Over the past five years, digital health has transformed the way healthcare is practiced all over the world. Basically, digitization in the healthcare industry has to do with the use of digital technology to improve the delivery of healthcare services. It does not only involve the use of ICT to address health problems through diagnosis. It also has to do with the use of interconnected health systems to improve the use of digital technology to improve the overall welfare of patients. This means it also involves other aspects of medicine like preventive medicine.
There is no doubt that these technological advancements have saved a lot of patients is improving the quality of life in places where it is practiced. This article will be taking a look at how digitization has impacted the healthcare industry over the past five years. So, follow through till the end to see the wonder digitalization has created.
Digitalization of Health Records
Only people who lived during the era of paper records will be able to appreciate the value of the evolving. Electronic Health Records (EHR). This improvement has made the practice of healthcare a lot easier for every stakeholder in the sector from nurses to the patients themselves.
With this development, patients are able to access their records at the click of a button. Also, mistakes (particularly those that are often caused by the poor handwriting of doctors) can be prevented.
Also, a study from the University of Michigan showed that the shift from paper to electronic health reduced the cost of outpatient care by 3%. This may seem like an inconsequential amount. However, in a large city hospital network, the amount is incalculable.
Other impacts include:
- Greater Patient Care; EHR can alert physicians to potential issues like potential reactions to certain medicines.
- Improved healthcare: The possibilities are endless here. EHR can be used by clinical researchers as a pool of data to help understand how diseases work and affect the body on a large scale.
Automation of Administrative Tasks.
It is believed that doctors spend less than two-thirds of their time on various administrative tasks and only a third on attending to patients. The physician’s time is a very precious commodity. The digitization of health care serves has helped save time through the automation of tasks. For instance, AI has been optimized to provide prescription advice and reminders.
Moreover, tasks like scheduling appointments and billing can be done electronically. This makes AI a great healthcare staffing solution to ensure tedious jobs are done without any mistakes. This will result in a more productive human workforce that doesn’t have to focus on menial tasks and can spend more time focusing on patient care.
Through task automation, a lot of burdens has been taken off the shoulders of clinical staff. Now, they are able to dedicate their time to treating patients. For instance, with the use of adult daycare software, there is an improved workflow in the geriatric sector. In fact, it has proven to be one of the most revolutionary care management solutions over the past half-decade.
Data Monitoring through Real-time Health Information
In recent times, smartphones and technological wearables like the smartwatch are becoming really important in the collection and monitoring of patient data. For instance, smartwatches can monitor your heart rate or even do an ECG. Doctors use the information collected by these devices to act proactively and keep events from happening.
Data Security
Digitization of healthcare has gone a long way in ensuring that the data of patients is always safe and secure. With paper records, there was the possibility of losing medical records to disasters and negligence. With the digitization of data, records can easily be assessed anywhere. Also, fail-safe measures will ensure that the data is not lost and stays completely intact, safe from negligence, natural disasters, and even malicious attacks.
