From wearable technology that tracks your personal health and exercise data to telehealth calls with a medical professional from the comfort of your own home — read on to learn about five digital health tools that are transforming the way healthcare access is evolving. Summit is here to help your health care practice embrace digital tools for greater patient outcomes.
What Does Going Digital Mean to Therapy and health care?
For the healthcare industry, adopting digital technologies can best be exemplified through data collection and artificial intelligence (AI) that inform both clinicians and their patients, to telehealth that optimizes the way clinics and patients interact with each other.
Digital health has reshaped the way patients interact with health professionals and even the ways in which we interact with our own health (i.e., tracking our fitness through wearable technology, utilizing apps to meditate and journal).
The use of technology has also demonstrated how our data can be utilized to provide the best treatment plans and health outcomes.
Top Five Digital Innovations in Healthcare
1. Telehealth
Whether through video call, text, or even chatbot, access to telehealth through mobile devices has allowed patients the ability to access more on-demand healthcare than ever before. And with almost 97% of Americans owning a smartphone, the switch to telehealth just makes sense. Telehealth helps us to virtually reimagine the medical house call without any traveling involved.
This technology improves patient engagement through remote monitoring (patients can input their own metrics into apps), expand access to care, improve workflow and increase efficiency, and reduce costs for both patient and practice.
2. Wearable Technology
Wearable technology is transforming healthcare by putting care in the hands — or on the arms — of patients. This technology provides round-the-clock personalized medical data that can not only help patients stay on top of their fitness but also create data that can then inform that patient’s doctor or clinician. One great example of wearable health technology is the Apple Heart Study app that was launched in 2017. It monitors heart rhythms and can alert users experiencing atrial fibrillation.
3. Artificial Intelligence
AI is having major impacts on the health industry by improving efficiency, cutting costs, providing information management and clinical decision support. Leaders in the healthcare industry are taking note which is why the industry is expected to hit $150 billion by 2026. The applications for AI in healthcare are vast from nurse aides that check stock to analyzation capabilities that can help provide better treatment and earlier diagnoses.
4. Data
Data is a tool in and of itself that keeps the healthcare machine turning, through its nature of collecting and storing large amounts of information and it is with this collection of data, that clinicians can make diagnoses, improve treatment plans and stay better involved in their patient’s health.
Digital epidemiology is a great example of utilizing big data, the use of data to understand the patterns of disease and health dynamics in a population. It wasn’t until the explosion in access to the internet that scientists were able to utilize this technology for the greater good in things like tracking influenza-like illnesses through search queries and flight data.
5. Digital Therapeutics
According to the Digital Therapeutics Alliance, digital therapeutics (DTx) platforms use artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze user data and provide therapeutic interventions to prevent, manage, or treat a medical disorder or disease.
With treatment and therapy finally taking advantage of digital resources, more and more patients are able to access mental wellness from the comfort of their own phones.
In Conclusion: Why Digital Tools for Healthcare Workers is Key
COVID-19 has put a strain on healthcare workers, with 55% reporting feelings of burnout when going to work. To alleviate this burden, healthcare providers can adopt digital tools and technology to streamline operations, improve patient experiences, and better engage with their patients from anywhere.
Virtual appointments, chatbots, online assessments, and customer relationship management platforms can all help reduce call center surges, triage patients, and bring clinical and nonclinical insights together in one place. When vaccines became available, CRM platforms like Salesforce’s Health Cloud and Marketing Cloud were used to launch administration programs and manage real-time vaccine inventory and appointments.
Digital health tools are promoting digital transformation for the way primary health care services are delivered around the world, with a recent explosion of innovations poised to help those patients who remain disconnected from formal health systems.
Community health workers (CHWs) can also play a crucial role in delivering primary health care services in low- and middle-income countries, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital tools like Living Goods’ Smart Health app, DiMagi’s CommCare, and Medic Mobile’s Community Health Toolkit enable CHWs to continue providing essential health services, including through remote data collection and communication solutions.
Digital health tools are transforming how healthcare is delivered around the world, from wearable technology that tracks personal health data to telehealth calls with medical professionals. Digital technologies can also be used in therapy, allowing therapists and clients to meet virtually, collecting and analyzing data to improve treatment outcomes, and using virtual reality to enhance therapy sessions. Overall, the adoption of digital technologies in healthcare can improve patient outcomes, reduce operational costs, and increase access to care for underserved populations.
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