Healthcare thrives through digitisation

By Tarsus Distribution

Digital transformation has a tremendous impact on the performance of practically every industry, and perhaps even more so on the healthcare sector.

At its heart, digital transformation in the healthcare industry embraces a completely new way of delivering care to patients while enhancing internal hospital processes and, most crucially, meeting the needs of patients by harnessing, advanced digital technologies.

Today more than ever, it is vital that healthcare entities are able to provide digital services to promote more efficient operations, which leads to better patient care. In the healthcare sector, digital transformation is about identifying and bringing on board all the innovative technologies that have been designed to improve the effectiveness of medical care, and the quality of life for patients.

Covered in this article

A wide range of benefits
Automation
Telemedicine
Healthcare on demand
Connected ambulance
Improving outcomes

A wide range of benefits

Digitisation in the medical sector helps in a variety of ways. Firstly, by facilitating a more personalised experience for patients through the integration of clinical information exchange with patient access.

Moreover, it gives hospitals and clinics better visibility and clarity into their spending, cost-effectiveness, and patient outcomes. It also gives doctors and other medical practitioners real-time, 24/7 access to the patient and clinical information they need at the point of care to enable , decision-making, and treatment.

Ultimately, healthcare digitisation has fueled radical change in medical services across the board. It has changed the way medical professionals diagnose, monitor, and manage patient health, and has seen great strides in terms of optimising workflow processes, ensuring compliance and security. All this helps to improve patient care and reduce overall costs.

Automation

One technology that has been extremely powerful for the healthcare industry is automation, and this extends to manufacturers of medicines and healthcare devices. This is because automation facilitates a highly accurate and thorough examination of materials used in production.

Similarly, algorithms that are automated help with medical studies, through a more efficient analysis of specimens, samples, and cultures, which in turn enhances the outcomes of lab research.

The impact of automation on healthcare services in general has also been incredible, enabling healthcare workers to cut down on paperwork and other arduous tasks while eliminating human error and maximising productivity in every department. For patients, automated appointment reminders can ensure that less time is wasted through forgotten appointments.

Telemedicine

Another extremely compelling benefit of digital transformation in the healthcare sector, is the enablement of telemedicine and virtual visits. This allows specialists to meet with their patients remotely, at a time that suits them the most. Not only is this useful for patients in remote areas without easy access to healthcare facilities, but it also saves a lot of time, and lowers costs dramatically.

This approach soared in popularity since the global COVID-19 pandemic struck three years ago and is already being used in several hospitals around the world. Patients can schedule appointments with their doctors, communicate via video conferencing apps on their phones, tablets, or computers, and receive their prescriptions too.

Healthcare on demand

Over the past twenty years, the world has become increasingly mobile, which has enabled a growing number of organisations to stay up to date with leading-edge innovations, particularly those technologies designed specifically for the healthcare sector.

This has given healthcare practitioners the opportunity to work for a variety of facilities instead of tying themselves down to a single institution. Several companies, including Nomad Health, HealthcareSource, HealthStream, and Circle Medical have introduced platforms to link medical professionals to hospitals and clinics for short-term work.

This allows doctors to offer more “on-demand” medical services to patients whose needs match the physician’s expertise, experience, and working schedule. In this way, doctors enjoy more flexible schedules, and can adapt to the shifting needs of their patients.

Connected ambulance

Globally ambulance services are under constant pressure to enhance the clinical quality of their services, drive efficiencies and savings, and ensure the safety of their patients.

With medical emergencies never slowing down, ambulances in the field need to be equipped with smart technologies. Emergency medical care practitioners have to be equipped with the right tools to be able to assess and diagnose patients accurately and give the hospital advance warning of the patient’s arrival and condition through quick and reliable communication.

Connected Ambulance offers a new approach by dealing with these issues and offering a new way to eliminate problematic logistics between hospitals and ambulances. This leads to quicker and more efficient handling of patients when arriving at the hospital. It employs a mixture of Land Mobile Radio (LMR), Long Term Evolution (LTE), and smart technologies to provide safe and reliable communications coverage.

Moreover, the connected ambulance employs state-of-the-art devices to function as a remote consulting room, allowing paramedics to access and follow expert consultations to diagnose and treat patients rapidly, and to communicate with specialists via live streaming.

Improving outcomes

Through all of these innovations, doctors and hospitals can speed up their workflow, get more timely and accurate patient data, and offer more effective treatment in a shorter time.