Why train in e-health today? The challenges of training in the field of e-health will increase in the coming years. With the modernization of the healthcare system and the blossoming of mobile applications that enrich the experience and pathway of patients and caregivers, e-health is becoming crucial in three areas: the delivery of information to patients in the area of prevention and prequalification of their symptoms, information and assistance to caregivers, and access to care via teleconsultation. With more and more patients using the Internet as their primary means of pre-diagnosis, e-health responds to a strong need for the public to take ownership of their health and medical education.
In this context of increasing digitalization, and in a world where physical consultation has always taken precedence over telemedicine, healthcare executives and managers have a key role to play in the growth of e-health for patients and caregivers. While e-health should not replace the traditional healthcare system, it should become an essential complement to it to enrich and improve the quality of patient care and facilitate the work of caregivers in prioritizing medical emergencies.
Many trends can be observed: gamification of preventive health actions for patients through mobile technologies and applications, autonomous e-health service offers for a better management of benign cases for patients, simplification of e-health tools so that they have more intuitive interfaces, etc. With these developments and market trends, e-health is part of a two-way street: that of patient autonomy and the place and role of caregivers, who must not be “replaced” but helped by this branch.
Let’s look at 3 good reasons why eHealth training is needed today.
1. To deconstruct preconceived ideas
Despite the fact that e-health is now widely supported by patients (76% of respondents to a survey conducted by the Pfizer laboratory, “E-health as seen by patients, risk or opportunity?), e-health still suffers from many preconceived ideas and obstacles to its growth: imprecise diagnoses, emerging concerns, particularly among the elderly who have little command of new technologies, lack of information among the public on what e-health is, inaccessibility to e-health for certain groups due to equipment problems and the digital divide, fear of a deterioration in the doctor-patient relationship, etc.
Many physicians and caregivers are also wary of e-health: 52% of physicians fear that e-health, especially during teleconsultation sessions, will affect their relationship with their patients. They are suspicious of the “distancing” and “dehumanization” of medicine.
While all of these concerns are legitimate, they must be qualified and addressed by the training offered in the field of e-health: these must allow for the training of professionals, particularly in the fields of management and marketing, to better inform the public on what e-health is and how it can support current medicine by deconstructing preconceived ideas. E-health is not just telemedicine, but a wide range of practices, tools and values that must best serve the work of caregivers and the care of patients. Public education is learned by training in e-health.
2. To move from talking about health sector transformation to updating
All sectors are concerned: they are all in the midst of a “transformation” with the arrival of digitalization and the growing importance of artificial intelligence. However, we must remain lucid: these transformation projects have been underway for many years, particularly in the field of e-health, where e-health has taken root with the appearance of websites that popularize health and allow non-medical diagnoses to be made for patients.
Today, it is time to go further in our reflection on the issues surrounding e-health: it will be an integral part of tomorrow’s health and talking about e-health separately from the health sector will soon become obsolete.
3. To anticipate the needs and changes in the health practices of caregivers and patients
Artificial intelligence is slowly making its way into e-health. This has its fervent defenders but also its gravediggers, but one thing is certain: technical developments in the field of e-health are in favor of caregivers and patients. Artificial intelligence raises many hopes and now allows caregivers to make accurate diagnoses very quickly, allowing them to gain time and efficiency in diagnosing more serious cases of disease.
This evolution of e-health is also accompanied by a reflection on the needs and evolutions of caregivers and patients: what about data confidentiality, trust in the analysis of artificial intelligences and computers with algorithms that may not adapt to the most demanding cases in terms of personalization of patient support? In the event of a fault, e-health also raises a question of ethics: what responsibility should there be for diagnosing and supporting patients in the event of a fault? That of doctors, machines, mobile applications, manufacturers?
E-health will be structured mainly around questions of ethics and the appropriation of tools and technologies that are made available to patients and caregivers. A lot of work needs to be done on educating the public in order to better manage tomorrow’s needs and developments. As a result, the need for training in e-health is paramount in order to reap all the benefits, and to accompany the sector’s developments in order to reconcile them as well as possible with the world of tomorrow.
Why choose the MSc2 e-Health Management?
“Choosing the MSc2 e-Health Management is both a full immersion in modernity. It is to be part of the logic of health and I would say even more: it is to be attentive and benevolent to others”” explains Serge Guérinsociologist and director of the MSc2 Health MSc & MBA program at INSEEC Paris.
This new Master of Science, which we will open in September 2020, is resolutely in line with the challenges of the growth and evolution of e-health. This MSc, associated with the two other Masters of Science in health on our campus, Director of Health Care Institutions and Management & Marketing of the Silver EconomyThis program, with a core curriculum common to all three programs, will allow the school to “train managers who master the challenges of e-health (data analysis, regulations, marketing), the various components of innovative health project management, while knowing the ethical issues and the fields of application in prevention.” It will also be strongly integrated into the “Start-Up Health” ecosystem with events related to the Adrenaline gas pedal of the INSEEC U group.
Taking into account the silver economyThe Master of Science in e-Health Management aims to train future opinion leaders who will promote e-Health to the public at large, by integrating advanced courses in marketing and management. After all, when it comes to health, we are all concerned.
Updated 23 August 2022