Digital transformation is driving massive improvement and innovation in the healthcare industry. By adopting advanced tech solutions, healthcare institutions can significantly improve staff experience, enhance patient care, and allow better and faster diagnosis. By adopting digital transformation in healthcare, healthcare institutions can also achieve the agility required to optimise operational processes while reducing costs.
- Automation
Note to Author: Above relates to drug manufacture but we are talking about healthcare It goes without saying that the advantages of automation for healthcare services are considerable. Automation enables employees to provide extensive clinical support and minimise paperwork while reducing human error and maximising work productivity across departments.
For doctors, it means spending time more efficiently allowing better communication with patients and providing focused and more personalised care. Also, automation enables us to take care of larger groups of patients with similar needs and save time on an individualised approach. For example, patients can receive automated appointment reminders that will minimise no-shows at hospitals.
- Connected Ambulance
A connected ambulance serves as an assistant to healthcare providers as it collects and transfers all vital patient data that can be gathered through wearables, sensors, and HD cameras, and sends it to the hospital while the patient is being transported to the required department.
Even before the patient arrives at the hospital, doctors will already have all the required data that will help them provide the needed procedures faster and more effectively without losing priceless time. In some cases, doctors can also guide paramedics through certain procedures with the help of connected ambulance technology.
- On-Demand Healthcare Solutions
During the past decade, society has become more mobile, which helps more organisations keep abreast of cutting-edge technologies, especially those from the healthcare field. Instead of limiting themselves to one company, professionals become more enthusiastic to work for multiple medical facilities at a time.
- Telemedicine & Virtual Visits
One of the most notable changes in healthcare is the growth of virtual consultations. Now it is possible to conduct an online meeting with a specialist at the most convenient time and from anywhere, which is much more time and cost-efficient than an in-person hospital visit.
Based on research, around 83% of surveyed patients are ready to use telemedicine, which has become even more popular after the pandemic.
Patients can schedule appointments, communicate with doctors via video chats using phones or PCs, receive detailed prescriptions in their emails, and more.
- Patient Portals
Another significant trend in the transformation healthcare solution is creating specific healthcare platforms where patients can:
- review their health records
- check prescriptions
- schedule appointments with the specialists
- request a consultation or additional information from their doctors
- receive laboratory results
- share their health data with the healthcare provider
And that’s only a few of the options available on healthcare platforms for patients. At the same time, these solutions enable faster and more convenient access to electronic health records and significantly reduces the burden for medical staff.
- Health Wearables
The population has become more conscious about health: people are not visiting a doctor when they become ill, instead, they are looking for more effective and convenient ways to track their health metrics and improve their health.
This is the main reason why we have seen a tremendous increase in the sales of wearable medical devices. The digital transformation in healthcare enables tracking of numerous health metrics and provides accurate health data in real-time. Some of the common types of health devices include:
- heart rate trackers
- exercise & fit (duration, type of activity, distance, calories burnt, etc)
- perspiration meters (for tracking blood sugar – an essential routine of diabetics)
- oximeters (for monitoring the oxygen carried in the blood – used for the patients with COPD, asthma, severe cases of COVID-19, and other respiratory illnesses).
Digital transformation provides multiple benefits for all patients – as well as for the healthcare institutions themselves. With these innovations physicians and hospitals can accelerate workflows, improve accuracy of patient data and health metrics, and administer more effective treatments.