Digital health technology is as hot as the sun today. Healthcare delivery organizations CIOs and other health IT leaders are research and implement these technologies to improve the patient and provider experience, and hopefully improve patient outcomes.
Marcus Perez is president of Altera Digital Health, a medical IT offering designed to enable clinicians in hospitals and large physician facilities to spend more time with patients and less interaction with patients. more technology.
In May 2022, N. Harris Computer Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Constellation Software, purchased the large Hospitals and Clinics business segment of Allscripts Healthcare Solutions. This segment currently operates as Altera Digital Health, a business unit of Harris Healthcare.
We spoke with Perez for his predictions for digital health in 2023. He chose to talk about the future of cloud technology to improve patient care, using design. human-centered to create more efficient workflows for clinicians and the need to go back to basics and simplify technology in healthcare.
Q. Do you predict that cloud technology will drive improvements in patient care by 2023. Where and how?
ONE. Cloud technology gives large hospitals and doctors’ clinics the flexibility to access patient data when and where they need it. Some of these technologies are already in place, as noted by the expansion of telemedicine across the entire healthcare sector during the first quarter of 2020 with the coronavirus pandemic.
Patients are now used to telemedicine and receive direct input on their health status from the clinician that way. The number of doctors using telehealth has increased from 14% in 2016 to 80% in 2022, according to results from the AMA 2022 Digital Wellbeing Study.
This dramatic growth requires physicians to have access to complete patient data so they can build personalized care plans for their patients.
The next chapter, as we continue our transition to cloud-powered electronic health records, will come. According to BDO’s 2021 Healthcare Digital Transformation Survey, 78% of respondents said their organization has implemented cloud technology, and 20% said they are planning to do so.
Looking forward to 2023, cloud adoption will continue. There is tremendous value in improving health, reducing care costs and ensuring continuity of care for patients.
Today, large hospitals and medical facilities are moving from traditional IT and software infrastructure to cloud-based systems in industries such as travel, banking, and online purchasing. Large hospitals and medical facilities have found that cloud technology simplifies operations, secures data, and reduces costs, which are practical factors in improving overall management in healthcare organisations.
This data is also valuable when healthcare organizations manage at-risk patient populations.
For example, a patient with diabetes often sits down with their doctor or diabetes education nurse to review blood sugar levels over time. These levels are usually recorded in an application using the Fast Healthcare Interactive Resource (FHIR).
Both patients and clinicians access this information through cloud technology. Allows clinicians to review data with patients to adjust insulin or diet for better diabetes management.
This is just one example of chronic disease management, but the technology behind this and other patient care interactions will advance cloud computing in healthcare.
Q. You also suggest that using human-centered design to create more efficient workflows for clinicians will grow in 2023. What forces will drive development this and why is that development important?
ONE. Clinicians themselves will drive the development of human-centered design (HCD) to avoid burnout, manage staffing shortages, and improve the care they provide .
Digital health technology developers must address what clinicians need to work the same way they live and how the technology provides needed solutions. These are key recommendations for healthcare in 2023. And that’s when HCD becomes the driver of a more efficient workflow so that clinicians are more satisfied with their practice. and their personal lives.
We know physician burnout is real, and many see technology as a barrier rather than an asset to quality patient care. Eg, 63% of physicians reported at least one symptom of burnout in late 2021 and early 2022, up from 44% in the 2017 report, both from the Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
That result suggests that hospitals and physician practice must address work-life balance and burnout, a Prioritized by American Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy.
With more than 1.5 million healthcare jobs lost in the first two months of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals and physician practices continue to face staff shortages. severity. Patient care requires a group of people to interact effectively starting from the time a patient checks in at the front desk until the exit door closes behind them.
The American Hospital Association calls the staffing shortage a national emergency. Without staff to support clinicians, patient care suffers as doctors and nurses can spend more time on administrative tasks than on patient care.
Designing digital health technology solutions requires the involvement of clinicians to create EHRs and applications that suit them in their daily work in the hospital or physician’s office. . An engineer or other design professional does not have that perspective but can enhance their knowledge with the help of the user – the clinician.
HCDs can help address the challenges of clinician burnout and staffing shortages by supporting the patient-provider relationship; means understanding human needs and how design can meet these needs in a patient care environment. Clinicians can then focus on what they do best, which is patient care.
Q. Finally, you say the need to go back to basics and simplify technology in healthcare will be key in 2023. Why? And where will we see this the most?
ONE. Healthcare and the technology that clinicians use should be more instinctive and easier to access, understand and navigate. People expect and want technology to improve their daily lives. Each hospital and physician practice is unique in its specific technology needs.
Digital health technologies have become the means of interacting with patient health data and administrative information. As healthcare delivery continues to evolve, physicians must rely on real-time data to effectively treat their patients.
As hospitals adopt EHRs, accessing the data in those digital medical records is complicated. With data in the cloud instead of fixed locations, clinicians, patients, and payers can share that information across their medical systems and locations. In addition, technology vendors can deliver software updates through cloud-based systems to healthcare organizations to help them meet regulatory requirements.
By 2023, hospitals and doctors’ clinics that adopt innovation through HCD will have an advantage over those that don’t. Organizations ramped up technology adoption as the pandemic hit in early 2020.
Nearly three years later, healthcare must continue to adapt to digital health technologies that support clinicians and their patients in the way they live every day. HCD puts clinicians at the forefront of that proposition.
As I look ahead to 2023, healthcare will continue to evolve with digital health technologies that easily fit into the daily lives of patients and their clinicians. Cloud-based EHRs and other data are used throughout the healthcare process.
With more patient health data in transit and secure in the cloud, interoperable information exchange will become more accessible and reach more people. HCD provides reciprocal interactions through clinician co-creation and knowledge sharing between clinicians and software engineers.
I look to 2023 with a vision of broader access to healthcare technologies that fit the lives of patients and clinicians in meaningful ways. And finally, healthcare will fit all of us with simple digital health apps and technologies in our daily lives.
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Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media.
