Telehealth: Expanding Human Connections
Evan Kirstel B2B TechFluencer
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by Evan Kirstel (Linkedin) & @evankirstel (Twitter)
Driven by a global pandemic, telehealth has moved to the forefront for nearly everyone on the planet. Even if you want to go to your doctor, you might be forced to use technology to connect with healthcare professionals for the foreseeable future.
As more and more medical offices have temporarily closed, telehealth leader Vonage has seen a sharp increase in the use of its video APIs and collaboration solutions by healthcare customers. In fact, they’ve already seen a >727% increase in month-over-month video usage from healthcare providers that are leveraging these capabilities to connect with customers in a real-time and personal way, while limiting in-person interactions and reducing the risk of infection.
While there are many applications for video beyond the scope of this brief article, I want to focus on some critical concepts. The healthcare system is changing fundamentally and will continue to change rapidly. COVID-19 gave healthcare a needed reality check about demographics, providers, caregivers, patients, and technology. With uncertainty surrounding how long social distancing guidelines will remain in place, the healthcare system is having to adjust to the "crisis normal."
In light of these new healthcare challenges, the use of video technology to enable telemedicine is exploding—and in ways we can only guess at. With video, medical content and knowledge can move from point to point in an instant, and when you mix in ingredients like human factors, policies, research, delivery systems, and medications, you quickly realize that the healthcare system is changing faster than ever.
Add in advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), and you can easily imagine that healthcare will be housed in a smart device you can talk to anytime from anywhere. Or accessed via a wearable tech—or maybe even, in the future, through an implantable device. But for now, video is front and center.
Vonage solutions enable telehealth engagements for healthcare professionals and online learning environments for educators, as well as seamless connections with patients, collaboration with colleagues, and the ability to connect contact center agents with customers from any location. What this means is there may be many providers and a vast array of advisors, caregivers, and more, all interconnected via video, securely and seamlessly embedded within the business applications they already use. This new "crisis" healthcare system will be driven by making medical knowledge, use cases, providers, and patients more interconnected than ever.
Another intriguing aspect to consider is that, as healthcare becomes more interconnected, we become more integrated into each other's lives. That means nearly everyone can serve as both caregiver and care receiver. Family members, friends, and others can use healthcare solutions to help each other. At the same time, medical professionals of all kinds can collaborate via video, sharing X-rays, medical tests, electrocardiograms, MRIs, DNA analysis, gene and genome therapy, ultrasounds, and more, with the security measures that APIs enable in place to ensure compliance with privacy guidelines.
In this new healthcare environment, Vonage comes into play with a unique and powerful combination of unified communications, contact centers, and communications APIs that enable healthcare providers and employees to work smarter, collaborate more easily, and take their office with them wherever they go.
Summary—Video allows more shared experiences and knowledge. And a healthcare crisis like COVID-19 demands that we work together in helping one another faster than ever. I would like to thank Vonage for the opportunity to share ideas and insights into their innovative approaches to healthcare communications.
References:
https://www.vonage.com/resources/publications/digital-communications-healthcare/
https://www.vonage.com/business/perspectives/ai-can-save-contact-center/
https://www.vonage.com/business/communication-apis/voice/
https://aiuserforum.com/mindmeld-ceo-ai-merging-of-mental-metal-book/
https://www.vonage.com/business/nexmo/
Other competitive references
https://blogs.cisco.com/tag/customer-story-blog-series
https://www.androidauthority.com/zoom-alternatives-1098330/
This is a sponsored post in collaboration with Vonage.?