How Medical Practices Are Improving With Technology
In many ways, the current pandemic has accelerated the move of a lot of industries to a more tech-oriented frame of mind.
Naturally, the medical industry, as one of the sectors in the spotlight right now, has followed suit. However, when it comes to talking about tech in the medical world, we need to look beyond immediate concerns. When the pandemic subsides, we’re still going to see medical facilities and practices looking to tech to provide better service and efficiency. Here are some examples of innovations driving this progress.
Telemedicine
Telemedicine has been one of the major buzzwords throughout all of 2020 thus far. Confronted with the possibility of outbreaks by letting people into their practices, more and more medical professionals are opting to use telemedicine for non-essential consultation or talk with their patients. In the meantime, this is primarily a safety measure, but chances are that we are going to see a lot more benefits of telemedicine moving forward for medical practices. For example, this will make it easier to service patients who live in remote areas, or that have mobility issues that may make it difficult to head to a doctor in person. In addition, this will allow specialists to serve a wider range of potential patients that may be referred to them.
Business Management Software
At the end of the day, a medical practice is also a business, and taking care of patients while crunching numbers and doing other essential business work can be taxing for you and your staff. As a result, all medical practices should also be using management software. These can cover a variety of different tasks, including accounting work, keeping track of records, contacting patients, and many other different areas. If you’re not sure where to start, it’s a good idea to try and look to a company that offers modular software packages. This way, you can only buy the components you’re sure you need at first. If you like what you get, then you can consider expanding to cover the entire suite.
Patient Portal Software
We’ve been talking a lot about using technology to improve the practitioner experience, but one can’t forget about the patients as well. Patient portal software is patient-facing software that allows them to manage more and more of their medical responsibilities digitally. For example, they can set up appointments and check their times, and even look at some test results securely and digitally. Calling by phone may not be the most time-efficient option for everyone’s day, and this allows for a new option.
Wearable Technology
It’s a bit easy to get swept up in the potential of wearable technology at first glance. The notion of wearable tech that may actually directly impact our health is some way off, but for now, it’s quite a useful complement to some of the other practices that we’ve been discussing so far. For example, one of the major limits of telehealth is the inability to administer certain tests remotely. When it comes to things like checking the vitals (blood pressure, etc.) wearable technology can actually get accurate readings that you can report during a telehealth meeting. In addition, you can get these readings at any time to check and see if there are any anomalies.
VR/AR
Most people associate this tech with its use in the entertainment world, and it’s fair to understand why people feel that way at first. However, it’s starting to extend into other fields, especially healthcare. The benefits of this tech in the medical world extend multiple ways. In training, it’s great to simulate situations like surgery. However, it also impacts patient care and treatment. VR has helped patients with mental health conditions and visual impairment. AR allows for added support for practitioners in situations like surgery.
Virtual Scribes
Digital assistants like Alexa and Siri have already hit the mainstream, but in the medical world, there is a far more acute use for this information: virtual scribes. Keeping a record of all communications/information that goes between doctor and patient is essential, and that’s where this tech is most useful. Entering all this information into electronic health records is a time-consuming task. Virtual scribes handle it automatically to free up the doctor’s time.
Chatbots
The medical industry isn’t the only industry that’s seeing a renewed use with chatbots. Innovations in this area have made them better able to understand human speech as well as able to handle more complicated queries. These make them an essential tool for smaller businesses that may not be able to afford operators or tech support at all times. In a medical setting, these provide an essential service for patients who may be in need outside of your business hours. Based on the symptoms they need, chatbots can either give them some basic advice, help them make an appointment when you are open or call 911 in the event of an emergency.
Online Certification
A major part of efficiency in medical settings is making sure that your business is trying to not just improve the patient experience, but try and cut down on tedium in tangential tasks. Medical certification and recertification are essential both for compliance as well as keeping in pace with the latest trends and guidelines for essential procedures. However, in the past, the only method to go through this was doing in-person courses. With the tight schedules that medical professionals have, this was no easy task and combined with the current need for social distancing, it’s even more difficult to do.
Taking certification courses online is a natural counter to this awkward situation. However, not all providers are created equal in terms of the quality of instruction. This makes working with courses from
ProMed essential. Our certification and re-certifications are in keeping with AHA and ILCOR guidelines. Get your qualifications with ACLS, CPR, BLS, and PALS, and keep yourself covered with a 100% money-back guarantee.
