Big Picture

Unfortunately, our Swiss healthcare system is not where it could be in terms of digitalization.

This is not only critical from an economic point of view, as is impressively demonstrated by the growing healthcare expenditure every year. It is also a major problem from a quality perspective. More human suffering is currently being allowed than necessary, as we are still operating with analog processes and are unable to evaluate crucial data. Accordingly, it is a task that must be prioritized to advocate for a better, digital and smart system, which all players in the healthcare sector should face up to.

This task naturally also applies to the biggest players in the healthcare system: our hospitals. For their transformation to succeed, energy for change must be unleashed. This desire for change can only arise if managers succeed in creating a positive target vision. What will the smart hospital of the future look like, in which patients, employees and management benefit at the same time? Hospital decision-makers should have a clear answer to this question.

However, it is no easy task to implement this vision and the digital strategy derived from it. Practitioners are faced with too many options. It is easy to lose sight of the big picture when faced with so many possible paths. Where should the digital transformation of your own hospital begin? And what does the transformation path to a smart hospital look like? The SHIFT project and the associated knowledge platform you are currently on have set themselves the goal of supporting decision-makers in creating and implementing their personal vision. To do this, you first need to understand what your current starting position is.

As already mentioned, even after the coronavirus crisis, Swiss hospitals are still lagging behind on average in terms of digitalization and the comprehensive introduction of new digital technologies.

This begins with the seamless automation and simplification of internal business processes and workflows and ends with patient journeys that have not yet been optimized and fully digitalized.

In addition to a lack of vision and integrated digital strategy, the reasons for the lack of maturity can be manifold, such as the following:

• Finances
  • Lack of financial resources or long-term financing options
  • Ongoing cost pressure and investment backlog from projects that have been pending for a long time
• Technology
  • Technical legacy in the IT systems and security concerns
  • Lack of integrative basic technologies and platforms for efficient, standardized data and application management
• General conditions
  • Shortage of staff and resources in IT, but also in the specialist departments
  • Specific regulations such as the Medical Devices Ordinance (MepV) or data protection
  • Lack of IT knowledge and insufficient training for healthcare staff

These challenges are often coupled with very rudimentary operational challenges in that the IT organization is too busy to keep the current IT systems and applications running. Or that it has to chase the short-term priorities of management and specialist departments. In addition, there are often fragmented decision-making, stakeholder and user groups that need to be brought together and served differently.

Ultimately, it is often recognized too late that these transformation projects are not just IT projects, but major organizational and technical change projects in which people, processes, technologies, data and regulations have to be brought into harmony. This requires a great deal of experience, foresight and strategic and conceptual skills.

Certain skills and prerequisites are needed to drive digital change in hospitals more successfully and faster. These include

• Developing an integrated business and digital strategy with a view to the core stakeholders, patient and employee journeys and the requirements of the affected partners.
• Driving digital leadership and change on the basis of the strategy.
• Creating the necessary organizational structures, financial resources and freedom.
• Implementing a technological data, integration and application platform and standards that provide the basis(tech foundation) for faster and more customer-oriented application development.
• Learning with proof of concepts, digital speedboats, open innovation and continuous adaptation and improvement of service offerings.

With the help of three overarching pillars and eleven interlinked sub-projects, SHIFT is developing solutions that are both "smart", for example by using artificial intelligence, and "liquid", for example by using sensor technology to provide barrier-free care to patients beyond the hospital boundaries.

The aim of SHIFT is to develop integrated technical and organizational solutions to increase quality and efficiency in hospitals. The focus is on people's needs and experiences - as patients, relatives or employees. SHIFT provides a practical blueprint for the transformation to a "smart & liquid hospital", i.e. a networked, intelligent hospital ("smart") that enables seamless treatment ("liquid") even beyond hospital boundaries. In addition, new management approaches enable digital innovation in the hospital from idea to implementation. The solutions developed as part of SHIFT focus primarily on the quality of healthcare, while at the same time increasing efficiency.

The challenges of transformation are complex and require a holistic and networked approach. SHIFT creates a data and knowledge platform that shows how the transformation can succeed in practice, taking into account the human (M), technological (T) and organizational (O) factors.

Pillar B: Seamless Patient Path

SHIFT deals with the question of how wearables technology can be used in inpatient and outpatient hospital settings to track patients' recovery and incentivize them to move. Processes are also being established to avoid gaps in care when patients are discharged from hospital to home.

Pillar C: Patient & Staff Empowerment

SHIFT also looks at intelligent solutions to increase staff skills and make patients more independent and thus empower them. Among other things, the focus here is on how patients can achieve better self-management with the help of virtual reality companions. The improvement of internal capacity processes to reduce the idle time of MRI systems using AI (artificial intelligence) is also the subject of this project pillar. For example, an AI-based software factory for MedTech applications should make it possible to develop technological solutions in hospitals more quickly using the modular system.

Pillar D: Management of hospital systems

SHIFT develops approaches for the intelligent management of networked hospitals. The silo mentality of employees is being tackled with a serious game. Evidence-based innovation toolkits are also being developed to support decision-makers in the innovation process. In addition, the teams are working on demand-oriented, flexible personnel capacity management and a toolkit of methods for quantifying healthcare services.

The consolidated knowledge from these 3 pillars will be made available in the course of the project on this knowledge platform (Pillar A) will be made available to the public during the course of the project. In this way, all interested parties should benefit from the findings. We invite anyone who would like to embark on the digital transformation journey to contact us to share their experiences.