HOW DOES COVID-19 IMPACT THE HEALTH SYSTEM? A PERSPECTIVE OF HEALTH SERVICE PROVIDERS AND THE HEALTH INDUSTRY

Abstract

The objectives of this study are to evaluate the impact of the CoVID-19 pandemic on the development of relevant emerging digital healthcare trends and to explore which digital healthcare trend does the health industry need most to support HCPs.A web survey using 39 questions facilitating Five-Point Likert scales was performed from 1.8.2020 – 31.10.2020. Of 260 participants invited, 90 participants answered the questionnaire. The participants were located in the Hospital/HCP sector in 11.9%, in other healthcare sectors in 22.2%, in the pharmaceutical sector in 11.1%, in the medical device and equipment industry in 43.3%. The Five-Point Likert scales were in all cases fashioned as from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).As the top 3 most impacted digital health care trends strongly impacted by CoVID-19, respondents named:- remote management of patients by telemedicine, mean answer 4.44- shared data governance under patient control, mean answer 3.80- new virtual interaction between HCP´s and medical industry, mean answer 3.76Respondents were asked which level of readiness of the healthcare system currently possess to cope with the current trend impacted by CoVID-19.- Digital and efficient healthcare logistics, mean answer 1.54- Integrated health care, mean answer 1.73- Use of big data and artificial intelligence, mean answer 2.03Asked if collaborative research in the form of digital data platforms for research data sharing and increasing collaboration with multi-centric consortia would have a positive impact on the healthcare sector, the agreement was high with a value of mean 4.10 on the scale.We can conclude that the impact of COVID-19 appears to be a high agreement of necessary advances in digitalization in the health care sector and in the collaboration of HCPs with the health care industry. Health care professional are unsure, in how far the national health care sector is capable of transformation in healthcare logistics and integrated health care.