A Detailed Look At How Digitization Is Revolutionizing Healthcare

Articles Jun 21, 2024

The healthcare sector is in the transition phase regarding the changes brought about by digitalization. This movement is about convenience and enhancing medical care’s precision, effectiveness, and availability.

The Current Landscape of Healthcare

Traditionally, paper-based records plagued healthcare with:

• Errors: According to the Journal of Patient Safety, in 2014, miscommunication and insufficient information-related mistakes cost the United States healthcare system between $17 billion and $29 billion per year.
• Inefficiencies: Because the average medical history was not readily available, the researchers conducted tests repeatedly, amounting to resource wastage. A 2020 survey by the American Medical Association revealed that physicians engage in administration work for up to half of their working hours, and paperwork is part of this time-curtailed work.
• Adverse Patient Outcomes: This implies that any delay in accessing data about the patient would only mean that the patient’s health is likely to worsen.

How Digitization Is Changing the Landscape of Healthcare

Electronic Health Records are digital versions of your medical history, accessible by authorized providers. EHRs store info like medications, allergies, diagnoses, and lab results, improving care coordination and reducing medical errors. Here’s how EHRs have been a game-changer:

1. Improved Accuracy: According to 2019 Annals of Internal Medicine research, EHRs can minimize medication errors by 50%.

2. Enhanced Efficiency: Electronic health records make obtaining complete medical history easier, thus enhancing health care delivery. According to Antoine, a study by the American Hospital Association into the impact of EHRs showed amplified rates of physician productivity, as the technology can enhance physicians’ productivity by 20%.

3. Predictive Analytics: According to a report by the business consulting company Frost & Sullivan, 2023, the healthcare trend analytics market will grow to $68.1 billion by 2025. Data collection helps one identify patients who may be vulnerable to various diseases and thereby prevent them. EHR data is beneficial for such analyses.

4. Personalized Medicine: When combined with AI, these EHRs can tailor treatment for each patient based on specific characteristics. According to a McKinsey & Company 2020 report, AI-infused personalized medicine could return values totalling $400B—$1 T in the global healthcare sector by 2030.

Better Communication and Collaboration

Digitization fosters better communication between patients and providers:

• Secure Messaging Platforms: Real-time messaging enhances the doctor-patient relationship and the coordination of patient care.
• Patient Survey: In 2021, an Accenture report revealed that 72% of patients prefer to use secure messaging with their doctors.
• Telemedicine: Combined with the tele practice models, online consultations increase the availability of care for clients who travel often or have physical disabilities. A survey conducted by the American Telemedicine Association in 2022 said that 55 million people in the United States used telemedicine services in 2020.
• Remote Patient Monitoring: Wearable devices acquire data on a person’s health status, which can help identify looming complications. According to Grand View Research’s report published in 2023, the Remote Patient Monitoring market value is set to touch $27.2 billion by 2030.

Effective and Error-Free Workflows

Digitization streamlines administrative tasks and reduces errors:

• Automated Appointment Scheduling and Prescription Management: Scheduling appointments via the Internet and prescription renewals helps save the staff a lot of time providing care to patients. According to a 2021 Juniper report, it is projected that 30% of all healthcare appointments will be booked online by 2025.
• Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS): CDSS gives physicians real-time clinical advice to lessen the rate of medical mistakes. According to 2019 research published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, CDSS can reduce medication errors by 53%.
• Robotic-Assisted Surgery: Robotic surgery is more precise and involves less invasive, so the patient takes less time to recover after the surgery. Markets and Markets, in their 2022 report, projected the global robotic surgery market to be worth $29.8 billion by 2025.

Factoring in Fax: An Analysis of a Legacy System with Potential 

Despite being categorized as a legacy system, faxing continues to be used widely in healthcare systems because it is reliable and integrates many facilities. However, traditional faxing is prone to errors: poor and almost illegible writing, missing pages, and lateness.

Here’s where Phelix Fax AI Inbox steps in by automating fax handling in healthcare with AI. It integrates with existing fax services, automatically syncing and triaging faxes. Phelix then uses AI to classify documents and extract key data like patient details, diagnosis, insurance information, etc. Users can review and adjust the extracted data before Phelix auto-saves it or integrates it with the EMR system for tasks like creating charts and referrals. This streamlines workflows, improves accuracy, and frees up staff time.

Making Health Care Human: Digitizing Future Care

Emerging technologies hold immense promise:

• Blockchain: Through the use of this secure data storage system, patient information safety and authorization can be enhanced.
• Internet of Medical Things (IoMT): They shall include connected medical devices that offer real-time patient data for decision-making. A report on the global outlook of connected medical devices conducted in 2023 by Statista estimated that 83 billion smart medical devices would be connected worldwide by 2030.
• Virtual Reality: VR medical training and education can be transformed by using models of such procedures.

Issues relating to digitalization in Healthcare

• Cybersecurity Threats: Because of the patient’s information, robust security systems must be established to regulate access. According to a 2022 Cybersecurity Ventures report, the global healthcare cybersecurity market is believed to grow to $17.6 billion by 2025.
• Data Privacy Concerns: The privacy of patient data thus requires adherence to strict policies and pulling of ethical fibers. HIPAA is an essential law in the USA protecting patients’ information; however, the protection needs to remain proactive.

Conclusion

The advancement and adoption of digital technology in healthcare delivery is not an option but the heartbeat of fully integrated healthcare organizations.

Digitizing the healthcare sector is critical. This means that there is a need for constant training of healthcare workers to familiarize themselves with new technology. It, therefore, becomes essential for technology to be made accessible to everyone to eradicate the digital gap and allow everyone to be part of revolutionized systems in health care delivery.