10 State-Of-The-Art Technological Innovations Helping Physicians Streamline Operations
Our purpose-driven era is ramping up its pace of technological advancement rapidly. Like every other industry, healthcare is quickly catching up as well. But, unfortunately, it’s not as quick as one would hope.
Medical practitioners must keep up with the latest trends and innovations in the healthcare tech world to stay competitive. If physicians want to excel and exceed the current ever-evolving and over-saturated market, they need to provide excellent customer-centric care.
It’s time healthcare physicians start exploring new opportunities to empower staff to waste less time on automated processes and focus on pressing issues. Here we discuss the top technological innovations in the healthcare space sure to facilitate physicians to streamline operations
How is Technology Transforming the Healthcare Industry?
While technology has altered every industry, the digital transformation in health and insurance has dramatically affected the healthcare industry, providing hospitals with systems to automate test results, records, and more.
For centuries, people have been practicing and improving medicine to boost customer care and improve the patient’s quality of life.
Throughout the years, healthcare tech has achieved many milestones, yet few experienced as much widespread influence as digital technology. Advancements in networking have enhanced medical treatments and transformed how clinicians work.
New policies and data standards, lower costs, and adoption strategies follow technology improvement and help improve medical equipment and record keeping. Today, healthcare facilities use electronic health records (EHRs) to ensure easy access to test results, treatment plans, and diagnoses.
Plus, EHRs ensure the safety and security of confidential patient data while efficiently reducing manual work.
But the drawback of EHRs is that they cause the accumulation of unstandardized and unintegrated data. Plus, medical facilities can alternatively use this data to improve business practices.
Newer technologies are invading healthcare, including blockchain, machine language, Natural Language Processing (NLP), AI-based tools, and cloud computing. By combining these techs, medical facilities can uncover predictive patterns while making data easy to manage and still secure.
How is technology benefiting the healthcare industry?
While technology has altered every industry, it has dramatically affected the healthcare industry, providing hospitals with systems to automate test results, records, and more. There are numerous benefits that hospitals are enjoying after increased usage of technology. Some benefits are as follows.
Improves patient care
Using technology to store data provides them with a bigger picture of their performance. Technology has helped hospitals automate measurements to review their results, identify issues, and fix them according to their needs. It also has uncovered ways to improve patient care by facilitating them even if they cannot visit.
Eases workflow
Inserting data into a computerized system is more accessible than the paperwork involved. It reduces the chances of error, improving the overall workflow. It also allows caregivers to work on a digital platform from home, increasing productivity and efficiency.
Exchange of information
Hospitals share patients’ data with clinicians, payers, labs, and any other department if needed. Since many groups can access the data, it must be accurate and maintained adequately. With technology, storing and sharing data has become easy.
Healthcare providers can quickly secure digital records while sharing them with different departments. Since patients’ data security is essential, only authorized people can access the recorded history when needed.
Ease for clinicians and patients
Since COVID-19 has hit the world, everything has shifted online; it is the case with hospitals also. When patients found visiting hospitals a risky decision, clinicians turned to a much safer option of telemedicine. With telemedicine technology, patients found a safe and accessible portal to communicate with the clinicians.
Wearable technology such as heart monitors is another technically innovation that gives clinicians an easier way of monitoring the health of their patients, providing them with a more convenient way of evaluating and storing records.
Top 10 Technological Innovations Helping Physicians Streamline Operations
In today’s world, startups globally are investing in ground-breaking technology to streamline operations. Medical facilities need to leverage state-of-the-art software to expedite healthcare delivery to meet the rising competition.
Here we discuss the top technological innovations helping physicians streamline day-to-day operations:
1. Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence has the potential to transform the healthcare industry. It can help health providers make better decisions, reducing the chances of error. Advanced technology has developed more precise and efficient interventions from radiology tools for cancer patients to methods of diagnosing infectious diseases.
Since technology advances with time, leading to accurate diagnosis and results, it will continue to affect the healthcare industry, including treatments, diagnostic approaches, and care processes.
2. Telehealth
During the pandemic, many healthcare providers catered to their patients online. Since then, many care providers have offered appointments through telemedicine. Even after the pandemic has improved, the telehealth system will become a preferred option due to its flexibility and convenience.
Patients living in remote areas or traveling due to work can easily connect with physicians using technology without compromising their health.
3. Hospital Information System
An efficient and cost-effective system is healthcare’s backbone. There are numerous reasons why hospitals should opt for these systems. Some of the significant reasons are below.
- Generates more revenue
- Improves decision making
- Improves data security
- Makes your healthcare technically advanced
- Reduces chances of errors
- Monitors data
- Improves patient care and efficiency
- Improves hospitals rapport
4. Blockchain
It offers a user-centered method to gather, verify, and share information. Many blockchain systems provide a secured system to record data that alters data only when users change it. It does not make any data changes until the user registers these changes. It protects patients’ data and makes it anonymous when needed.
5. Health chatbots
With technological advancement in the healthcare industry, chatbots have become an integral part of hospitals. A platform engages in conversations using automated answers to communicate with patients. It reduces administrative costs and provides access to information and support to patients without connecting to a healthcare provider.
It is suitable for many healthcare functions, including diagnosis of mild conditions, customer service, patient organization, emergency assistance, and medication administration. Further improvements in the platform are underway.
6. Cloud Technology
Most people think that cloud technology stores patients’ data. However, they do more than just that. They provide ways hospitals can build applications to automate data sharing using information technology systems.
They also offer security functions that help healthcare organizations follow HIPAA and other regulations set for the healthcare industry while allowing them to share data when required. It provides hospitals with artificial intelligence that can enhance their systems.
7. Advanced Diagnostic technology
The key to treating an illness is a timely and accurate diagnosis. With time, diagnostic technology has come up with remarkable innovations such as blockchain, AI, ML, and IoT. Laboratory automation is also an important feature that has automated generating test reports and distributing them to patients.
During the pandemic, technology played a vital role in assisting healthcare providers in catering to patients. Diagnostic technology has helped handle routine tests regardless of huge COVID samples waiting in the labs. It has provided hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, laboratories, and healthcare workers with the support they needed during tough times.
8. Mobile Health and Internet of Medical Things
Technology has made people tech-savvy. The usage of smartphones and tablets to meet everyday needs has become more convenient. The Healthcare industry has also benefited from technology.
Providers can now access patients’ information and efficiently utilize the data which helps them in making the best care decisions. Many healthcare organizations have already stepped into mobile health. This way they can easily update charts, order tests, and fill prescriptions.
Healthcare providers can use mobile health tools to complete daily tasks, including filling patients’ data, completing orders, and checking previous medical records.
9. Centralized Monitoring of Hospital Patients
Alarm fatigue is a technology hazard in healthcare organizations. The sound from monitoring systems can desensitize employees in critical situations after exposing them for more extended periods. Healthcare providers fail to attend almost 44% of cardiac arrests cases, and 90% of the alarms in healthcare organizations are defective.
Centralized monitoring helps technicians look after the patients even if they are not around. It provides them a second set of eyes to monitor their patients. They can also directly communicate with on-site caregivers.
Sensors and high-definition cameras help clinicians easily monitor respiratory rates, heart, blood pressure, and pulse oximetry. When necessary, it generates an alert, informing the caregiver to check the patient’s health.
10. Interoperability
Seamless exchange of patients’ data is crucial for hospitals since they have to protect their identity. Interoperability has benefitted patients and caregivers by making the exchange of data secure and private, without worrying about the misuse of the information.
When clinicians spend less time looking for the required information, they can offer better care to the patients and make focused decisions. It also lowers total care costs by reducing the number of tests needed for clinicians to diagnose the illness sooner.
The Bottom Line
Technology-driven innovation empowers businesses to deliver more convenience, improve patient care, and boost customer-centric care.
Combining healthcare with technology is as promising as it is challenging. With digitization comes improved security and ease of access; however, it includes cybersecurity issues and high costs.
However, if medical facilities leverage technology strategically, they can drive down the overall costs while improving patient care. With increasing disease complexities, the healthcare industry needs to adopt the right technology to enhance customer-centric care.
Note:
This article is a guest post from Arkenea, a software development firm that has extensive experience building HIPAA compliant websites and applications for healthcare companies.