Ecosystem Challenge: Time for the external validation

After conducting the Exploratory and Challenge Identification workshops, we had to step out of our comfort zone and share our past discoveries with the wider audience. During the Ecosystem Challenge Validation Workshop, we presented two innovative challenges under the theme of "Humanising Hospital Operations". The aim was to use data-driven innovations such as artificial intelligence and machine learning (ML) to improve doctor-patient interactions, empower healthcare professionals, and optimise the patient experience.

In the first scenario, visiting orthopaedists at different hospitals, even within the same city, posed a problem. Because surprisingly, these entities cannot seamlessly share critical medical data. That included test results, imaging records, and historical information. Hence, we introduced this challenge to an external audience as a question during the workshop:

"How can we design a digital and paper template tailored to orthopaedic cases, enabling seamless communication between specialists via the patient?"

The audience response was inspiring and offered invaluable insights into addressing this complex issue, for instance:

• Engaging Regulatory Bodies: Involving regulatory bodies as active stakeholders is an important step to ensure compliance and standardisation on different lines of care.
• Centralised Approach: Adopting a centralised approach plays a crucial part in efficient data sharing, breaking down silos and fostering collaboration.
• Co-Creation Spirit: Embracing a genuine co-creation spirit in ideation brings together stakeholders for collective problem-solving.
• Building Trust in Technology: By addressing physicians' trust issues with technology by highlighting its benefits, we can showcase its potential to improve patient care.

When it comes to healthcare data sharing, hospitals often hesitate to share patient data beyond the legally required minimum. This reluctance compromises the quality of shared data, leading to inaccuracies and incompleteness. Therefore, during the workshop, we presented the following question to the audience:

 "How can we incentivize hospitals to contribute patient data to a central, autonomous, and independent platform, facilitating data aggregation for various stakeholders?"

Once again, the audience played a pivotal role in shaping this challenge, offering valuable suggestions:

• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Involving decision-makers in identifying shared KPIs can help demonstrate the value of data sharing.
• Gradual Implementation: Advocating for the gradual implementation approach, beginning with specific pathologies and focusing on clear descriptions and step-by-step processes.
• Prioritising budget allocation as an initial step unlocks investment in this transformative process.

After careful consideration and incorporating the valuable insights from our audience, we adapted the challenges into two refined versions to present at the Hackathon that took place in June 2023:

1. Connecting First and Second Lines of Care: How might we enable home care organisations’ Electronic Healthcare Record systems to exchange a broad range of data (status updates, care requests, test results, etc.) with hospital and general practitioners’ Electronic Healthcare Record systems in both directions?
2. Capturing and Using Patient Evaluations: How might we systematically capture patient evaluations of treatments and treatment results, link these evaluations to treatment data recorded by hospitals, and leverage the combined results to improve the quality of care?

These refined challenges reflect the insights and recommendations gathered from the Ecosystem Workshop’s audience and are the ones that will be presented during Hack Healthcare 2023.

Our journey through the Exploratory, Challenge Identification and Ecosystem Challenge Validation Workshops has been a remarkable experience, fuelled by collective effort and insights gained from engaging with a broader audience. We have finally unveiled two innovative challenges focused on "Humanising Hospital Operations". Thanks to the incredible participants, we derived inspiring solutions, such as engaging regulatory bodies and fostering trust in technology or KPIs and gradual implementation strategies.

It has been indeed a significant journey, but one that we consider truly worthwhile because we firmly believe that by bridging the gap between healthcare and technology with innovation and collaboration, we can elevate the standard of patient care. We are delighted to support an event that turns challenges into actionable solutions, revolutionising the healthcare industry. We can already announce that the following post will be focussing on the behind-the-scenes details and discoveries of the Hack Healthcare 2023 event.