Conceptual Modeling of the Healthcare Ecosystem

Eng. Andrei Vasilateanu

Overview

• Challenges faced by healthcare systems• New paradigms in healthcare • Conceptual modeling and system engineering• Digital Healthcare Ecosystem (DHE)• Conceptual model of the DHE

Challenges in healthcare• Increasing expenses, low quality of medical

services

Causes

Structural changes in the population:– By 2050• number of older people in less developed

countries is projected to more than quadruple (from 374 million in 2000 to 1570 million)• proportion of very old people (over 80 years old)

will constitute 10% of the population in Europe as opposed to only 3% today.

results in increasing pressures on the healthcare system

• Changes in disease prevalence: chronic vs acute– Healthcare systems designed to treat acute diseases– Today most deaths caused by chronic diseases

New paradigms in healthcare

• Changing the role of the patient -> first-class actor in his healthcare process

• Patient empowerment : educated patient, able to make informed decisions

• Continuity of care: informational, management, relational continuity

• Team care: multidisciplinary and cross-organizational

E-health

an emerging field in the intersection of medical informatics, public health and business, referring to health services and information delivered or enhanced through the Internet and related technologies.

In a broader sense, the term characterizes not only a technical development, but also a state of the mind, a way of thinking, an attitude, and a commitment for networked, global thinking to improve Health-care locally, regionally, and worldwide by using information and communication technology.

• Large spectrum of computer-based applications

Basic AdvancedIntermediate

Hospital Information Systems

Clinical Information Systems

Chronic Disease

Public Health Surveillance

Electronic Health Records

Telemedicine

Models in System Engineering

• Model = semantically closed abstraction of a subject system

• Model purposes:– Visualize and communicate to others a system– Specify the structure and behavior of a system– Give a template for constructing a system– Document the design decisions

Model Driven Architecture

• Software development process• Architecture = specification of the components and

connectors of the system and the constraints and rules for the interactions between the components

• Defines what models to be used and their relationship, creates 3 viewpoints:– Computation independent viewpoint– Platform independent viewpoint– Platform specific viewpoint

Digital Ecosystems• Natural life ecosystem = a biological community of interacting organisms plus their

physical environment– Digital species– Digital environment

• New business models in the three sectors of the Digital Ecosystem (telecommunications, media and IT industries): “Ecosystem players could spend more effort in identifying the next areas of welfare creation that can be targeted in all sectors of the economy, thus generating additional value for the industry to share in. Sectors such as healthcare, logistics, transportation, financial services, education, and retail are all likely to present significant opportunities to leading companies within the digital ecosystem in the coming years. Indeed, shifting focus away from competing within their existing boundaries to solving pressing social and business problems in these sectors may afford participants in the TC, ME and IT industries opportunities to collaborate and grow their collective and individual profit pools.” (Michele Luzi and Jennifer Binder-Le Pape: EMERGING “DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM BUSINESS MODELS AT THE CONFLUENCE OF THE IT, TELECOM, AND MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRIES”, GOVERNORS MEETING FOR THE DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM)

• The Digital Ecosystem is the space formed by the convergence of the media, telecoms and IT industries. It consists of users, companies, governments and civil society, as well as the infrastructure that enables digital interactions.

Ecosystem Characteristics• One of the most important features of biosystems is how they are

able to maintain local order (low entropy) within their system boundaries.

• Ecosystems grow and develop in four progressive growth forms reflected in: boundary, structure, network, and information relationships.

• Digital species: – autonomous, proactive and adaptive entities – Organized in digital communities– Peer to peer interactions through information flows– Existing digital components can be equipped with

digital organs to function in the DE

• Digital ecosystems are “the dynamic and synergetic complex of Digital Communities consisting of interconnected, interrelated and interdependent Digital Species situated in a Digital Environment, that interact as a functional unit and are linked together through actions, information and transaction flows.”

Virtualization of the Business Ecosystem

Digital Healthcare Ecosystem

Reflection of the healthcare ecosystem

Modeling the health state

• Health state = mental representation or abstract object

• Reflection in our digital system of the real state of the patient

• Tends to minimize the gap between reality and representation by accumulation of observations

Layers of abstraction

• Health issue, health condition, health state

Thank you !