to behavior change. Data alone won't get us to that goal." Connecting data across pharmacies, physician offices, hospitals and telemedicine providers is essential for identifying patterns across patient groups that a single physician would be unable to see on his or her own. Analytics also have the potential to shed light on the interaction of different social determinants of health, as well as environmental, clinical and genetic factors, and these analyses also help identify trends in the spread of infectious disease. Companies are responding to consumer healthcare expectations and connected care Companies like Cardinal Health are responding to these emerging trends in a variety of ways, with an eye toward providing high- quality, cost-effective services to consumers and health systems alike. In the home and in nonacute settings, clinical protocols and the practical aspects of care delivery must be addressed. Home-based care in particular presents challenges. Companies are spending a lot of time on practical considerations, such as getting care providers and supplies to the bedside. If a home healthcare nurse visits multiple patients during the day, for example, he or she must have the right supplies for each individual. "Data and digital technologies have the potential to connect nurses with suppliers to ensure that supplies are at the patient's home at the right time on the right day," Holcomb said. "Cardinal Health has a business that supports patients in the home, but we are also evolving, so that people can receive the full range of care and products in the home setting." Administering specialty medicines is also more complex than traditional pill-based pharmaceuticals. Additional services must be brought to bear. "Being a good drug alone isn't enough — companies must enable providers and patients to use the drug effectively. Cardinal Health is helping customers handle the logistics of the so-called 'vein-to-vein' delivery of cell and gene therapy. We want to ensure that patients have a high quality of care," Holcomb said. Optimizing the hospital value chain represents another major opportunity to improve the efficiency of healthcare. In the healthcare supply chain, data has always played a significant role in optimizing logistics. Data is critical for transportation, as well as for tracking and ensuring the safety and security of the global healthcare supply chain. Similar types of information are also useful for optimizing the supply chains within hospitals. The criticality of data, and its linkage to supply and logistics, is magnified during the current pandemic. Assuring the safety and security of the supply chain, verifying that the products are not counterfeit has been a critical role of distributors during the pandemic. Connecting the dots for hospitals throughout their supply chain is an important role for data and analytics approaches in healthcare. "Data is the key to ensuring that the right devices and products are used on the right patients. Cardinal Health's WaveMark solution, for example, helps hospital cath labs track and properly use the supplies used in patient treatments," explained Holcomb. WaveMark uses RFID-enabled cabinets to store and track products, and a web-based solution provides real-time visibility into inventory levels, as well as tracking of expiration dates of these products The future of consumer healthcare depends on improved transparency, access and affordability Consumer healthcare is about meeting patient expectations — that means providing safe, affordable, state-of-the-art care. Physicians, health systems, manufacturers, payers and companies like Cardinal Health are all thinking about how to provide consumers the care they want, in the setting they prefer. This desire to provide for consumers has reached a new level of need, as we collectively battle to defeat COVID-19. Healthcare providers are doing all they can to treat patients, and companies like Cardinal Health are working closely with other healthcare players and the government to find solutions. Before COVID-19, this meant delivering leading-edge precision medicine to patients in need, perfecting the details of care delivery in the home and connecting data — whether that's health records across health systems, supply chain information or data that patients can use to compare drug costs, care costs or quality ratings for physicians or hospitals. Today, this means using data to focus efforts to fight the pandemic. "Cardinal Health sits in the middle of the healthcare system and we see how trends are playing out in hospitals, pharmacies, clinicians' offices, payers and directly with patients," Holcomb said. "We're excited about the future and are striving to provide customers with new business models. Our goal is to help customers address the challenges associated with the changing world of healthcare delivery. And this begins now with helping our customers and their patients battle this virus." n 1 https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/12/by-2030-all- baby-boomers-will-be-age-65-or-older.html 2 https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2010/12/29/baby- boomers-retire/ 3 http://www.evaluate.com/ 4 http://www.iqvia.com/ 5 https://www.lek.com/ 6 https://www.drugchannels.net/ Providing the necessary partnership to help customers navigate the complex healthcare landscape, Cardinal Health is a global, integrated healthcare products and solutions company. We provide vital products, world-class services and customized solutions for hospitals and health systems, pharmacies, clinical laboratories, ambulatory surgery centers, and physician offices worldwide.