Industries Archives - Page 10 of 33

COVID-19 pandemic has changed our life in several ways. We witnessed a surge in technology-led adoptions across several industries to prioritize convenience and accessibility over every other aspect. The overall impact has been positive as different industries and services have gone digital, benefitting the masses with fast and easy accessibility to products and services. These digital initiatives helped the healthcare sector attain a digital infrastructure at a very fast pace. Healthcare app development companies also contributed in attaining this feat. Esteemed app development companies like Biz4solutions have in-house healthcare app developers who are ready to help a healthcare provider of any capacity to uplift its brand recognition with robust and user-friendly applications. Basically, the pandemic exposed the bottlenecks of the operations and supply chain in the healthcare sector, helping the healthcare providers to fill the gaps and boost the infrastructure with digital offerings. We have seen a slew of changes and upgrades in the healthcare sector which are here to benefit us in the long term.

Different Ways of Digital Transformation in Healthcare Sector:

Enhanced patient safety with personalized care

Amid the pandemic situation, everyone went through a period of anxiety and doubts over visiting a healthcare facility and meeting a doctor in person. The healthcare centers and hospitals started remote patient engagement programs to mitigate this escalating anxiety in people. Digitalization of healthcare introduced telemedicine, one of the best technological advancements in the healthcare sector. It enables people to get timely medical assistance. In the bid to solve COVID-related medical issues, we have solved the issues faced by the general public in terms of convenience, long-distance, and long wait time. The telemedicine application saves time and reduces the footfall in any hospital, curbing any further COVID infection caused by close proximity.

The healthcare providers revived their medical infrastructure to integrate emails, texts and voice messages in their system to keep a tab on the surging telemedicine usage. These providers were also entrusted with the task of educating millions of people about the pandemic and recording all the related symptoms and updates. This humungous task wouldn’t have been possible without swiftly upgrading the digital infrastructure. There was a surge in messages and reminders regarding COVID-related precautions which was carefully handled with digital capabilities.

Advanced portable diagnostics

With the digitalization of healthcare, imaging modalities evolved. However, the adoption of portable imaging solutions escalated amid the pandemic situation when the hospitals started flooding with COVID patients. Portable ultrasound was used to facilitate competent healthcare in emergency departments and makeshift triage tents. These handheld ultrasound systems were used by medical professionals to assess different health conditions such as acute pneumonia to provide immediate medical assistance. Digital capabilities made diagnostics available to large masses in the troubled times.

Re-defined fundamentals

The fundaments of the healthcare sector had to be re-thought to support the digitalization of healthcare to provide faster service to patients. These fundamentals can be divided into different aspects.

New presets and protocols

The steep rise in the number of COVID patients led to an acute shortage of medical professionals and technicians. The protocols of using different medical equipment such as radiology equipment were changed to introduce easy-to-follow protocols to help the medical professionals scan the suspected COVID patients at a faster pace. Such initiatives were aimed to get a quality and consistent image for the first-time diagnosis to escalate the speed of treatment. Medical strategies were designed to adopt digital strategies for medical diagnostics to fasten every process.

Real-time virtual collaboration

Different medical professionals including radiologists, oncologists, and cardiologists started working from home. To facilitate a smooth functioning with remote working, many PACS workstations and tele-ultrasound platforms were introduced to empower the remote working professionals with the ability to access and read test reports, images, etc from home. We witnessed a major example of the digitalization of healthcare in pathology with new regulations in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The digitized workflows in the pandemic gave way to new forms of collaboration that scaled the productivity of healthcare institutions.

Better integration with centralized data centers

To handle the increasing chaos in the healthcare centers, centralized command centers were installed to facilitate better governance. These centers are used to integrate data from all the departments to take fast decisions in real-time. Using these centralized systems, the operational and management team worked in coordination to effectively respond to emergencies and uncertain situations. Digitalization of health records and their remote accessibility has significantly improved the capabilities of analytics and real-time decision-making.

Digital technologies for maintaining supply chain

For many decades vaccines were administered on a need basis. The COVID-19 pandemic raised many challenges related to transportation, storage, and vaccine equity for the masses. To deal with these logistical challenges, the stakeholders started seeking solutions using digital technologies. Digitalization of healthcare led to the adoption of digital supply chain management systems that brought all the functionaries across different operations on one page, enabling a smooth procurement, storage, and administration of vaccines.

Using disruptive technologies to create meaningful insights

Advanced technologies such as Artificial intelligence were successfully used to identify the body parts infected with the virus using different data feeds such as CT scans and blood reports. Many hospitals employed AI to trace the progress of any disease and take effective measures to curb it.

The fast-paced adoption of digital technologies across the healthcare sector has led to a user-friendly digital transformation wherein the healthcare systems have become more resilient and modern. These digital transformations are set to empower the healthcare system with a fundamentally strong infrastructure.

Long-Term Impact of the Digital Transformation

Transformed customer relationship: The digitized and remotely accessible healthcare facilities are enabling healthcare institutions to provide customer-centered service, gaining more loyalty and trust.
Higher Return on Investments: The digital transformation is an ongoing process and many more milestones are yet to be achieved. All of these transformations will yield a higher Return on Investment (ROI) in the long term.
Resilience: The pandemic rattled the conventional supply chain, following which modifications and upgrades were introduced to create a robust healthcare system ready to serve the masses. These improvements will make the healthcare infrastructure ready to deal with pandemic-like situations in the future.
Digital leadership and governance: The centralized portals and data-sharing capabilities can be used to develop a governance structure aligned to the business strategy and long-term goals.
Improved workforce utilization: The digital capabilities will help the management to efficiently allocate resources across the supply chain and operations to derive maximum value from it.

The digital transformation of healthcare industry is mid-way and many more digital capabilities are to be integrated into the existing healthcare infrastructure. The players and stakeholders of the ecosystem need to come together and collaborate to understand how digital technologies can enhance user experience. It can be used to derive better pricing, a resilient supply chain, improved drug development processes, and enhanced user experience. The COVID-19 pandemic has helped the healthcare system enter a new era of digital and smart capabilities. The road ahead is long and progressive, leading towards excellence and affordability.

As per a report published by the forum ConsumerAffairs on long-term care status in the US; “Day-based care centers have approximately 286,000 individuals, assisted living facilities house around 811,500 residents, and nursing homes have 1,347,600 people staying on a long-term basis.”

“It has been predicted that the number of people receiving care in each of the aforementioned spaces will increase sharply in the coming years and this number may even become double by the end of the year 2030. Such a situation can pressurize the existing care network and accelerate care providing costs.”

To equip the long-term care network with added capabilities and reduced expenses, technology is the one-stop solution. Consequently, a technology-infused approach is gaining momentum in long-term care facilities. Modern technologies bring a lot to the table, not only for care facility owners but also for the patients and elderly individuals receiving care.

This post sheds light on the various technologies that are transforming the landscape of care facilities. A quick read will provide you with an idea of why investing in creating a technology-empowered infrastructure; will prove advantageous for your care facility in the long run.

What is a Long-term Care Facility?

Long-term care facilities offer medical as well as personal support to individuals who are no longer able to perform daily activities on their own, and hence are not in a position to live independently. Usually, long-term care is required by elderly individuals, patients suffering from chronic illnesses and related mobility problems, individuals battling mental instability issues, or persons who are unable to perform daily activities due to age-related or other impairments.

The entities offering such kind of care include nursing homes, CCRCs (Continuing Care Retirement Communities), SNFs (Skilled Nursing Facilities), and ALFs (Assisted Living Facilities). These facilities provide a safe and assisted environment to live in and offer the necessary care to residents.

Technology-powered Approach in Long-term Care Facilities: Benefits

Electronic Health Record Maintenance/Sharing Systems

Electronic record systems improve the quality of care and enable care-providing centers to comply with standard regulations regarding healthcare data collection & auditing. Moreover, if data is codified, IT systems can be used to provide alerts to caregivers and allow care teams to make better and informed decisions. Furthermore, superior quality data can deliver robust, meaningful, and transparent reporting. And, flawless collection of data and accurate reporting improve administrative workflows for care-providing entities.

Electronic healthcare systems enable providers to offer customer-centric care and improve the transparency of their services. Electronic Health Record Systems like EHR and EMR collect and securely store the entire medical history of care facility residents. This information includes data on healthcare conditions, chronic diseases (if any), allergies, ongoing medications, etc. Also, the preferences mentioned by the care facility residents as well as their family members are recorded in such systems. This arrangement ensures that there are no chances of any misses or errors by the care providers.

The technology of electronic health records sharing with doctors, medical facilities, and other care-providing facilities, makes sure that no minor detail is missed during healthcare data transfer or transition phases.

Electronic Medication Management

One of the most tedious and time-consuming tasks for nurses and professional caregivers is managing medication passes manually. Moreover, the chances of grave errors are very high in manual medication management. And, if the wrong medication is administered to a resident, it leads to disastrous outcomes for the patient as well as the caregiver involved.

As such, care facilities these days are adopting eMAR (Electronic Medication Administration Records) systems to track medication adherence. eMARs are software systems that can be operated by care facility staff using tablets, laptops, or hand-held devices, while they are on rounds. These systems document the medications prescribed to every care facility resident and also how these medicines are passed to them by the caregiving staff. This has resulted in speedier and error-free medication passes. And, if these systems are integrated with pharmacy chains and GPS, residents have an added advantage during care facility transitions as well as hospital admissions during emergencies.

Automatic medication dispensers are meant for residents who can take medication on their own with slight assistance. Such software is programmed by the caregiver in a manner that individuals get timely medication alerts. In case, a resident misses any dosage, the software automatically locks that dose to prevent double dosing.

Timely assistance using Sensors

The power of sensors is being utilized in the healthcare sector and with time, sensors are getting smarter. Sensors are providing more flexibility to individuals availing of assisted living by allowing them to move freely without worry. Sensors send instant alerts during emergencies so that individuals receive timely assistance. Biosensors and activity sensors can be encapsulated within lifeline devices like pacemakers or placed within the care facility resident’s environment. These sensors work wonders in monitoring the overall health of an individual and identifying the wellness risks.

Take a look at some exceptional sensors designed by healthcare app developers. GPS Smart Sole in unison with T-Mobile employs satellite monitoring technology. Here, sensors are embedded inside the sole of individuals’ shoes for tracking their movement and exact location within the care facility. BAM Labs has coined a bed sensor mat that will track moisture, respiration rate, sleep patterns, etc. P&C Pharma had developed INSTA Compounding System that will transform pills into a liquid with a pleasant smell and taste. This technology is meant for persons who find it challenging to swallow pills.

Healthcare Monitoring via Wearable Devices

Wearable devices are excellent tools for remotely monitoring and alerting the care-providing staff about patients’ health vitals as well as their changing states of consciousness like motor activity, sleep patterns, etc. This helps in detecting any abnormalities or changes in health parameters that may be early symptoms of any disease or medical condition. Timely detection of health issues enables care providers to adopt preventive measures well in advance.

A common example of wearables used for patient care is smart watches and wristbands designed by brands like Fitbit. SmartSox, a wearable device meant for diabetic patient care, employs fiber optics technology for detecting excessive heat, pressure, and misplaced joint angles that can lead to foot ulcers in patients. MIT is in the process of crafting a smart shirt that will identify the commencement of a heart attack in individuals and also, administer CPR.

The mobile personal emergency system, commonly called mPERS is empowered to locate individuals’ current location, detect falls or accidents, and most importantly provide an SOS button. When that SOS button is pressed the device auto-dials a response team or family members to notify about the fall and ask for help. mPERS devices have a way superior battery life as compared to smartphones; these devices can last up to thirty days if put on sleep mode.

Here’s how a wearable healthcare device functions:

Intuitive Computing Technologies

Intuitive computing technologies like touchscreen electronic devices and graphic UIs prove advantageous for the staff as well as the residents of a long-term care facility. Using such amazing technologies, front-line caregivers can enter data using the feature of voice activation. This saves time and effort wasted in data entry tasks. Care facility residents can stay connected with friends and family through internet browsing, social networking, and e-mail exchanging; they can avail of memory-boosting activities as well.

Digital Entertainment: Videoconferencing, Media Streaming, & Gaming

Digital entertainment technologies elevate patient experiences to the next level. The videoconferencing technology help residents of a long-term care facility stay connected with family members and friends when frequent in-person visits are not possible. As a result, residents are able to interact with loved ones who stay in other locations, more frequently than ever before. Two-way videoconferencing contributes greatly to improving the mental health of residents. Residents can also leverage video conferencing for telemedicine doctor consultations in case of minor ailments.

Media streaming makes way for watching videos listening to music, and many more entertainment options for care home residents. Media channels can also be utilized for accessing newspaper content and gathering information about the outside world and other topics of interest.

Gaming for care facility residents? Yes, you got it right! Tech-savvy individuals residing in a care home can leverage the full potential of the gaming technology. Games, crossword puzzles, etc. are brain-stimulating as well as pleasurable activities that keep residents engaged and happy. And, by the next decade, the demand for digital entertainment in care facilities is expected to skyrocket.

Infrared/Radio Frequency

Elopement alarm systems powered by technologies like infrared & radio frequency can be paired with tracking systems for monitoring exit doorways, elevators, outdoor spaces, etc. Such technology will alarm the caregiving staff and help them locate any resident who has left the facility.

VR Headsets

The usage of Virtual Reality headsets in the realm of long-term patient care is a recent innovation. Its implementation will lead to exceptional outcomes for the residents of a long-term care facility. VR headsets can help vision-impaired individuals (like persons suffering from macular degeneration) to magnify/zoom in for viewing the world around them in a better way. Furthermore, VR can effectively manage the levels of pain and anxiety in elderly persons.

Assistive Robots (AT/AR)

Assistive robots (AT/AR) are a new approach that is set to transform the operations of a care facility. AT/AR promises to create a stimulating environment for the residents of a care facility and at the same time, reduce the workload for the staff engaged in providing care. Several LTCFs are in the process of implementing this innovative approach. AT/AR technology comes with offerings like service robots, screen readers, communication boards, positioning devices, etc. that are helpful for people with functional disabilities. Robots are employed for performing a wide range of tasks like providing assistance for fundamental needs, resolving logistical challenges, monitoring activities, ensuring security, and cleaning activities.

AT/AR technology not only facilitates assisted living but also reduces operational expenses resulting in lower healthcare costs for patients. This approach also minimizes the workload for professional caregivers and addresses the challenge of nursing staff shortage in long-term care facilities.

Visitor Management Apps

One of the commonest threats faced by the residents of long-term care facilities is the chances of disease-causing viruses entering the premises through visitors. Ever since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, this aspect became a crucial challenge for any care facility.

Visitor management apps have been designed to address this issue. These apps follow a contactless visitor check-in process executed using smartphones and maintain the records of all visitors so that they can be easily contacted later if required. This approach can minimize the chances of disease transmission to a certain extent.

In a Nutshell:

The implementation of emerging technologies in long-term care facilities has made care services more affordable for residents and has smartened the workflow of care centers. A technology-powered approach has improved the quality and convenience quotient of delivering care, healthcare monitoring, medication adherence, and interaction between residents and caregivers. The benefits for residents owing to the usage of software apps, tools, and devices include increased mobility, more security, and a better quality lifestyle. More advanced technological innovations in the coming years will equip care homes with unimaginable capabilities.

Therefore, long-term care facilities should embrace a technological approach for staying competitive and fulfilling new-age consumer expectations. It’s advisable for care providers to seek professional assistance from experienced healthcare application development services for tailoring customized software as per the requirements of their care facility.

Industries, Page 10 Category

Digital Transformation of Healthcare amid COVID-19 Pandemic