The pandemic was an eye-opener for a lot of industries, including the healthcare industry. The crisis highlighted the importance of using technology. For instance, the use of telemedicine allowed patients to consult their doctors without having to visit the hospital or their office. This allowed them to remain safe by staying at home while consulting their doctor.
Additionally, technology made contact tracing efforts easier. It also allowed the remote monitoring of patients by the doctors. But the use of technology isn’t limited to the equipment in the clinics and hospitals. The latest software developments will also play a significant role in the future of the healthcare industry.
Importance of Technology
Technology can help monitor people who already receive the Covid-19 vaccine. Monitoring them offers some benefits since they can show that they are already fully vaccinated. With this, they may have lesser restrictions on their movements since they are already protected.
Aside from contact tracing, technology can also provide real-time information to people in case they were exposed to the virus. This is important for people who have not yet received the vaccine. It can also provide the authorities real-time information about the available beds in hospitals, medical staff, and inventory of medicines.
Additionally, hospitals can opt to become an SAP Gold partner of a service provider that facilitates the implementation, automation, and integration of its resource planning systems. This makes the work of hospital administrators easier since they can easily access the information they need to make informed decisions.
Here are other ways technology can help the healthcare industry in preparing for and dealing with any health crisis that may emerge in the future.
Predictive and Trend Analytics
Technology facilitates the collection of raw medical information from different sources. With this, the authorities will easily know hospital capacities, status on the use of critical resources, and localization. Using cloud-based technology also facilitates access to information by anyone who needs access to it.
Using artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics will also allow non-technical people to understand the information that comes from the system. This is necessary since the policymakers in the government may not have the same level of understanding as the experts in the industry. So when they receive raw data, they may not appreciate its importance. But when AI and data analytics go through the raw data, they can provide actionable information that the policymakers can appreciate and understand.
For instance, AI can go through the data and provide information about trends and areas of concern before they become huge outbreaks that are challenging to control.
Resource Management
Using a centralized platform allows hospitals and medical institutions to manage resources available to them properly. They can use cloud-based platforms in collecting information from different sources. The system can monitor staff, the availability of beds, and stock levels of critical pharmaceutical products. This information gives the authorities an idea about the situation so that they can implement corrective actions whenever necessary.
Additionally, the system provides the information they need to implement containment measures. Since the system taps into closed-circuit television cameras, it can also detect and monitor gatherings of people. And if necessary, inform the authorities in case the gatherings exceed the limit for certain places.
Securing Hospital Data
Since the system collects personal information, it is necessary to ensure it remains protected. The system should prevent unauthorized individuals and hackers from accessing the information. This means it is essential to encrypt data to prevent any incidents of theft of private data.
Hackers typically attempt to access the servers when a pandemic happens. During these situations, everyone focuses on providing medical care to patients suffering from the effects of a virus. Due to this, organized attacks may happen to steal private patient data.
To prevent unauthorized access, healthcare institutions can store data on secure cloud servers since the administrators of these servers can focus on ensuring the protection of the data.
Modern Medical Technologies
Software developments work best when they are combined with the latest hardware in the healthcare industry. AI may not provide much help if it isn’t able to collect the information it needs. So health care needs to link the software with the hardware to get the most out of technology.
For instance, healthcare services can combine AI with thermal imaging equipment so the system can easily identify individuals with fever without alarming everyone else at a certain location. Connecting Wi-Fi-enabled devices on the bedside of patients allows doctors to check the patient’s health while ensuring all precautions are observed.
Even as the current pandemic may soon come to an end, the healthcare industry should use its experience to make the necessary preparations for any pandemic that may happen in the future. It can fully integrate technology into the industry to take some load off healthcare workers in case another health crisis happens.
