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Advocacy | a route to the future
“Internal audit functions of the future must be data led, data literate and data analytical to understand their businesses and deliver assurance with valuable insight. This is not easy, but it is no longer optional, and it represents an exciting challenge.” Jeremy Eagles is group chief audit officer, Group Internal Audit, Bupa Group.
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If you want to be interested in something then you should find somewhere interesting to be, and the healthcare sector certainly fits the bill. In my two and half years at Bupa I have been privileged – and humbled – to witness the immense efforts my colleagues have made to support and care for our customers, be it support for our health insurance policyholders, patients in our dental centres, hospitals and clinics, or residents in our care homes and villages. The pandemic undoubtedly tested (and in some places continues to test) my company’s resilience and adaptability, but it has also accelerated wider changes in the sector, driven by two key factors. The first of these is the development in the nature and type of healthcare solutions. It is likely that healthcare systems focused historically on “sick care” will increasingly give way to organisations that can better support chronic care, preventative care and, ultimately, predictive care. The second is the use of technology focused on supporting the customer’s journey and improving their health outcome and
experience along the way. Accessing and navigating health systems can sometimes feel more complicated than it should be and Bupa, together with many others in the industry, is working hard to leverage technology and manage data more effectively (but responsibly) to make this better. We call this making healthcare more frictionless. Companies will stand or fall depending on how well they navigate these waters, and whether they address the challenges at the pace required, while still maintaining an appropriate risk and control environment. This requires my function – Bupa Global Internal Audit (GIA) – to keep up. Internal audit functions of the future must be data led, data literate and data analytical to understand their businesses and deliver assurance with valuable insight. This is not easy, but it is no longer optional, and it represents an exciting challenge. It requires a thoughtful and strategic approach to core elements, some of which are obvious and some not so obvious. The obvious elements include the necessary investment in team skills and capabilities as
