UDC: 334:614.2
https://doi.org/10.25198/2077-7175-2019-44-52
DIGITALIZATION AS A GLOBAL, COUNTRY AND SECTORIAL PROCESS IN ENCHANCING THE EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY OF HEALTH AND MEDICINE
Yu.A. Morozova
City Clinical Hospital No. 24 of the Moscow City Health Department, Moscow, Russia
e-mail: morozova-u24@yandex.ru
Abstract. The paper discusses the interaction of digitalization processes and the development of health and medicine at the global and country levels in order to identify areas (drivers) of synergistic growth in terms of improving the effectiveness of this most important activity for human development. It is shown that the global transition to digital technologies from about the mid-2000s gave an impetus to the development of an interdisciplinary field of scientific knowledge — medical informatics, the development of which is today at a higher rate than the development of both medicine and computer science separately.
The effectiveness of the health system from the point of view of purely economic activities of organizations in this sphere clearly increases (by several tens of percent) with the widespread introduction of digital technologies, while digital development has a rather indirect impact on life expectancy as the main measure of the effectiveness of medicine and health care.
It is shown that the digitalization of medicine and health care in Russia is somewhat behind the digitalization of the economy as a whole. At the same time, however, the level of digital development of the countries of the world is well correlated with life expectancy, better than average welfare levels expressed in GDP per capita and the number of doctors per 10,000 population.
The results suggest that digital development at this stage of human development will effectively influence the effectiveness of health care primarily through increasing the level of education and literacy of the population, qualification of the health care personnel and, indirectly, through the optimization of the organization of medical care, especially important in the treatment of cancer diseases. Another driver for the digitalization of healthcare and medicine will be the provision of assistance to people with limited mobility.
Keywords: digital health care, digital medicine, digital economy, digital development, GDP per capita PPP, cost-effectiveness, life expectancy, survival age, infant mortality, people with limited mobility, Russia, USA, Moscow.
