DH Intelligence releases population health management market analysis

The latest Digital Health Intelligence market analysis report has been released for subscribers, where Lloyd Price examines the population health management market.

The report states that a small amount of funding has been made available at a regional level for the Place Development Programme.

Available to all 42 integrated care systems in England, the funding replaces the Population Health Management Development Programme and aims to accelerate and embed population health management within local operating models.

The majority of funding for population health management is available at a national level through the NHS Federated Data Platform, a £480 million project that aims to connect disparate IT systems across health and care in England, the report adds.

NHS England recently awarded a new 12-month contract worth £25 million to US data analytics giant Palantir to “transition” its current projects with the health service to the new FDP supplier. At the time of writing, an announcement on the award of the £480 million contract to supply the FDP was believed to be imminent.

Future of population health management

As well as funding the report also looks at the future of PHM and it being based around the 3 Ps: Preventative, Predictive, and Personalised.

Predictive – more data, more accurate data models, more predictive analytics. PHM can be used to identify people who are at risk of developing chronic diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. These people can then be offered targeted interventions to help them reduce their risk of developing the disease, or to manage it better if they have already developed it.

Preventative – PHM can be used to coordinate the care of people with multiple long-term conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This can help to improve the quality of their care and reduce the risk of complications.

Personalised – once cohorts of patients have been identified, primary and secondary care clinicians can start to offer personalised advice and guidance around key factors such as diet, lifestyle, exercise, stress and sleep. PHM can be used to promote healthy lifestyles and reduce the risk of preventable diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, and stroke.

The report then looks at the leading suppliers of PHM: Oracle Cerner, Graphnet, Palantir, and Orion Health, before making a 12-month prediction

One year from now

Author Lloyd Price, a healthcare entrepreneur and non-executive director for various digital health companies, predicts that population health management will evolve further to meet the needs of the NHS in the next 12 to 18 months by predicting the care demands for cohorts of patients, playing a more ‘coordinator role’ in the wider health and social care economy, and improving outcomes for both high risk and hard to reach patients.

“We can expect to see PHM help address social determinants of health, such as housing, employment and education through partnerships with other local and regional public services.

“PHM can help ‘zoom the lens out’ to provide a wider view of mental, physical and demographic health factors, enabling better planned use of precious resources and workforce availability,” Price said in the report.

This Digital Health Intelligence market analysis report follows the one on NHS bed management released in early October.