Social Determinants of Health

eHealthNews.nz: Infrastructure

Sunday, 15 May 2022

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FEATURE - Industry Innovation Article - Beca

What does infrastructure have to do with health and health equity?
Everything. The reforms currently taking place in the health and infrastructure sectors are inviting innovation and collaboration at unprecedented scale in New Zealand.

With reforms comes opportunity. An opportunity to better provision for the future. The door is open for us to bring our experience and expertise to the table and together challenge business as usual approaches.

Health outcomes and infrastructure are intrinsically linked.

Affordable, quality homes improve security and health for people. Well-designed schools improve how children learn and grow. Affordable high-speed internet connects people with their whānau and communities, their culture, knowledge and opportunities. Hospitals and medical buildings impact the healthcare environment for staff and patients.

Having the right underlying infrastructure plays an undeniable role in improving people’s wellbeing, providing opportunities, and reducing disparities.

The opportunity in front of us
The public health sector oversees approximately $24 billion dollars of assets. How can we use these reforms to bring together information about the condition and performance of healthcare infrastructure and better provision for the future?

Having the right information, with the right context, at the right time, leads to better decision making. Using digital engineering processes such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) and digital twins, information on critical assets can be captured to offer greater insights on performance.

If investment decisions are informed by information, every dollar can drive health outcomes. This approach delivers clear benefits.

Research by the Centre for Digital Built Britain in the UK found that every NZD$2 invested in information management can support NZD$10.20-$12 of direct productivity gains. Amounting to NZD$13.80 in total cost savings. This is while also helping government reach policy targets, including accelerating the path to Net Zero carbon, improving social outcomes and supporting more inclusive infrastructure.

Looking at the big picture with a National Digital Twin
Ko te manu kai i te miro, nōna te ngahere, ko te manu kai i te mātauranga, nōna te ao
The bird that eats the miro berry, has the forest, the bird that eats knowledge, has the whole world.

In last year’s budget the New Zealand government signaled they will be investing $57.3b in infrastructure development from 2021 to 2025. The extra funding will support investment in roads, public transport, schools, hospitals, housing, and climate change mitigation.

This presents a significant opportunity to be intentional about sharing a kete mātauranga. What if we had a basket of knowledge that weaves together wisdom from:

wisdom from the engineering and architecture communities on how to create infrastructure that provides the best outcomes for people and nature
regional health data that shows where discrepancies are
and a te ao māori worldview and pūrākau – “oral histories [which] can be seen as simultaneously as data, and encoded knowledge, and a capsule of wisdom… a repository for context-specific information and data”.

Good data is critical to understand the role of our infrastructure in improving health outcomes for people.

Our infrastructure is currently designed, built and operated as a series of silos. What could happen if instead we shift our approach and view to operate as a system of systems? This could be captured in a national digital twin.

A national digital twin enables secure, resilient data sharing across sectoral and organisation boundaries so that everyone can consider the big picture when making decisions.

Better access to connected data through a national digital twin could also support our response and resilience to sudden seismic activity, flooding and other natural disasters. This can help our health systems get back on track faster and deliver better health outcomes. Other countries are currently developing national digital twins, what can we learn from them?

Reform is opportunity. Systemic challenges need systemic solutions. Technology is not the only solution but applied wisely it is a key enabler in shaping better decisions. We can all agree that challenges like this call for collaboration.

FranklyAI - understanding communities to make the right interventions
As the health sector shifts towards a model of distributed services in smaller and repurposed buildings, rather than big campus developments, we have an opportunity to co-create a shared understanding of the specific needs of communities with desired health outcomes.

FranklyAI is a powerful online platform and multilingual conversational engagement tool. Developed in response to the need for diversity, equity and representation in the data collection and decision-making processes. Frankly removes language and cultural barriers by enabling people to give feedback in their native language. Insights are then displayed through an unbiased lens – allowing deeper insights into the needs of a community.

Watch the webinar, Social determinants of health: a systems thinking approach, on 25 May at 12.30pm – register now.