Digital healthcare encompasses the new technological innovations designed to improve healthcare, such as smart wearables, online portals, telemedicine, telehealth, digitizing records, and much more. It is an ever-evolving field where healthcare continues to improve in its quality, patient involvement, information exchange, and access to far-reaching patients.
We talked to the experts and put together all the advantages digital healthcare can bring us.
- Patient Portals
“Patient portals allow patients to easily access personal health information, allowing them to become more active in their care and have better-educated conversations with their doctors. An online health information portal was valued by 94% of survey participants.” (Edward Mellett)
- Virtual Visits
“Virtual visits allow patients to communicate with their doctors via secure, two-way digital communications without having to travel to the doctor’s office. In BC, 79% of patients who had virtual visits believed the service was equivalent to in-person visits.” (Edward Mellett)
- Telehomecare
“Telehomecare allows patients and clinicians to communicate remotely, reducing the need for emergency room visits and hospitalization.” (Edward Mellett)
- Electronic Health Records
“Electronic health records save time, reduce duplicate tests, and improve patient care decisions. Electronic medical records help clinicians better manage chronic diseases and improve office productivity. In 2016, EMR use saved the health care system $623 million by reducing duplicate tests and adverse medication occurrences.” (Edward Mellett)
- Telehealth
“In rural, isolated, First Nations, and increasingly metropolitan locations, telehealth provides high-quality care. The time and money saved by telehealth were found in 2010. Based on current usage, 218 million km of travel was avoided in 2016.” (Edward Mellett)
- Greater Patient Engagement
“The relationship between patients, healthcare professionals, and care providers is being rewritten by technology. Patients who use digital health technologies have more control over their health and may obtain treatment more swiftly and easily.
“Surprisingly, 69 percent of doctors worldwide claim that patients frequently check up ailments before consulting them, and 62 percent say that patients frequently arrive self-diagnosed. Patients can actively participate in their care with the use of digital technologies for patient empowerment and self-management, which has the potential to minimize waste and improve service quality and outcomes.”
“Patients who have access to a portal may be able to:
- Make a personal care plan and keep track of it.
- Renewals of prescriptions can be requested.
- Make appointments that aren’t urgent.
- Send and receive secure communications with their service provider.
- Use their health education library to learn more.
“Overall, patients will feel more in charge of their health and have a better grasp of it.”
Edward Mellett, Founder/Co-Founder WikiJob.co.uk
- Doctor-Patient Collaboration
“Digitization helps patients keep track of their records. No longer do you need to keep a physical file for every doctor’s visit. In an emergency, a tangible copy of your medical history is vital. In this example, digitization keeps clinicians informed about the patient’s medical history. You may keep a digital record of your medical history and share it with friends, family, and doctors. Maintenance and technical knowledge are required, but it pays off in an emergency.” (Chris Taylor)
- Automate Admin Tasks
“Administrative costs account for almost a quarter of overall hospital costs in the US. No other first-world country has higher. Worse, doctors spend less than a third of their time with patients. Their time is spent on administrative activities. Doctors might spend up to a third of their time entering patient data into EHRs.” (Chris Taylor)
- Data Safety
“While digital data is always vulnerable to harmful attacks, physical files are not. Medical records can be lost due to unexpected events like natural disasters (earthquakes, flooding) or incompetence. These factors can be eliminated with a well-designed digital data storage system for medical records. Authorized staff can access these records from wherever they are, assuring fast availability should the need arise. Adequate fail-safe procedures will ensure that data is not lost due to human error or natural calamities.”
Chris Taylor, Marketing Director at Profit Guru
- 24/7 Access to Medical Opinions
“Digital Healthcare gives us 24/7 access to medical opinions. This is especially important nowadays as flu-like symptoms can be signs of covid. Having 24/7 digital healthcare can help assess if the user needs to go to the hospital immediately, or if the symptoms can be managed at home. It also helps give a medical opinion on how to deal with minor injuries like cuts or burns.”
Tony Grenier, CEO Instrumental Global
“Digital healthcare refers to providing patients with medical facilities through digital means.” says Perry Zheng, “This includes remote appointments where health care workers can advise patients through video calls and guide them to recovery. This approach provides a lot of benefits to the healthcare sector;
- Less Physical Burden Of Patients
“Healthcare facilities are often stormed with patients where most of them are usually visiting for a routine check-up. However, with the introduction of digital healthcare doctors can schedule online appointments for cases they find suitable. They complete the checkups through a video call, recommend medicine or advice for further treatment, and even tell the patient to physically visit them if that is necessary. As a result, fewer people visit the facility reducing any chances of overcrowding which is very dangerous considering the recent events.” (Perry Zheng)
- Healthcare Worker Safety
“Over the past year we have seen many frontline healthcare workers losing their lives after getting infected with COVID while performing their duties. This is primarily due to the physical overcrowding of facilities and the requirement of a doctor’s supervision. Digital healthcare focuses on telehealth services which allows doctors to monitor patients while they are at home. They can guide them to take care of themselves and provide medical advice without putting themselves at risk.”
Perry Zheng, CEO & Founder Cash Flow Portal
“Digital healthcare is the future of hospitals and health centers alike.” says Megan Ayala, “The efficiency and convenience they offer are unmatched and in every way an upgrade on the older systems. Its distinct advantages are:
- Share Patient Information Easily Across Multiple Platforms
“Digital healthcare is essential in sharing information on other platforms or doctors. It can be an important revolution in the coming future as sometimes critical cases can come in that can be difficult for one expert to handle. In such cases, there needs to be added expert opinions from other doctors and digital healthcare makes information sharing very easy. As, actual files would not be needed and patient files can be shared through mobile devices or laptops.” (Megan Ayala)
- Centralize Patient Information For Better Management, Storage, and Access
“One of the best benefits digital health care brings is the centralization of patient information. Access to complete patient history including past treatments and complete record of expenses is made available at just one click. Digital healthcare has completely eradicated the need for manual storage and data entry of patient files. In the past, it used to take a considerable amount of time just to find one patient’s file as workers had to browse through cabinets full of documents. Human errors are reduced by digital healthcare as well.”
Megan Ayala, Nutrition, Fitness & Health Expert at Patricia and Carolyn