Healthcare Needs to Catch Up with Fourth Industrial Revolution

Q: How is Mexico progressing toward the consolidation of a regulatory framework regarding digital health?

A: There are encouraging elements, but we do not yet have a clear and comprehensive framework. Currently, there is a lack of both penalties and incentives for regulatory compliance, particularly regarding health information. In the United States, for example, incentives were provided to encourage hospitals to adopt digital platforms, leading to a near-revolution in health informatics. However, it later became evident that merely installing these systems was insufficient; hospitals needed to demonstrate meaningful use of the digital infrastructure. Additional incentives were then introduced, leading to significant advances compared to other markets, such as Mexico. Intervention by a regulator can catalyze market activity. While there are advances and initiatives, such as electronic medical prescriptions or the certification of Electronic Medical Records Applications by the healthcare authority, there is no compelling reason yet for widespread adoption. The few visionaries driving change  recognize the true value of leveraging information for superior quality of care – an approach that entails enhanced diagnostics, eliminating paper-based processes, and reducing human error.

Q: What policies are necessary for the incoming federal administration to further propel the healthcare sector toward technological advancement?

A: Given that the healthcare sector is heavily regulated and subject to numerous standards and inspections, regulations should carry significant weight in digital health. We require clear rules and consequences; if not incentives, then at least penalties.

The government, as the custodian of health information for all Mexicans, must play a decisive role. Achieving a unified health information hub is an ambitious and complex task. Without such a hub, we cannot achieve portability or interoperability of health records across different medical institutions. From a patient perspective, visiting multiple healthcare providers results in fragmented records, hindering comprehensive care. Standardizing both syntax and semantics is a Herculean challenge that extends beyond mere data aggregation. Legal considerations, such as patient consent and data-sharing protocols, are paramount. Whether driven by industry collaboration or regulatory intervention, what matters is swift and effective action.

Q: What are the key structural challenges the public and private healthcare sectors require to accelerate technology adoption?

A: In the private sector, hospitals often do not consider the patient as their primary client but rather as a user; the actual client is the physician. Hospitals focus on catering to the needs of physicians, ensuring their comfort and facilitating their practice. Consequently, the responsibility for patient care largely rests with the physician, creating a structural problem of fragmented care and fragmented patient records. For example, hospitals frequently do not have control over the clinics within their premises; these are often leased out to physicians for their private practices. As a result, patient records created or updated during primary care consultations might not be integrated into the hospital's system, remaining within the physician's clinic.

In contrast,  the public sector has a more unified model of care, with the patient as the primary beneficiary. While private sector hospitals can provide physicians with top-notch facilities and support, ultimately, they are more akin to real estate businesses offering services, rather than being solely patient-centric.

Q: What objectives is Hermes Systems prioritizing to advance healthcare technologies?

A: We are still in the middle of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, but the healthcare sector is lagging behind in terms of digitization. First, we are gearing up for a long overdue surge in technology adoption, particularly if the new administration sets clear guidelines to invigorate the industry. Second, we are working on integrating advances in AI into healthcare processes. This involves leveraging purpose-built AI-powered tools  to generate diagnostic hypotheses which would need to be validated by physicians. This endeavor necessitates the development of specialized and reliable analytical models tailored to each medical condition, a task that requires close collaboration among industry stakeholders. Our focus is also on achieving seamless integration and interoperability in information exchange within and across healthcare institutions. This includes the creation of a comprehensive clinical data repository (CDR) to centralize patient information and facilitate evidence-based diagnosis among other things. Standardizing data transfer mechanisms through a common language streamlines communication between different digital health components, enhancing efficiency and reducing complexity.

Finally, we are prioritizing the usability of health informatics systems, recognizing their critical role in driving widespread and high-quality adoption. Enhancing usability remains essential for ensuring the quality of information captured in these systems.

Q: How does Hermes Systems plan to support smaller hospitals with limited budgets?

A: The sector needs to discuss AI and start incorporating it into products and services, but there is a growing digital divide. Medium and small hospitals are far from adopting state-of-the-art solutions. Many of these hospitals are struggling to even have basic medical or administrative systems in place as they face challenges of profitability. We are focusing on developing affordable, accessible, and user-friendly solutions that can cater to these medium and small hospitals. The industry must find ways to generate economies of scale to deliver these accessible solutions and enable them to join the digital revolution.

Hermes Systems, which operates in France and Mexico, is a software developer that helps hospitals design and implement new operational models.