From changing the authorization of services to making a patient’s electronic medical record easier to share, technology plays an important role in every aspect of healthcare. Consider these four ways in which technological advancements could change or even disrupt the delivery of healthcare services as they are today.
Enhanced Connectivity Through Cloud Services for Rural Healthcare Providers
Cloud-based document storage and sharing could enhance the ways that rural healthcare providers connect with one another and their patients. For example, a general practitioner in a rural area could consult with a neurologist hundreds or even thousands of miles away. The neurologist could prescribe treatments and monitor a patient’s condition without the patient having to travel.
Digital Diagnostic Tools
Digital diagnostic tools have the potential to detect life-threatening conditions such as a stroke based on eye movements and real-time scans of a patient’s face and movement. Digital diagnostic tools could also have a big impact on the diagnosis and management of Alzheimer’s disease. In the future, patients may not have to wait for months to get a diagnosis from a specialist.
Health Informatics for Streamlining Care
Health informatics should lead to more streamlining of healthcare. Today, up to 50 percent of healthcare dollars could be wasted because of poor record keeping. Enhancements in record keeping through electronic medical records will make it easier for networked practitioners to see a patient’s medical record. Patients may not have to complete duplicate paperwork and medical histories.
Digital Therapy
Historically, patients have had to travel to a healthcare provider’s facility in order to receive a diagnosis and treatment for a condition. Digital therapies may allow a person to stay at home, avoid travel and reduce waiting times. This could disrupt the traditional delivery of ancillary healthcare services, but that would add convenience to patients.
Your small healthcare business could be on the leading edge of the technology that is primed to make the delivery of healthcare more efficient.
