Digital Transformation in Healthcare – South Africa Context

Abstract

Digital transformation is growing at a slow rate in medical schemes or healthcare compared to other industries such as banking and insurance. The healthcare sector needs to embrace the digital transformation and adopt and optimize on use of technology, otherwise, the sector will be left behind. Other sectors have taken advantage of technology, for example in the retail sector, nowadays people shop online, bank, and do travel bookings online. The logistic business has also embraced digital transformation in that most activities are now done through devices at the convenience of one's office or home. The recent HPCSA 1 conference included topics such as Telemedicine's where several digital transformation and innovations in the health sector were also presented. What was evident in the discussions was that progress in accelerating digital transformation is pounded by a slow pace of regulation and other relevant guidelines. The topics discussed clearly revealed that the health sector is still far behind compared to other countries. For example, there is a gap in the adoption of digitally enabled tools for diagnosing, providing treatment, and better management of chronic conditions and other conditions. Electronic medical records are still not a part of routine care both from the supply and the funders side except a handful of players. On 1 the funders side, you do find several medical schemes 2 that invest in technology, for example, there are schemes that are already implementing digital application forms for smooth onboarding of new members. This is with the aim of going digital and reduces paper application forms. Similarly, with the submission of claims of which more than 98% are submitted in electronic form has transformed significantly. Strategies such as digital marketing are typically used to reach the target market and communicate more effectively with members. Several schemes have invested a lot in product development such as mobile apps, developing communication channels through online and social media platforms. Social media platforms provide an opportunity for brand repositioning, it also provides an opportunity to reach a new target market and access to a larger pool potential client base. Social media platforms could also be used as a tool to improve service to clients, create convenience, provide instant interaction with clients. However, very few medical schemes optimize on these platforms, particularly small to medium schemes. There is still a need to measure value add of digital transformation to members, chiefly where the quality of care is concerned. 1 The Health Professions Council of South Africa is a statutory regulator of healthcare professions in South Africa. 2 Medical schemes are non-profit organisation which are registered with the Registrar of Medical Schemes. Members belonging to a scheme make contributions and in return receive medical cover according to the rules of the scheme. A recent study conducted by Willie (2019) which was an unstructured survey on the use of medical scheme mobile app by members. The survey revealed than more than 75% of the respondents did not have the app installed. Some of the sentiments for not using the app were: