DIGITALIZATION IN HEALTHCARE SECTOR
DIGITALIZATION IN HEALTHCARE SECTOR
Use Of the information technology system is common now a days
especially in India though it was quite common around the world in many
advanced countries. Technology is becoming more useful because of its
accessibility and its sophistication. Usage of the computer technology in any
part of the pharmacy profession made the work simpler and prompt.
Development of IT system in pharmacy field like introduction of
the software and various applications made healthcare professional’s (HCP) work
easy and in the right way with no adverse-effects which have direct reduction
in the cost of treatment. In pharmacy field it enables the storage of
information of the patient and retrieving them whenever required. The
information which is stored of the patient is useful for retrieval of it and is
useful for future direction study for the development of appropriate drug
therapy and this digitalized information from the screen mirroring of the
information collected by one HCP to many which lead to indirect communication
of one too many and explaining their views which ultimately develops the
effective therapy in the field of Health-care sector.
Merging of biological information into IT-system developed the
profession of BIOINFORMATICS which is helpful in predicting the condition of
the patient and also useful in drug development process which is now one of the
good courses offered in INDIA. Digital prescription which is becoming popular
helps the HCP in making their work simple with no duplication and also reduces
the dispensing time. Digitalization-Developed mobile applications made not only
the HCP but also the budding pharmacist as guidance in development of their
knowledge.
Key words: Digitalization, Information Technology, HCP, Effective
treatment, Better patient outcome.
The
convergence of science and technology in our dynamic digital era has resulted
in development of innovative digital health devices that allows easy and
accurate characterization in health and diseases.
Technological advancements and the miniaturization of
diagnostic instruments to modern smartphone , connected and mobile health
devices such as, handled ultrasound etc technologies have lead to increasing
enthusiasm for patient care with promises to decrease health care cost and
improve outcome.
There is great scope for improvement of health care system in
dynamic digital world provided and individual should know how to convert
challenges into opportunities.
Patients and the practicing doctors have many advantages with this
digitalization process. Eventually there is a need to adapt to the technology
platform due to its inevitable need. Therefore doctors who are adopting this
process have much advancement among their pattern.
The other challenging task is selecting a suitable company
venturing into the area of providing clinical management software along with
digital health records.
Communication between the physician and other health care
professionals helps in better management of health by knowing the pros and cons
in the current medical practice.
Parent and doctor have equal responsibility in pediatric care if
he or she wants their child’s record to be digitally available. Therefore, it
is always better to choose the one which is user friendly and has features that
focuses on patient comfort and needs.
The technologies that have developed have resulted from several
coincidental movements:
● Urgent need to address the raising burden of chronic diseases
● Shifting health care model to an increasingly patient centric
designs.
Health care systems find a balance between:
● Constrained budgets and the rising costs of advanced medical
treatments
● Increasing complexity and cost of delivering care to an ageing, comorbid population
● Increasing patient expectations and demand for better quality,
patient centered health care
● Reduced availability and increased cost of HCP’s, in patient’s
beds and residential care places.
Let us look at some examples;
1.
PRESCRIPTION WRITING
The medical
practitioners write a prescription to treat the patients who then delivers the
written prescription to a pharmacy. After some period of time the patient
receives the prescribed medication. In some cases, a staff member in the
physician’s office through any communication passes the prescription into the
pharmacy. Pharmacist generally calls to the physician for approval for refill
request.
There are
many problems associated with this process like; inappropriate handwriting by a
busy physician can lead to improper interpretation of prescription by an
equally busy pharmacist leading to delivery of wrong medications to the
patients. Other errors include inappropriate dosage levels, incorrectly spelled
drug names, incomplete prescriptions and instructions and prescribing the drugs
outside formulary guidelines.
Physicians must provide care within the guidelines established
prescription formularies, referral networks and testing protocol in order to
avoid such errors. These systems are frequently updated that are extremely time
consuming, costly and inefficient work process
Electronic prescription management systems
Electronic prescription management systems are being developed as
the need for better methods of transcribing prescriptions and transmitting
prescriptions to pharmacist is being recognized. This system improves
communication between physicians, pharmacists, payers and patients. All these
can save money and reduce the prescription of wrong medication and its doses.
Retrieving of the
information of the patient can be done at the time of research which makes make
the work done effectively, correctly with less duration of time.
2.
COMMUNITY SERVICES
A community service has equipped staff with tablet computers
running total mobile, a mobile networking services that gives nurses access to
essential information needed while visiting patient at home. This result in
reduction in time spent in paper work, freeing up time for patient.
Mobile application developed which have easy accessibility
to the physicians and students made them upgrade their knowledge regarding the
therapy outcome.
Various applications that had developed made the physicians to
stay updated with the therapy prescribing patters and the recent development in
the field of medicine which cuts down the treatment cost and have the patient
better treatment outcome.
●
DIGITAL MEDICAL DEVICES
Development of
various instrument and software helped the medical field making the work easier
like the diagnosis, sophisticated surgeries etc.
All patients with COPD receive a home pod paid to a medical
device (such as BP monitor, pulse oximeter, weighing scales) this initiative
was developed to improve the standard of patient with COPD reduced unplanned
hospital admissions and reduced pressure.
There are many other
digital technologies adopted by many health care community services programme.
CONCLUSION:
To succeed in today’s developing health care industries,
physicians and hospital groups need to constantly produce new content that not
only gets them found but also enables them to capture leads for new patient.
Development of the proposed models can be done which helps at the
time of the research in the drug development process. Digitalization can also
be helpful in happening the live discussion regarding the better opinions
in the treatment.
T.CHARRISHMITHA
PharmD intern
REACH US FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO KNOW ABOUT US AT: 9121151622/623/624
Comments
external environment. but breaking a pill and storing the pill which is exposed to the external environment
Is these process effect any change in characteristics of a drug