Technology drives patient preferences and the future of medical services

A new PwC study “Patient in the digital world” suggests that the CEE private medical services market keeps growing and is now valued at €13.9bn. Poland has the largest share of the market (36%), and the Baltic States the smallest (4%). PwC experts underline that spending on private healthcare in CEE grows at a rate of 6% per annum, with new technologies being a key factor that influences such growth.

According to PwC’s research, almost 60% of patients in the region are already interested in telemedicine solutions. The services with the greatest potential include teleconsultation, telemonitoring, telediagnostics, and telerehabilitation. PwC experts say that teleconsultation services alone have reached the annual growth rate of 110%, which means that the number of teleconsultations has doubled within just 12 months. The number of teleconsultations in the entire CEE was around 110,000 in 2015.

According to the PwC study, patients would be most willing to use the following telemedicine services: general practitioner (more than 50% of respondents), pharmacist, cardiologist and dermatologist (almost 40% of respondents).

PwC experts point out that the main drivers of progress in telemedicine are the quickly growing private healthcare market, relatively easy access to new technologies, and the pursuit of even more effective and cheaper service solutions.

Anita Kalnina, a business management and health sector consulting manager at PwC Latvia believes that despite the Latvian healthcare system’s shortcomings and prolonged search for ways of improving the efficiency of governance processes and costs, we should also be looking at the latest developments in the region and around the world: “To stay internally and externally competitive in the private and the public sector of medical services, Latvia – like any other European country – should be planning every new solution or investment in a way that promotes the development of telemedicine. This is determined by patients’ changing behaviours and growing needs. For example, if a state-funded hospital buys expensive modern equipment with EU funding, we need to take a broader view and consider how services can be provided to meet cost and capacity requirements. This approach would benefit everyone: the hospital would have its service capacity expanded; the government might find that a single item of equipment in one central hospital is enough; and the patient would have access to services at any place.”

Anita Kalnina adds that in planning the development of services in the medical sector, we need to constantly monitor the development of technology so that Latvia can achieve international success in telemedicine and our patients receive services from foreign specialists as well.

The changing market and new patient needs will cause private medical service providers to introduce a number of changes in their organisations. Otherwise, they will risk losing their share of the market or facing a drop in profitability. The changes will mostly affect those healthcare segments where new technologies are already available and, at the same time, the share of private funding is the largest. In particular, these segments will include basic healthcare, outpatient specialised care, and then diagnostics, rehabilitation and services for seniors.

Next generation healthcare will increasingly use more technological innovations, such as mobile devices, dedicated applications, teleconsultations, and even artificial intelligence or data mining tools. More and more services will be provided remotely at the patient’s home or at points of service, even in places like the pharmacy, drugstore, or modern trading points.

The full PwC report “Patient in the digital world” can be found at
http://www.pwc.pl/patient-in-the-digital-world.