How Virtual Care Technology Is Redefining The Healthcare Industry
There is no doubt that due to the recent pandemic of COVID-19, the word of healthcare will witness a drastic transformation in the way care is provided to the patients. With telehealth becoming the new norm and the rapid growth of virtual care, the healthcare sector has given rise to the latest digital health tools.
The latest digital health applications, like the self-triaging and contact tracing for COVID-19, have offered new opportunities to start-ups and big farms. Since healthcare is transforming its delivery model, telehealth and virtual care is only expected to grow in the future.
The reality of telehealth during COVID-19
With time, the panic that was there among people due to the pandemic is subsiding to an extent. The enterprises that developed virtual care are looking forward to a suitable platform that can be used for enterprise-level scaling.
In such a drastic situation, the healthcare sector was allowed to use consumer technologies like Skype. These health systems are now carefully evaluating their platforms’ choices so that they can use it for their benefit.
However, for the patients’ telehealth has become the new reality in the healthcare sector to get healthcare regularly. Therefore, several related technology trends are gaining demand, and here are some of them.
The increasing demand for contactless experiences
With the rise of a natural or human-made calamity, various daily-basis practices can change. In the case of COVID-19, human beings are afraid to touch any surface that is exposed to the public.
Therefore, people are more fearful of visiting the hospitals or clinic due to which healthcare executive while taking appointments have started to check people in a way which they experience in airports, and this is done for both in-person and even virtual visits.
Now the patients have the liberty to fulfill their registration formalities before visiting due to the technology-enabled workflow. The registration booths are using facial recognition software so that they do not have to touch any surface.
Routine examinations are also conducted virtually as the process used for diagnostic can be done through remotely controlled tools. Even the caregivers visit their patients through virtual platforms, and this trend will only increase in the future.
How Is The Future Of Healthcare Shaping?
My inbox and voicemail is peppered daily with vendors sporting the latest and greatest technology with guarantees attached. This technology may be either software or the latest gadget. As a busy nurse executive, I am overwhelmed with the bombardment from these vendors. I am not technology averse; in fact, I believe technology has assisted caregivers in making significant improvements in healthcare delivery. My concern is the difficulty in having the time and ability to discern what new technology can truly make a difference for either improving patient outcomes or allowing our staff to practice more efficiently.
As I try to sift through the many contacts that come my way, I have two main goals. First, which product can truly make a difference for our patients? The main criteria I look for are those technologies which may have the potential to significantly improve patient engagement to impact our patient’s health outcomes or care experience.
It has been difficult to find just the right tool to motivate all generations of patients to monitor their health outcomes. Consumerism is on the rise in monitoring health which is great, but how do we as caregivers even begin to recommend which “app” is the best. I think the consumers will tell us, frankly and we need to be listening.
Secondly, I am looking for ways in which our care givers can provide care much more efficiently and effectively. Presenting information to caregivers that is actionable, but not annoying is highly important to get traction with front line staff. This should be done through capitalizing on the system of record. Our frontline staff input massive amounts of data about our patients into the system of record, better known as, the Electronic Health Record, yet the benefit of that data is not realized at the front line level.
“Presenting information to care givers that is actionable, but not annoying is highly important to get traction with front line staff”
