Category: Healthcare

Digital Tools That Can Improve the Future Of Healthcare

Health Care providers understand that they need to up their game. This is the digital age and consumers are looking for a hassle-free digital front-end experience when interacting with healthcare providers. They are more aware and are used to the conveniences afforded by online banking, personalized shopping and other aspects of CX provided by retailers and the service industry. They expect the same when it comes to health care.

True care redesign is what we are talking about. This involves much more than revamping your website or providing updates. It means high-quality, effective, accessible and affordable health care through digital tools. The future is here, and health care providers must keep up.

How Digital Transformation Is Improvising Healthcare Services

A McKinsey report showed that “total EBITDA in the healthcare services and technology market has the potential to increase from $35 billion in 2016 to close to $50 billion in 2021. These figures suggest a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 7%, continuing the trajectory these players have experienced in recent years.”

This shows the growing role of technology in healthcare. Technological advances like advanced analytics, IoT (Internet of Things), interoperability and machine learning have radicalized the healthcare sector and opened up new possibilities that were unfathomable in the past. The same McKinsey report stated that these advances “present important opportunities to address the half a trillion dollars of annual spending resulting from low productivity and waste.”

Apart from this, technology in the healthcare sector is being re-ordered by tech-enabled customers to achieve the following:

• Pricing transparency

Today’s consumers value options and being able to get value for their money. Pricing transparency applications and online scheduling tools allow consumers to sift through different healthcare providers. Consumes value this as they no longer have to settle for the limitations in benefits or exorbitant prices in healthcare.

• Accessibility

Technology has now made it possible for people to have access to and control their health data. As befitting an informed health consumer, they can use information like patient history, medical records and other details as they choose. This way, digital tools are breaking the information asymmetry in healthcare.

• Preference

Digital tools are placing healthcare in the palm of our hands. They have made it possible for consumers to manage their healthcare according to their preference. They can now monitor and manage any aspect of their health and healthcare spending in the way that they prefer.

• Convenience

A study conducted within Delaware-based Nemours Children’s Health System’s pediatric sports medicine practice compared the satisfaction rates of telemedicine patients in comparison to patients who opted for in-person consultations. The results of the study showed that those who opted for telemedicine experienced shorter waiting times, and saved more time and money (average of $50). The study went on to report that 99% of respondents said that they would recommend telemedicine to other families and 98% said that they would opt for telemedicine again. Consumers obviously value this convenience and telemedicine is rapidly gaining ground.

The impact of telemedicine and digital tools is being recognized by governments as well. The Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act of 2017 was reintroduced this week and its focus is to give healthcare providers the freedom to experiment with telehealth in alternative payment models and incentive programs. The bill also furthered the expansion of remote patient monitoring programs for chronic care, underserved and remote populations. Sen Ben Cardin (D-Md.) who supports the bill says: “Greater use of technology to connect patients and doctors will benefit both with better outcomes, as well as more timely and efficient use of resources.” The outcome of the bill was estimated to be government savings of at least $1.8 billion over 10 years, offsetting projected costs of $1.1 billion. 

Digital tools that can improve the future of healthcare

Digital tools are reshaping the landscape of healthcare in a significant way, much beyond just reducing wait times and costs. Technologies like Big Data, IoT and Artificial Intelligence have contributed much in the healthcare sector, with digital tools being designed for diagnosis, consultation, preventive medicine, drug testing and much more. With software that processes data and “learns” how to apply it with the help of machine learning and AI, the possibilities are endless.

Case in Point: Ultronics

Ultronics is a digital tool that has been developed by researchers at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, UK. With the help of Artificial Intelligence, this tool has the potential to radicalize the diagnosis of heart disease and improves diagnostic accuracy by 90%. Ultronics analyzes nearly 80,000 data points from every echocardiogram image and renders a near perfect diagnosis that could save millions of lives and has been predicted to save the UK’s National Health System GBP 300 million a year.

Now that’s just the beginning of what digital technology could bring to the table in the future of the healthcare sector. Here are 5 types of digital tools that are gaining popularity in the healthcare sector now:

1. Self-service tools

These tools help in streamlining patient appointments with the doctor and include features like online appointment scheduling, electronic payment, auto-renewal of prescriptions and more. These tools give patients a way to manage their health without the hassle of dealing with the administration.

Further Reading:  Check out how Fingent helped streamline healthcare operations with an online service platform.

2. Wellness tools

These tools include technology that helps you monitor the status of your health and maintain your wellness through fitness coaching, real-time consultation and more. These include apps as well as wearable technology that helps people stay on top of their health goals.

Applications based on this concept help users schedule consultations, calculate fitness levels, schedule sessions, set goals, generate exercises and record performance and change exercise plans accordingly.

Further Reading: Read more about how Fingent helped create a fitness Regimen app for trainers.

3. Clinical transparency tools

These tools are designed to decrease information asymmetry and give consumers the necessary data to make informed decisions with regard to their healthcare. By giving patients insights into the performance of different providers and a transparent view across disciplines, these tools help in clinical decision making.

A good tool will have interactive, visual graphs linked across multiple disciplines, real-time access to vital information, detailed analysis of performance across parameters, and highlight key performance issues and indicators.

Further Reading: Read on the case study to know how Fingent implied Data Visualization to improve hospital performance.

4. Financial transparency tools

These tools will give consumers access to the different financial aspect of health care, including options in insurance, fees charged by different health care providers and more. This will help them compare the prices and benefits offered and make informed financial decisions.

Further Reading: Read on to learn how automation is revolutionizing modern healthcare.

5. Remote Monitoring tools

These tools allow for effective remote monitoring and care and seamless e-visits with providers. With these tools, a doctor can monitor the progress of a patient, assign reminders and tasks for the patient and engage with caretakers for better health care.

Further Reading: Find how Fingent’s healthcare technology solution helped improve collaboration between doctors, patients, and patient caregivers. 

Join The Digital Revolution in Healthcare

“The reality out there is the system is complex, and we all own a part of that, whether you’re on the payer side or the provider side,” says Gregory Brown, a divisional senior vice president at Health Care Service Corp. “We need to invest in our digital capabilities in a way that will advance simplifying the system and help educate our consumer base out there.”

Fingent has worked with clients across the healthcare sector to achieve this goal. Give us a call and get set to join the digital revolution to better healthcare.

The Healthcare sector is booming at a faster rate and the necessity to manage patient care and innovate medicines has increased synonymously. With the rise in such needs, newer technologies are being adopted in the industry. One such major change that might take place in the future is the use of Big Data and Analytics in the Healthcare sector.

According to an International Data Corporation (IDC) report sponsored by Seagate Technology, it is found that big data is projected to grow faster in healthcare than in sectors like manufacturing, financial services or media. It is estimated that the healthcare data will experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36 percent through 2025.

Market research have shown that the global big data in the healthcare market is expected to reach $34.27 billion by 2022 at a CAGR of 22.07%. Globally, the big data analytics segment are expected to be worth more than $68.03 billion by 2024, driven largely by continued North American investments in electronic health records, practice management tools, and workforce management solutions.

Here are 5 ways in which Big Data can help and change the entire scenario of the Healthcare sector.

1. Health Tracking

Big Data and Analytics along with the Internet of Things (IoT), is revolutionizing the way one can track various user statistics and vitals. Apart from the basic wearables that can detect the patient’s sleep, heart rate, exercise, distance walked, etc. there are new medical innovations that can monitor the patient’s blood pressure, pulse Oximeters, glucose monitors, and more. The continuous monitoring of the body vitals along with the sensor data collection will allow healthcare organizations to keep people out of the hospital since they can identify potential health issue and provide care before the situation goes worse.

2. Reducing Cost

Big Data can be a great way to save costs for hospitals that either over or under book staff members. Predictive analysis can help resolve this issue by predicting the admission rates and help with staff allocation. This will reduce the Rate of Investment incurred by hospitals and in fact help utilize their investment to the max. The insurance industry can save money by backing wearables and health trackers to ensure that patients do not spend time in the hospital. It can save wait times for patients since the hospital will have adequate staff and beds available as per the analysis all the time. Predictive analytics also helps cut costs by reducing the rate of hospital readmissions.

According to a recent report by the Society of Actuaries, 47% of healthcare organizations are already using predictive analytics. It is also noted that over 57% of healthcare sectors believe that predictive analytics will save organizations 25 percent or more in annual costs over the next five years.

Healthcare & Big Data Facts: McKinsey & Company report states that after 20 years of steady increases, healthcare expenses now represent 17.6% of GDP, ie. nearly $600 billion more than the expected benchmark for the U.S. size and wealth.

3. Assisting High-Risk Patients

If all the hospital records are digitized, it will be the perfect data that can be accessed to understand the pattern of many patients. It can identify the patients approaching the hospital repeatedly and identify their chronic issues. Such understanding will help in giving such patients better care and provide an insight into corrective measures to reduce their frequent visits. It is a great way to keep a list and check on high-risk patients and offer them customized care.

4. Preventing Human Errors

A lot many times it has been noted that the professionals tend to either prescribe a wrong medicine or dispatch a different medication by mistake. Such errors, in general, can be reduced since Big Data can be leveraged to analyze user data and the prescribed medication. It can corroborate the data and flag potential out of place prescription to reduce mistakes and save lives. Such software can be a great tool for physicians who cater to many patients in a day.

Healthcare & Big Data Facts: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services prevented more than $210.7 million in healthcare fraud in one year using predictive analytics.

5. Advancement in Healthcare Sector

Apart from the current scenario, Big Data can be a great benefit for advancement in science and technology. For Healthcare, Artificial Intelligence, such as IBM’s Watson can be used to surf through numerous data within seconds to find solutions for various diseases. Such advancement is already in progress and will continue to grow with the amount of research collected by Big Data. It will not only be able to provide accurate solutions, but also offer customized solutions for unique problems. The availability of predictive analysis will assist patients traveling to a particular geographical location by studying similar patients in that area.

Healthcare & Big Data Facts: Effective use of big data could add $300 million per year to the healthcare industry.

Thus, to sum up, Big Data increases the ability of the healthcare sectors to:

• Predict Epidemics
• Cure Disease
• Improve Quality of Life
• Increase Preventable Care
• Begin Early Preventive Care
• Spot Warning Signs Sooner

Numerous studies and researches prove that technology has tremendously transformed the healthcare sectors. Professor and researcher Ronda Hughes too explains in her research how big data is improving health services.

Improving health outcomes with big data | Source : TEDxUofSC

Although most part of Big Data generated is not fully utilized currently due to limitations of the toolset and funds, it is definitely the future. Invest in the future and use Big Data Analytics to be a part of an evolving Healthcare Industry by seeking an experienced company such as ours to assist you.

Related Reading: Find out how big companies are using the power of Big Data to enhance customer experience. 

Automatic control, which has been the foundation of automation, has been here for centuries. As far back as the 17th century, systems with automatic control devised for the regulation of steam engines, temperature control, and other applications. Automation has come a long way since then. Its application in the Health care sector that has been especially noteworthy since it has made huge strides in saving costs, labor, and lives! This blog will have an in-depth into how automation is revolutionizing the health care sector.

The Healthcare Industry – An Overview

Before we get into the role automation has played in the healthcare sector, it makes sense to have an overview of how the Healthcare Industry has been doing. Innovation and R&D in the past few decades have contributed to more effective medicines, improved diagnostic aids, and technological solutions to non-invasive procedures. These are naming just a few of the accomplishments in the healthcare industry.  

Along with the accomplishments, there have been a few challenges as well. The availability of quality and affordable healthcare for its people is an important indicator of how well a nation fares on the Human Development Index (HDI). The problem is that even developed countries are struggling to meet this need effectively. There are many reasons for this and here are a few of them.

1) Rising Expenditures

There are huge investments being made in the healthcare sector in terms of funding drug discovery and providing facilities. This often translates into enormous hospital bills, which reaches down to patients.

A Research Gate study showed that supply expense per patient admission in the US was estimated to be $4,470! The disproportionate constraint of health insurance reimbursements makes the problem worse. The growing demand for procedures requiring medical devices is a further strain on the pockets of health care providers. For example, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) predicts that the number of knee replacements will expand by 673% by the year 2030. Identifying R&D opportunities for drug discovery also involves large expenses and involves several data assimilation and regulatory challenges. Large volumes of data and insights are involved, and this expends time and cost.

Balancing costs and health outcomes require an intelligent assessment by formulary committees, which takes into consideration numerous data variables.

2) Appointment Scheduling

A survey of nearly 500 healthcare professionals on the Top Challenges for Medical Practices showed that lost revenue from broken appointments was the top challenge with 49.5% respondents voting for this. Other challenges included:

• Low response to recall efforts
• Not enough staff time to call patients
• Keeping updated patient contact information
• Lack of an efficient way to reach patients via text message
• Not connecting with enough patients with a reminder phone call

3) Security

Patients entrust private information to health care providers, including social security numbers and financial details. The theft of such data could be catastrophic, to say the least. Reports show that the highest data breach resolution costs in the United States are for healthcare data breaches, which typically cost an average of $408 per record. The time taken to identify and contain a breach includes significant losses. Above all, the loss of trust and reputation with customers could deal a fatal blow to health care providers.

What is Data Automation

Automation is when manual tasks are reduced by the use of information technology. Repetitive tasks that require least human intervention benefit the most from automation. Data automation is the process when programming takes care of the assimilation, storage, and analysis of data.

Data automation usually involves:

1. Extraction: Multiple open data sources are mined for relevant information.
2. Transformation: The data is converted into a format that can be used by machines.
3. Loading: The data is then fed into the system to serve as the raw material for automation.

Big Data Automation (BDA), is a broad concept that makes use of innovation and IT resources to create value. A few aspects of Big Data automation were brought out in a whitepaper by WhereScape. The WP has Barry Devlin describing Big Data automation as follows:

In addition to reducing manual labor in the collection and analysis of data, automation can help reduce administrative workloads and improve patient care on many levels.

How Automation Is Revolutionizing Health Care Sector

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is the next level in automation. This uses machine learning and AI to effectively handle tasks that are done manually. RPA has made huge strides in Healthcare. A Deloitte article entitled “RPA in Health Care Can Improve Outcomes for All “puts it well: ‘RPA can help health care and life sciences organizations collect and translate patient and transactional data into meaningful, actionable formats; streamline compliance-related processes; and relieve employees of some tasks they now perform.’

Blog: Automation in Healthcare: Pioneering Exceptional Care and Streamlined Efficiency
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Here are some ways in which automation is revolutionizing the healthcare industry:

1) Solving Rising Costs

As we discussed earlier, a major cause of rising healthcare costs is the growing demand for medical devices and the innovation costs involved in drug discovery. Automation can greatly aid in this. Recently, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb revealed a budget action plan, which focused on modernizing drug and device production and using innovation to minimize costs and advance public health priorities. Some of the highlights were to enlist “as many as 10 million electronic medical records to speed the regulator’s ability to address emerging safety concerns for drugs, biologics and medical devices.” This would help in fast-tracking the assessment of safety and effectiveness of the drugs and devices. The collection and analysis of data would also support drug discovery and new product functions.

2) Appointment Scheduling Solutions

Consider the savings in cost and time if tasks like scheduling appointments and reminders would be automated. Apps that automate these tasks have freed up valuable staff and resources allowing them to concentrate on patient care. Some features that these apps make possible:

• Schedule, Cancel and Book Appointments
• Email or SMS appointment notifications
• Feedback mechanism.
• Extensive Reporting to minimize cancellations and refine processes.
• Patient management through email and mobile.

3) Security Solutions

A manual error is often the cause for most security breaches. By automating data processing and sharing, healthcare companies can ensure that handling of data by humans is minimized. With the help of AI and automation, healthcare providers can enable alerts, monitoring, and prioritization of abnormal behavior. Predictive analysis, diagnosis, and recommendations can also be automated ensuring that the system continuously learns to detect and eliminate security vulnerabilities.

While we considered just three challenges and the ways in which automation is helping to resolve these challenges, there are many more. Fingent works with various clients in the healthcare sector to design customized applications to help automate their critical processes. Drop us a message to learn how we can help.

Healthcare professionals, without a doubt, need some of the most sophisticated and specialized technologies for their trade. Considering the importance of even minutes or seconds in such a profession, getting quick access to patient records, disease or condition related information and the like, can help a great deal in saving valuable time. Be it mobile devices and applications, or regular devices like the stethoscope and pressure testing cuffs, it should have features that address the unique needs of healthcare professionals.

Here are some features that can be included in a healthcare application or device, that can make work for healthcare professionals much easier:

Security Features

A lot of healthcare professionals these days have moved to Electronic Medical Records (EMR), which has increased the demand for security. There is a need to incorporate high-end security features to protect valuable patient data, in the event of such sharing of resources through dashboards and the cloud. Here are some popular and useful features that can be made to be a part of healthcare devices:
– full disc encryption
– a certified smart card reader
– a trusted platform module
These help in protecting both the organization’s as well as the patient’s data, while at the same time providing anytime, anywhere access to important information.

Efficiency-Enhancing Features

A number of hardware features like, audio capture capabilities, with noise cancellation to support leading edge voice-recognition software, can be very useful for healthcare professionals in taking notes even when their hands are full. A built-in barcode reader can help in quick, effective and positive patient-to-patient medication information matching. These features allow health practitioners to be more effective in terms of treatment and care. To a large extent these features also allow health professionals to be more proactive in their approach towards patients as well. Often, patients’ questions and issues can be addressed even before they arise, thanks to such smart features.
Here, efficiencies are achieved in terms of day-to-day activities as well as on an overall basis. Together, they contribute towards more optimized work flows, more savings in time and money, and thus, more personal and focused attention to patients.

External Hardware

Considering the in-hospital environment and the various scenarios that the health professionals may go through, there are certain external device features that may come in useful. Apart from the basic requirements of being handy and lightweight, there is a need for health devices used by clinicians to be sturdy and robust. Devices that pass the standard MIL-STD Drop testing might be most appropriate.
Dust and water resistance properties (as per IP 54 ) for their devices can also prove to be useful for the doctors. Antimicrobial coating on the device protects the device from obvious infections as the doctor treats different patients. They will also have to be cleaned with several sanitizing solutions for the best of all users.

Above all these, healthcare professionals need constant and seamless communication among their colleagues as well as among various departments. They need systems that encompass various locations, from in-patient units to out-patient units to operation theaters to labs. They also need different means of communication in their tools, like video calls, emails, text and multimedia messages and the like.

Healthcare devices and tools used by professionals can become one of the main contributors of effective care in organizations if they have the right features. Hardware and software features are both important factors affecting the efficiency of a device or application. Once the right set of features are incorporated, they have to be constantly evaluated and validated, to ensure that only the best development practices and standards are adhered to, so as to maintain a fundamental level of quality and safety, and also to keep the system updated.

The healthcare industry is already half way through a huge transition, leading to more effective and efficient healthcare practices. I’m talking about Electronic Health Records (EHR), the much-needed change that healthcare organizations were looking for, at one point of time. As with any technology, they needed some time for the people to get adapted to it.

Now, a few years into its introduction, there are still mixed reviews regarding its benefits. According to an EHR user satisfaction survey by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), only about half of the respondents were satisfied with their EHR systems on the whole. The survey also showed that many EHR providers had scope for improvements along with some of the main features that doctors found most useful.

So how can you make sure that the healthcare system you are planning to adopt will provide the required results? How can you make sure that you don’t end up being a dissatisfied healthcare application user?

Here are 5 essential elements that you need to consider while looking for an effective healthcare application:

1. Customization – An effective healthcare application should be capable of being customized to the specific needs of an organization or a physician’s practice. Only then can it help in improving patient care, without creating even more work for you and your employees. An off-the-shelf healthcare system may need extra modifications from your side in order to be effective. According to the AAFP survey, 78% of the users were satisfied with the customization capabilities of their EHR systems. Hence, it is one of the most important factors to look for in any good healthcare application.
2. Integration – This is an extension of the customization factor because, with customization you can make sure that your healthcare application is well integrated into the organization or practice workflow, the accounting and revenue management functions. A fully integrated system can streamline the entire process of health care right from scheduling appointments to processing payments and checkout. As all the processes get automated, it becomes much easier for your employees to keep track of patients, allowing them to concentrate on patient care.
3. Software support – According to the AAFP survey, only 39% of the respondents were satisfied with the support and training they received from the EHR vendors, which shows how important customer service is to users. A majority of them were least satisfied with the software support. This means that customer service and support makes a huge difference in the overall satisfaction level of the software users, and as a healthcare practitioner, wouldn’t you want software support to be at your constant beck and call in case you need help?
4. Connectivity – The survey showed that about 70% of the respondents found the e-prescribing and electronic messaging functionalities of their current healthcare system as most beneficial and satisfying. These are two functions that play important roles in improving the speed and quality of care delivered to the patients, thereby improving patient satisfaction. Such capabilities and link ups with pharmacies can help decrease the number of patients who are reluctant to fill out prescription forms to get their medicines and bring up the effectiveness in patient care. Hence, you need to make sure that you have enough connections to make treatment easier for your patients in every possible way. 
5. Quick implementation – The implementation and training process of your healthcare application should be quite quick, so that they don’t cause disruptions in your work and practice. Cloud-based systems can actually help you save on the high costs as well as the IT efforts of installation. It should also be easy to use as you need to finish off your staff training quickly and efficiently.

These basic factors can help you find the right healthcare solution for your organization’s needs and it can be a start to improving patient satisfaction and quality of care, today, as well as in the long run.

Looking for the perfect solution to improve patient care in your organization? Our healthcare application experts can help.

Healthcare is, in fact, an industry where innovative technologies can work incredibly to transform the way we give and receive healthcare services. But the industry has always been one of those sectors burdened by slow moving innovation, due to the complexity of its tasks, process and formalities. The good news is that, the industry has finally geared up over the last few years since its perfect marriage with technology, and today’s healthcare sector is gradually becoming a consumer-focused industry. There is no doubt that we have entered the period of healthcare consumerism, and people are becoming more and more active in deciding, purchasing, and understanding the healthcare provided. But an average healthcare customer is still unaware of the different technologies, its possibilities and the range of choices in the area.

By 2020, there will be 21% increase in IT jobs in the healthcare industry

It doesn’t come as a surprise as we are already witnessing signs as to how technology is creeping into the medical field in different forms. How uncommon is it nowadays to see your doctor or consultant taking down notes or storing your medical records electronically through his iPad or smartphone? It’s common sight, right? And how frequently can you spot hi-tech hospitals without new artificial hearts or electronic aspirin nowadays?
So, what ways will you see technology changing healthcare in coming years? Here’s where the medical field is headed in 2016:

Wearables and digital technologies to monitor your health:
Forget going to clinics, consult your doctors online!

Beginning with CES 2016, we’ll see more of life-saving wearable, smart garments, 3D printers, next-gen fitness trackers that monitor and track our health (heart rate, breathing, calories count, activity level and more) in real time, display it on our smart phones/smart devices and even share it with medical practitioners who can virtually monitor and help high-risk patients. Dr. Rafael Grossmann, the healthcare futurist was the first to use Google Glass in a live surgery on June 20, 2013. S-patch, for instance, is a recent prototype device showcased by Samsung during CES 2016 that holds the compact Bio-Processor chip capable of measuring ECG, GSR, PPG, skin temperatures and body fat.

Digital technologies on the rise

Healthcare digital technologies like telemedicine (providing clinical health care virtually, using technologies and telecommunication), hybrid operation theatres, portal technology, patient-bedside clinical equipment, artificial intelligence and video conferencing will make the sector more efficient, time-saving, cost-effective and easy. Imagine having your doubts or questions on health care getting cleared instantly by top doctors just in a jiffy through mobile apps, not having to spend time, money and effort for traveling to clinics. The virtual visits are increasingly getting adopted in the field. 2.8million patients used home monitoring systems in 2012 that can remotely monitor patients’ health to take necessary actions during medical urgencies, reducing the unnecessary visits to physician’s clinics, hospitalization charges and other costs.

Consolidated patient information through Electronic health records!

Previously hospitals had separate systems functioning in their pharmacies, order checking, documentations, and consultation. Patient information were stored in different places, in various formats and managed by different parties. It was tough for doctors to use this scattered information for providing effective service, unless it is consolidated into a centralized, standardized, usable data stream. Today, more hospitals are integrating the different systems to a single consolidated platform that is more structured, quick, and easily available to authorities, making the whole process centralized and efficient. Over 66% physicians are already using electronic records globally.

Tech will catalyze drastic system-wide cost savings and efficiencies

With the present lifestyle creating more and more health problems, the current system will face enormous demand shock due to shortage of doctors. This will put more demand on doctors’ resources and time and they will be forced to manage patients based on urgency, severity and available capacity. Technologies like, alerts, automated follow-ups, Smart consolidated dashboards, synchronous and asynchronous communication, reports, and data sharing will become doctors’ unavoidable tools to manage large number of patients simultaneously.

Transparent grading for doctors

How have we been selecting a doctor till today? Mostly by word-of-mouth referral, consumer reviews or hospital staff’s disposition. This will change, in coming years we’ll see doctors rating each other based on competence. Consumers will be able to see the scores for doctors, allotted based on their professional reputation, impact of their researches or academic publication, the number of patients who have been referred to them, their experience and the like. Consumers will get to assess the capability scores of the different doctors and choose the best service.

Bringing the “care” back to Healthcare

Today’s savvy consumers are empowered, and likely do their homework about the care they should receive and thus have a clear idea of the health care services around them. They demand transparent, clear, and simplified details on quality of service, providers and prices. This will force the healthcare industry to provide better services, discover and address patient preferences more meticulously.

Out of the $1.8trillion spent on healthcare in US annually, $500billion is for doctor-patient visits alone that involve no actual procedures or require prescriptions. If technology can virtually serve such patients well, this cost can be dropped by $125 billion dramatically. The healthcare consumerism has this potential to improve the communication and sharing between patients and clinicians enabling improved shared decision making. However, how well the clinicians and patients will balance it between them will be a challenge to be focused while the consumerism grows. For the era of healthcare consumerism to take hold, many of these basic challenges will have to be quickly addressed.

Are you a healthcare professional with a technology challenge? Get more advice from our technology experts on how technology can address your healthcare challenges to build a better organization that will thrive.

They say the only thing that is constant in this world is change. It applies to every single aspect of our lives, including the health and well being. Thinking from an industrial perspective, the healthcare landscape is constantly evolving from one level to the next and it only increases the need for IT systems to be more scalable, flexible, adaptable and secure. But technology too is an ever changing concept, needing regular and constant updates to remain fresh and competitive, not to mention the ever-changing regulatory requirements as well. So as you can see, it is a continuously changing scenario, which makes it all the more important for organizations to make sure they have the most leading edge software to keep pace with the environment.
Organizations need to build technologies that have the ability to adapt and change, while sticking to compliance regulations. As mentioned before, their focus should be on flexibility and scalability of their IT platforms. In other words, they need to develop future ready IT systems that are safe and secure.
Dr. Andrew Litt, Chief Medical Officer at Dell Healthcare and Life Sciences says, “ The only way hospitals will thrive is if there’s useful, timely and relevant information that is securely delivered along the care continuum.”

Thankfully, the IT field is making its improved contributions as well for the healthcare sector and now it is up to the organizations to narrow down and adopt the most appropriate one. To help them in this regard and to enable them to get the most out of their systems, here are 5 pointers to look for while choosing a future ready healthcare platform:

1. Scalability and adaptability – This is one of the most important factors to consider to make your systems future-proof. The market for healthcare applications is one which is very volatile, with regulation coming in quite frequently and with little notice. In such a scenario, it is important to have systems that are flexible and can adapt to changes easily. For example, when the new office takes charge with the 2016 presidential elections in the U.S, there may be new regulations to comply with, or when an organization launches a new product or a new healthcare plan, there might be a need for the existing healthcare applications to scale out or adapt to new norms. To support all these kinds of dynamics, organizations need to look for open architecture systems that enable quick and easy integration of new additions in business as well as simplified processes of upgrades.
2. Ease of adoption – For all the reasons that the business environment is dynamic, it also means an existing healthcare application system has to be adaptable. At the same time, it might also need additional integrations or deployment of specific components. Organizations need solutions that can make way for these and enable such additions in a streamlined and seamless manner. In situations where an existing system is being replaced by an organization, the new solution has to be smoothly deployed, without wasting time on installation, training and the like. For this purpose, cloud integrated solutions may be leveraged as they support fast and easy enforcement with no need for onsite installation and are also highly scalable.
3. Automation – As organizations are striving to keep up with the growing demand for improved quality of care, they also need to keep a check on the costs. As a matter of fact, they are faced with the challenge of reducing the costs without compromising on the quality of care. For this purpose, healthcare applications must support full-fledged automation of most if not all important functions, so as to eliminate manual processes that take up a lot of time and effort. It can also make sure that there are no compliance issues. Organizations can do completely away with the error-prone, time-intensive and inefficient manual data entry processes. Moreover, with the automation of the financial systems as well, processes like billing, collection of cash and the like can also be simplified.
4. Interactivity – Most healthcare, as well as banking organizations, are starting to embrace retail-centric models of technology to manage their affairs. This means that users of the system, that is, the consumers in case of retail solutions and patients in case of healthcare solutions, can interact with the system empowering them to take care of their own issues. This is quite a huge deal for healthcare, as member portals like these give patients the freedom and accessibility to view their own health records, or health plan benefits and the like. It also lets them perform self-service transactions and open enrollment activities on their own online. It also lets them interact with doctors and providers regarding personal healthcare. Organizations need to look for solutions that have the capability to connect with such member portals and make their users self-sufficient.
5. Real-time information – This is an extension of the previous point on member portals. People nowadays need speed and transparency more than anything, and it is only going to become even more so in future. Patients need real-time information at their fingertips about their appointments like billing, coverage, and details of the doctor through a secure online portal. Hence, at any cost, a healthcare application needs to be in the direction of real-time. The most appropriate way to ensure this is by tightening the connectivity between the administrative system of an organization and its member portals. Such kind of connectivity again calls for an open architecture of all platforms involved. Such integration also gives patients an overview of their billing, payment and other details in real time.

All of these point towards an age where people can proactively manage their healthcare by themselves as well by their providers. As an organization gears up for this phenomenon, it might be useful to keep the above points in mind and make their healthcare platforms future proof, so as to gain maximum efficiency.

What aspect of our lives has technology not influenced right? We literally have almost everything in our lives automated and at our convenience, from home delivered groceries to mobile banking facilities. Our health too, is not left behind. With Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and other healthcare applications, there has been quite a few milestones in the healthcare industry as well.

For instance, we have wearables that allow users to monitor their heart rate or keep track of all kinds of health metrics while they are working out. We even have smartphone adaptable glucose meters for diabetics and many such other devices developed for our well being.

So, we’ve seen the beginning of technological advancements in healthcare, now where is it headed? Can we imagine a world where patients can probably be warned about a looming heart attack or an insulin shock for diabetics? With the help of all the health data collected from these wearable devices over a period of time, it could actually be possible, although we’re not quite there yet.

The road definitely seems to be leading us to that. A significant change needs to take place in the way healthcare operates currently for that world to become a reality and the good news is, it has already started!

Here are the top 5 technology trends in healthcare that are likely to create the next big revolution in the industry:

1. Big data – Just like any other industry, the influence of Big data is pretty significant in healthcare as well. As healthcare is becoming more automated or digitized, the data that is collected in the process, through various points, is obviously huge, and the need to act on such data seems to be the new focus. Hence, organizations are looking for ways to store, access, as well as, garner useful insights from the data. It is a good start towards the goal of being proactive in our treatments and predicting outbreaks. It also helps in understanding diseases better and personalizing medicines and treatments, in order to improve the overall quality of care. It could even help in preventing pandemics.
2. The cloud – Organizations are making more use of the cloud because of its typical benefits like lower costs, scalability, and anywhere-anytime-accessibility. It also enables easier and faster implementation of new initiatives allowing all users of the data, like patients, providers and doctors to access it anytime they need. For organizations where full-fledged cloud infrastructures are adopted for all their processes, they can save a great deal on hardware and software maintenance costs, which lets them free up resources for more important projects.
3. Self-sufficiency – With the advent of more and more technologies designed to engage patients, like wearables, health metrics tracking apps, patient portals and other such developments, people feel more empowered and self-sufficient to take ownership of their own health. Such devices also help in generating data that can probably play a major role in delivering personalized medicines and treatment. Once such data is integrated into our healthcare systems, with course of time, it will lead to the growth of personalized healthcare.
4. Interoperability – The healthcare system of any organization needs to connect with external entities and systems for various purposes. Now, a basic level of such interoperability is already accomplished. The focus now is on bringing about a more advanced, safe and secure level of seamless interoperability between connected systems and external sources to provide a comprehensive view of a patient’s health. This again helps in collecting meaningful data that can be used for proactive health care in future.
5. The pharma and healthcare – The collaboration between the pharma and healthcare has always proven beneficial for both industries. However, due to security concerns and different data standards, it has always been quite a challenge. But now, with significant improvements in the IT sector in security and cloud computing, the impact of these impediments is reduced and both industries are able to work and collaborate more freely with sufficient transparency in their processes. This also helps in providing data, such as drug trial results, genomics research, medical images and the like to different users in different industries, which can further improve the quality of healthcare as well as pharma products.

It’s basically all revolving around the data, that is, collecting more data, extracting insights from the data and doing more with the data that is captured. Hence, organizations not only need to look for more ways to work with all the data, but they also need to make use of full-fledged data platforms that help in the management and real-time integration of data, in a safe and secure manner.

What better place than Hollywood to see some “futuristic technology” in action, right? I’m talking about the hit science fiction series by James Cameron, “Terminator”! How many of you remember “Skynet”, the global intelligence machine that set out to destroy all of mankind in Terminator?
I’m sure none of you would have missed watching that evil machine with sensors everywhere, sending out terminators on its quest to destroy humankind.
The fact to be noted here is not that Skynet is an evil machine, but the level of technological advancement brought into light. We are more interested in the rich, sensor-driven network portrayed in the movie and what it could do. The Internet of Things (IoT)! Something that we’ve all been hearing about for quite some time now.
Now imagine having that kind of a network in our healthcare industry. The one industry that we all rely on, for our well being at all times in life. Imagine having that kind of sync and connectivity among all devices and people in a healthcare organization! We‘re talking about the Internet of Things working to save the lives of millions of people.
According to a report released last year by Swiss research firm, Soreon Research, by 2020 connected wearable devices alone could be able to save an estimated 1.3 million lives. Another report from MarketResearch.com says that by 2020, the IoT market value in healthcare will be close to $117 billion.

As exciting as that sounds, it is also likely to bring with it a huge revolution for the industry. And the good news is that, it’s here finally and it’s here to stay. Revolution is just around the corner and it’s time for healthcare organizations to gear up to facilitate the change.
Advocates of IoT say that it will make treatments much smarter and better suited to the needs of each individual patient and will also eliminate medical errors. It is also expected to change the way that severe and costly conditions, like heart diseases and diabetes are treated.

Now the real question is, how should healthcare organizations prepare and plan for such technology oriented future? Especially when concerns related to cybersecurity still remain.

Bill Betten, Principal at Sysgineering Solutions, who has also worked for firms like Nonin Medical, Logic PD and 3 PM says, “ One should definitely take advantage of the connectivity by building it in; it is hard to add it in after the fact. But I would encourage device companies to have a conversation around the strategy for incorporating into the future product offering.”

According to Betten, there are some things that could help organizations prepare for the future.

1. Looking back – According to Betten, a historical perspective can go a long way. He says, “I would argue that a lot of medical connectivity started in the late 80s and 90s. Looking back to this time period can give useful perspective in understanding what is happening in with IoT in healthcare.”
   Back then there was always the urge to digitize radiology-based imaging, but there were obviously technological and standard based obstructions for it. But in the later 90s, there were several manufacturers that came up with several methods for the same purpose and in 1997, the New York Times finally declared that digital x-ray systems were beginning to replace film-based x-rays. This was because of the DICOM standard, which evolved from the ACR/NEMA 300 standard finalized in 1985. Before the standard, all radiology images used to be disconnected. But with DICOM, images could be shared worldwide, they could be duplicated and machines from different manufactures could communicate. Other devices, such as blood pressure cuffs and oximeters, have also been advanced because of such support from the standards.
   Hence, Betten says that the first lesson of the IoT is interoperability.
2. Value proposition – Betten feels that there is definitely a need to study the value proposition of integrating IoT into medical devices and also the entire IoT healthcare landscape, to understand how much money is being spent on using the technology for different applications. There is a need to determine the exact utility of using the technology and not just the benefits.
   Although there is a lack of sufficient data supporting this fact, the most money is likely to be spent on taking care of the chronically ill. Forbes in January of 2013 had stated that 5% of the sick population is responsible for 50% health care costs. Betten feels that utilizing the IoT to bring down these figures and make the treatment of chronic diseases much more effective and efficient could be a possible investment.
3. Questions – As with any technology, there may be a dozen promises on the benefits of using it, but there is a need to consider the physical, social, economic and political environments as well before going ahead. When EMRs came, they had the promise of an annual savings of $81 billion annually, but in reality, they actually failed to bring down the healthcare costs. It was not a technological problem though.
   Any technology like the IoT, as well as, the EMR may have great potential, but the fact remains that they may not be able to deliver the said promises because of other factors like the ones mentioned above.
   The strategy needs to be thought out well and hard before deploying any solutions, considering all possible factors that can influence productivity and efficiency.

Security concerns also need to be addressed, as these days, along with the growth of technology is also the growth of ways to break in. Financial institutions are looking for advanced ways to protect the customer’s money and so are hackers for utilizing identity theft to steal important data. Medical-related data always forms a huge part of such important confidential information as they can lead to Social Security Numbers and the like. Hence, it is extremely important to use high level security features with IoT.

“For the IoT to be meaningful, you need interoperability, security and a reason for putting it together. And a knack at coming up with good answers to tough questions.”-
Betten

Smart healthcare has been an emerging trend in the world of healthcare for quite some time now. It focuses on providing the knowledge and service capabilities of the best clinicians to patients irrespective of their geographic location.

Recently, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a mobile health application for the diagnosis of melanoma. And it was found to be more accurate than an average clinician. Melanoma is found to be the fifth most common type of cancer in the United States and hence the application is significant for timely diagnosis and treatment. Especially in rural areas where specialized healthcare services are few and far.

Just like the melanoma app, there are many other mobile health applications which can influence human lives in a huge way. They are especially useful in cases of chronic diseases where continuous treatment is essential. They can provide patients with constant expert advice and support when most needed.

Some of the major reasons why mobile healthcare is so effective are:

• An Intelligent System: It uses specific algorithms and/or artificial intelligence to simulate the guidance and care of a clinician. It also makes use of data it captures to understand the health conditions of a patient. Thus, it is capable of providing corrective pieces of advice for a healthier lifestyle.
• With you always: According to several studies, most heart patients, after discharge made errors while using their prescribed drugs. Mobile healthcare solves such problems, as it constantly guides the patient.
• Convenience: It is available at the convenience of the patient. It eliminates the need for them to go visit their doctors often.
• Cost: It lowers the cost of overall healthcare as it helps to save on manpower costs.
• Control: It empowers the patients by allowing them to participate in their own treatment and fitness regimen and thereby gives them control over their own health.

Another major reason for mobile health’s popularity is a concern for the future of all healthcare systems in the US. From another survey conducted by the PwC, it was assessed that in 1980, there was an average of 10 patients for every healthcare worker and only around 8% of the GDP was spent on healthcare. But by 2020, the US will be spending over 20% of the GDP on healthcare and will have a shortage of 800,000 persons in doctors and nurses. This will bring the productivity of the entire healthcare system down to unimaginable low. However, the use of smart healthcare tools and applications, through mobile healthcare, will provide the necessary support and bring up the efficiency levels even in such a state.

Smart healthcare is expected to grow further in the future globally. To facilitate smart healthcare, providers need to ensure that the adoption of mobile technology is possible. With the growth of the healthcare industry as a whole, it would become almost inevitable to use mobile technology to cater to the needs of every patient.

Sources: PwC, FDA