Episode 036 | December 19, 2022 | 37:31
Guest: Andreas & Pia (Roche Diagnostics)
Published: December 19, 2022
Duration: 37:31
Description
On this week’s episode of the Sustainable Healthcare Podcast we have Andreas and Pia from Roche Diagnostics in the studio for a talk about digital health and how to build sustainability into these products. Enjoy!
Full transcript
About this transcript
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Our healthcare has a need now. We are in lack of healthcare personnel and time. The time is to be innovative. Looking into research literature you can find more than 50 definitions of e-health.
Hello and welcome back to the Sustainable Healthcare Podcast. This week I am back with Andreas and Pia from Roche Diagnostics. We dive into sustainability and how we use resources best in treatment at the hospitals.
Andreas: I am a doctor working in Roche Diagnostics Denmark, heading the medical and science department. I also work in a GP clinic in Copenhagen.
Pia: I work with access for our products to market — market access partner — meaning a lot of dialogues with the healthcare system. We solve the issues together. It is a partnership.
How do we work? We sit down and look at the situation. Denmark together with some other Nordic countries just made a report on sustainability, packaging and circular vs linear economy. We have had a lot of dialogues with purchase departments. We represent a company with huge instruments, small instruments, point-of-care at GP sites and home care. Sustainability is not only environmental — also economic and social.
Roche commitments: 50% reduction in environmental impact of our operation and products from 2019 to 2029. Greenhouse gas emissions to real zero by 2050. Going beyond regulation to phase out SVHCs (substances of very high concern) and partnering with suppliers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — we cannot reach the goals without partnerships. 85% of a hospital’s CO2 is in the supply chain — Scope 3.
Example product: Troponin T blood sample in the ambulance — within 12 minutes you have an answer on whether there is a non-STEMI heart attack. Instead of going to a local hospital first and then being referred, the patient goes to the right place at the right time. You save life, save heart, save environmental impact.
Efficient treatment is inherently sustainable. We see it across the board — having the solution is not enough, the first step is implementation and getting it out there. We talk to Danish government, industry and the regions. We are moving faster now.
Andreas: Digital health: in GP clinics during the pandemic we had to change our way of working day-to-day. Patients were not allowed in the clinic. We dealt with patients virtually — major change for physicians, healthcare professionals and patients. We learned how much you can do over the phone. There is a lot of quality in a simple phone call. We got video consults too. Major change environmentally as well — patients no longer have to drive far. Some patients cannot drive themselves.
Value-based healthcare is key. Everyone has to gain from new technology — patient, clinician, system, environment. Own-goal examples: things “really good for the patients, really good for the data, really good for research” but not good for everyone involved.
What is digital health? More than 50 definitions of e-health in the literature. In our work we ended up choosing a broader definition including non-clinical data. With a broad definition that includes the telephone, you can change outpatient clinic patterns — instead of fixed twice-a-year appointments, more flexible and precise. A Danish hospital reduced outpatient appointment times by 40%. Digital health helps the transition from a fixed plan to a flexible one — patients can report things electronically, you flag who needs attention now.
Pia: Eight-machine example. We made a picture of a region — how many instruments they had — and another picture of the needs for the region. They could decrease by eight machines and have the same health output. Departments could be owners of their own data. We are also taxpayers; we want to use healthcare resources as well as possible.
Roche internally: changed packaging to more environmental options, smart logistics, decreased flying trips by 80%, changing car fleet to electric vehicles.
We cannot do it alone — we have to do it as teams. The “hero vs systems” point applies — a hero could also be a company. We need the right structure and infrastructure. Procurement rules and tenders that make sense for sustainability.
What are we willing to pay for a greener solution? A Danish procurement department did 20 pilots putting sustainability into tenders. 18 out of 20 had the same economic frame. Good place to start. For the two that did not, maybe save sustainability work for later. There may be a low-hanging-fruit bias, but 18 of 20 is a good start.
Other projects: Oscar (private collaboration on data-driven healthcare). Region order — early detection of heart failure as a sustainability project (using resources the right way). Waste management of big laboratory machines — changed reagents so you lose less.
Health data sharing: if a blood test is taken at the GP, sometimes when the patient is referred to the hospital the same labs are taken again. Even within countries, when moving between healthcare systems, full clinical picture is hard to get. Roche has a solution that takes data from point-of-care devices in GP clinic labs and puts them into the system — sounds simple but is not currently done.
Packaging and deliveries — clinicians and operating-theater nurses say “could we order better.” Process has started. Old days the package for knee transplant varied between ORs and hospitals — today they try to synchronize. The need has evolved the situation.
Andreas takeaway: Think about the definition of digital health and health data. Whatever you do, make sure it brings value to everyone.
Pia takeaway: Everybody needs to think about sustainability and take their action into saving the world.
Thank you so much for listening. Please share with a friend or colleague.