How technology is improving the healthcare experience

BTS students interview Digital Healthcare industry leaders

Recently the IoT Star has taken place in the emblematic Fàbrica Moritz in Barcelona, with more than 250 IoT innovators, leading entrepreneurs, startups, investors and Corporations working in the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem.

With global leaders giving inspiring and insightful talks, the IoT Star offers a chance to look closely into the industry, with its current trends and future challenges as well as opportunities.

Rolando Kunz and Carolina Lisa, students of MDSD (Master in Digital Solutions Development) from Barcelona Technology School, have had the opportunity to take an interview with industry leaders like Oisin Lunny and John Romero about how new technologies are being introduced into the healthcare industry and its impact on the population.

John Romero, National Support Specialist for Phillips Healthcare, has more than 28 years of experience in MRI services and therefore is able to take a deep insight into how digital transformation is having a huge impact on the healthcare industry. When asked about the principal project Phillips is working on right now, Romero said that it is a monitoring system that maintains the uptime of all equipment, which allows patients to be secured for all the time. ¨Our goal is zero downtime¨, said Romero. Phillips is trying to ensure that the system will function under any circumstance in order that patients would get quality care they require.

Oisin Lunny, expert of the the Market Development team at OpenMarket, also sees the opportunities that technologies are bringing into the healthcare market: ¨Innovations and technologies are making those medical machines more user friendly¨. According to Lunny, innovations, together with the internet of things, help to improve the user experience as people are constantly rising their standard expectations of customer experiences. ¨ The trend is toward zero tolerance of bad experience¨, he added, and that´s the reason why Phillips is incorporating internet and virtual technologies into regular check process. A LED screen with which children can interact in the room of MRI, for instance, is one of the projects.

Romero as well agreed with this idea by adding that Philips is also developing the Ambient System whose objective is to make going to the hospital less disturbing and traumatic both for the patients and their family, by for example, indicating clearly the right direction to go at the reception in large hospitals so that people don’t get lost and aggrieved. He also stated that taking innovations and internet of things into Phillips Healthcare would help population live better in the long run, which is also one of the company´s main goals.

As to if people are ready for the digital transformation and its huge impact, both confirmed that people are not just only ready, but they actually need this impact as technologies are making life more convenient and more importantly, better.

Finally, when asked about his opinion on Barcelona´s tech ecosystem, Lunny gave us a very positive answer by saying that he had always considered Barcelona as the Mobile World Capital, ¨ it is really where the mobile and technology industry comes together many times of the year¨. He also thinks that with so many people working in tech companies, Barcelona is becoming a global tech hub and he is indeed very excited about what is going to happen for the future with technology.

Authors: Rolando Kunz & Carolina Lisa