Technology Enhancing Patient Care

You can watch the video of this panel here.

Understanding that technology is a complementary tool to medical practice is key to integrate these solutions, said Enrique Méndez, Territory Account Manager of Ergotron during the panel “Technology Enhancing Patient Care” on Thursday, Jan. 28 at Mexico Health Summit. “Medical professionals are irreplaceable; we have seen this during the COVID-19 pandemic,” highlighted Méndez.

To support this statement, Ricardo Rentería, Sales Management Enterprise Lead Latam of Amazon Web Services (AWS), exemplified how vaccine developing companies like AstraZeneca and Moderna use AWS to support their databases. According to Renteria, the current crisis is an opportunity for corporate culture to change in favor of innovation and technology. “If people start asking for digital solutions, companies and regulations will respond.” For, Mario Muniz, General Manager North LATAM of IQVIA, however, regulation is what is stopping technology from blooming. “Proper regulation could boost our solutions to provide better data that can generate adequate solutions and derive in costs savings. Mexico is a fertile soil for technology innovation, but as Ricardo said, cultural changes will allow it or prevent it,” said Muniz.

Jesus Díaz Garaygordobil, CIO of Christus Muguerza, agreed with Muniz and said that hospitals are the best place to foster technology adoption. “They (hospitals) are the most likely to adopt these practices and to measure their impact. They have a whole supply chain and can optimize their practices greatly by using technology.” Meanwhile, lacking technology adoption at hospitals or clinics could lead to misinformation and mismanagement, which could become a great burden. “This scenario, however, has been neglected by the sector,” he said.

Mario Sicilia, Member of the Board of Laboratorio Medico Polanco and Managing Partner of ProActive Capital, asked participants about the priorities of the health industry in terms of technology adoption. Most panelists pointed at ECR. “ECR is the priority. We have to implement this immediately because it is the foundation to evolve to a better healthcare system. With this, we would be able to integrate better solutions by knowing patients’ medical history,” said Mendez. “Beyond clinics and hospitals, ECR must also include public institutions. This would feed data bases much more and therefore, it would help to build a much clearer panorama,” said Muniz. Díaz added that ECR would democratize health. “Regardless of where the patient receives treatment, they will have the same medical history,” he said.

For Renteria, technology still needs a push. “In Mexico, the first thing would be to ensure basic technology access. This can only be achieved through proper data management, the right infrastructure, basic digital tools and access to an internet connection,” he said. Moderator Mario Sicilia concluded that to close the virtuous circle that ECR could provide, basic management is required. Without it, the use of basic technology will never be encouraged and digital solutions will forever be a neglected tool.