Digital Transformation in the healthcare industry

Digital Transformation in the healthcare industry

TelemedicineBig Data?Internet of ThingsVirtual RealityArtificial IntelligenceAlexa

1. Telemedicine

Remember the times when you would schedule an appointment with the doctor and wait a few hours at the hospital or clinic? After getting the test done, you will have to wait several days to get the results and visit the doctor again.

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Thankfully, that is the past.

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Many innovative solutions are changing the way patients interact with healthcare professionals. From doctor search to scheduling virtual appointments and communicating with doctors via video calls, telemedicine solutions enable people to access healthcare professionals on demand.

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The best example of telehealth technology is the virtual meeting between patients and doctors. In remote or rural areas where access to healthcare is limited, virtual appointments make it easier for patients to communicate with doctors. Patients facing mobility challenges can use telemedicine to interact with healthcare professionals. This helped us a lot during Covid times.

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Telehealth technology can also be used to manage high-risk patients and enable healthcare professionals to track patient status and activities remotely through IoT-based health sensors and wearable devices.

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2.? Big Data in Healthcare

Big Data is changing the way we analyze, leverage and manage data in every industry we live in. Healthcare is one of the promising industries where it can be applied to avoid preventable diseases, enhance quality of life, reduce the cost of treatment and forecast epidemic outbreaks.

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Let us understand how big data can be used in healthcare and what are its benefits.

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·?????????Patient forecasting for better staffing management

Healthcare shift managers usually face a problem of how many people they should keep on staff at a specific time. If a manager hires too many employees, you may be at risk of unwanted labor costs and resources. On the other hand, being understaffed can also lead to poor customer service results which can be risky to patient health.

Big Data can solve this problem. Data from a wide range of sources can be used to make daily and hourly predictions about how many patients are expected to be in a hospital or clinic. By recording 10 to 20 years of hospitalization records, it is possible to find out how many patients are expected to be in the hospital at a specific time, and this can also provide daily and hourly data.

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·?????????Real-time Alerting and Save Patient Life

Real-time alerting is one of the important examples of Big Data Analytics in the healthcare industry. Hospitals use clinical decision support software to analyze medical data on the spot and provide advice to help healthcare practitioners make informed decisions. Wearable devices are used to continuously collect patient health data and send it to the cloud. For example, if a patient's heart rate suddenly increases, the system sends real-time information to the doctor, who can take action to lower the rate and reach the patient.

Since fitness watches generate massive amounts of data, applying intelligence to it can help healthcare professionals make critical decisions and receive real-time alerts. The hospital can save the patient's life by providing emergency services to the patient.

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·?????????Prevent human errors

Many times, it has been found that the professionals either send a different medicine or prescribe the wrong medicine by mistake. Big Data can be used to reduce such errors by analyzing prescribed medication and user data. Prescription data collected from various medical professionals can be monitored using Big Data healthcare tools. The software can flag prescription mistakes made by any physician and help save many lives.

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·?????????Electronic Health Records (EHRs)

It’s the most widespread application of big data in medicine. Every person has their own digital record which includes demographics, medical history, allergies, laboratory test results, etc. Records are shared via secure information systems and are available for providers from both the public and private sectors. Every record is comprised of one modifiable file, which means that doctors can implement changes over time with no paperwork and no danger of data replication.

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EHRs can also trigger warnings and reminders when a patient should get a new lab test or track prescription to see if he or she has been following doctors’ orders.

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·?????????Reduce Fraud And Enhance Security

Some studies have shown that 93% of healthcare organizations have experienced a data breach. The reason is simple: personal data is extremely valuable and profitable on the black markets. With that in mind, many organizations started to use analytics to help prevent security threats by identifying changes in network traffic, or any other behavior that reflects a cyber-attack. Of course, big data has inherent security issues and many think that using it will make organizations more vulnerable than they already are. But advances in security such as encryption technology, firewalls, anti-virus software, etc, answer that need for more security, and the benefits brought largely overtake the risks.

3. Internet of Things (IoT):

Before the introduction of the Internet of Things, patient-doctor interactions were limited to physical visits and text communication. Apart from monitoring the health of patients, there are many other areas where IoT devices are very useful in hospitals. IoT devices tagged with sensors are used to track the real-time location of medical equipment such as wheelchairs, defibrillators, nebulizers, oxygen pumps, and other monitoring equipment.

IoT-enabled devices facilitate remote monitoring in the healthcare industry, unlocking the potential to keep patients healthy and safe and allowing physicians to provide better care. Since IoT has made interactions with doctors efficient and easier, it has improved patient satisfaction and engagement.

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Also, remote monitoring of patients’ health helps in preventing re-admissions and decreasing the duration of stay in the hospital. IoT can also reduce healthcare costs and improves treatment outcomes.

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IoT is changing the healthcare industry by remodeling people’s interaction in providing healthcare solutions. Implementation of IoT in healthcare benefits physicians, hospitals, patients and insurance companies.

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·?????????IoT for physicians and Healthcare staff :

With home monitoring equipment embedded with IoT sensors and wearable devices, physicians can monitor patients’ health in real-time. IoT allows healthcare professionals to become more watchful and interact with patients proactively. Data gathered from IoT devices can help doctors find out the best treatment process for patients and get the expected outcomes.

·?????????IoT for patients

Devices such as fitness bands and wirelessly connected heart rate monitoring cuffs provide patients access to personalized attention. IoT devices are used to remind doctor appointments, calorie count, number of steps taken in a day, blood pressure, heart rate and much more.IoT enables real-time remote monitoring and is beneficial for elderly patients. It uses an alert mechanism and sends a notification to concerned healthcare providers and family members.

·?????????IoT for hospitals and clinics

Apart from tracking patients’ health, IoT devices can be used in many other areas in hospitals. IoT devices embedded with sensors are used for monitoring the real-time location of medical equipment, including nebulizers, wheelchairs, oxygen pumps and other equipment.Hospitals also have to deal with the spread of infection that is the primary concern for them. IoT-based hygiene monitoring devices assist in preventing patients from getting the infection. For example, smart IoT-enabled cameras can detect if patients are washing or sanitizing their hands before taking a meal or medication or visitors are not sitting close to the patient.

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4. Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is a technology that uses a computer-generated simulation of a 3-D image or environment that allows a person to hear, see, and interact using special equipment, for example, a headset.

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The technology creates a simulated environment where users can immerse themselves in it. Unlike traditional user interfaces, VR takes users inside a virtual experience rather than simply displaying a screen.

From the clinic to the medical room, virtual reality is exploding and is expected to grow in the coming years.

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Healthcare is still in its infancy of technology; Hence, the healthcare industry has started to realize where it can be used and the challenges posed by VR.

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Here's how VR can help the healthcare industry:

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·?????????Pain reduction and Increasing Empathy

With the virtual reality headset, we can use this for child's test sample taking and vaccine, during the whole activity, the child will not experience any pain and tolerated the process calmly.

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Therefore, many health institutions are adopting VR technology for pain relief treatments.

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·?????????Speeding up recovery :

With VR, you can make physical therapy more enjoyable by engaging patients in simulated environments. One research showed that children with cerebral palsy saw a significant improvement in their mobility after VR therapy. Neuro Rehab VR, one of the leading providers in Virtual Reality Physical Therapy, has introduced a gamified approach to Physical Therapy. The company has developed VR training exercises with machine learning to tailor each exercise to the clinical needs of the patient.

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5. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence simplifies the lives of doctors, patients and hospital admins by doing tasks that are usually done by humans at a fraction of cost and in less time.

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AI provides a number of advantages over clinical decision-making and traditional analytics. Learning algorithms can become more accurate and precise when they interact with training data. It allows humans to gain unprecedented insights into care processes, treatment variability, patient outcomes and diagnostics.

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·?????????Improvements in computing power resulting in faster data collection and data processing

6. Alexa

The voice assistant from Amazon has already been successful in the lifestyles of people and smart offices. In the next few years, nurses, doctors, patients and pharmacists will be using Alexa in their professions.

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Voice technology like Alexa can enable communication between healthcare providers and patients.

10 Current Applications for Alexa in the Healthcare Industry :-

·?????????Enabling Diabetes Patients to Manage their Solution Effectively

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Digital transformation is an ongoing process and new trends are emerging in the healthcare industry with each passing day. When you pursue digital transformation in healthcare, you need to think beyond the technology needed to drive innovation.?