Precision medicine tools enable three wins for providers
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In 2009, the HITECH act disrupted the healthcare landscape by forcing providers to rethink the way they collected and stored patient information1. Today’s healthcare providers face a paradigm shift of similar magnitude. Confronted with changing payment models, evolving patient expectations, and growing workloads, providers are being forced to change the way they care for patients. To deliver the increased efficiency, improved outcomes, and cost reductions that define success in this environment, physicians are turning to genomics. By applying advanced analytics to genetic data, providers are partnering with technology companies to develop precision medicine techniques that make it easier to treat patients. Here’s how today’s providers are using precision medicine to respond to three key challenges.
Delivering improved outcomes with genomic analysis
The emergence of value-based payment models is driving healthcare providers to improve patient outcomes. To reduce treatment costs and ensure patients receive quality care, health systems are replacing traditional fee-for-service payment models with value-based approaches that link provider reimbursement with care outcomes. In the United States, for example, almost 60% of payments will be value-based by 20212. Remaining profitable, or even viable, in this outcome-oriented world requires providers to treat patients both efficiently and effectively, as pursuing unnecessary or ineffective treatments that aren’t fully reimbursed harms the bottom line. While providing quality care has always been a moral imperative for physicians, it’s now a financial imperative too.
Precision medicine empowers providers to deliver the outcomes value-based care demands. While providers already use genomic analysis to improve outcomes for cancer patients, the declining cost of DNA sequencing enables physicians to leverage precision medicine at scale. Innovative new solutions combine genomic data with clinical, social, and environmental factors to help providers understand patients and tailor treatment plans to account for underlying traits. These customized treatment plans drive the positive care outcomes that matter to physicians and give patients access to the personalized care experiences they now expect.
Personalizing care with tailored treatment plans
In addition to demanding improved outcomes, today’s patients are seeking a consumer-centric experience. As a result, they expect high-quality care and will change providers to find it—more than 85% of people indicate they will switch providers if they aren’t satisfied with their care experience3. For patients, quality healthcare and personalized healthcare are one and the same. According to a recent study of healthcare consumers, access to personalized care is their top priority, outranking even cost and convenience4.
To provide the consumer experience today’s patients expect, physicians are turning to precision medicine. Where traditional approaches require providers to use their expertise and patient records alone to identify viable treatment options, precision medicine solutions use genomic data to generate customized treatment plans. By accounting for the multitude factors that make each human unique, these solutions help providers use their training and expertise to deliver a personalized patient experience, even in the face of increasing workloads.
Tackling growing workloads with actionable insights
In addition to changing payment models and heightened consumer experience expectations, today’s clinicians have to manage rapidly increasing workloads. Growing and aging populations need more care, and healthcare professionals are becoming scarce—by 2030, providers will face a shortage of 14 million workers worldwide5. As a result, physicians are struggling with more demanding workloads. In the United States, for example, 81% of physicians feel they are at capacity or overworked6. To continue delivering high-quality care in this environment, providers need to be efficient.
Precision medicine tools arm physicians with actionable insights, enabling them to save time while maintaining a high quality of care. By using intelligent solutions to compare each patient’s genome with external databases, precision medicine helps providers optimize treatment plans faster. Rather than consulting literature or pursuing multiple treatments to determine which options are effective, precision medicine empowers providers to make data-driven decisions that help them care for more patients without compromising outcomes.
In the face of growing workloads, changing payment models, and shifting patient expectations, precision medicine enables physicians to do what matters most: deliver high-quality care.
Partnering with industry leaders to serve patients more effectively
Microsoft is committed to helping healthcare providers realize the benefits of precision medicine. In collaboration with BC Platforms, a trusted partner to healthcare providers and research institutions around the world, Microsoft is pleased to offer GeneVision for Precision Medicine, a genomics solution that provides today’s physicians with the actionable insights they need to treat patients effectively. Leveraging BC Platforms’ extensive experience building genomic data management and analysis solutions, GeneVision uses patients’ genetic data to arm physicians with recommendations that can enhance their outcomes. To explore how you can serve your patients more effectively, visit AppSource to learn more about GeneVision.
[1] USF Health, Hitech Act Summary, 2017
2 Beckers, Payers estimate 59% of payments will be value-based by 2021, 2016
3 West, Prioritizing the Patient Experience, Undated
4 Deloitte, Health plans: What matters most to the health care consumer, 2016
5 WHO, Global strategy on human resources for health, 2016
6 Physician’s Foundation, 2014 Survey of America’s Physicians. 2014
