
Customers’ expectations never remain the same in a world that is always changing and growing. A notable example is the pandemic. It harmed many industries, but healthcare was the worst hit. Providers, healthcare workers, and patients all needed to prepare for and accept new coping methods with a scenario where physical touch was deemed deadly.
Telehealth saved providers and allowed patients to consult doctors from the comfort of their own homes. Technology and Connected Care have pushed clinics to automate operations and extend healthcare services outside the hospital's four walls. It has sped up processes that were previously time-consuming and difficult.
The Internet of Healthcare Things (IoHT) and HIT play critical roles in mistake prevention, time savings, safety, and alarms. HIT includes a wide range of technologies, including basic charting, powerful decision assistance, and interaction with medical technology.
- Minimizing human mistakes
- Improving clinical outcomes
- Enabling care coordination
- Improving practise efficiency
- Tracking and analysing data are just a few examples of how HIT may help improve healthcare.
Computerized physician orders and E-prescribing (CPOE)
Computerized physician order entry entails using an electronic, computer, or mobile device platform to submit physician orders, including pharmaceutical orders. CPOE systems were originally developed to enhance the safety of pharmaceutical orders; however, contemporary systems enable other functions such as the computerised ordering of tests, procedures, and consultation. Clinical decision support (CDS) is linked with CPOE and serves as an error prevention tool by counselling the prescriber on the preferable medication dosages, route, and frequency of administration.
Clinical Decision Support (CDS)
Clinical Decision Support (CDS) offers patient-specific information to healthcare teams, which improves healthcare team and physician decisions to provide better patient care. This data is logically filtered and provided to the team at the appropriate moment. CDS is a collection of technologies meant to improve the effectiveness and clinical workflow of a physician and care team. Notifications, reminders, and alerts for care providers and physicians, condition-specific order sets, patient-specific clinical summaries, documenting templates, investigation and diagnostic help, and so on are among the tools available.
Tools for electronic sign-out and hand-off
Electronic sign-out or ‘hand over' is required for interstate and intrastate patient transfers. This communication refers to exchanging patient-specific information from one care provider to the next, from one hospital care team to the next, or from care providers to the patient's family to maintain care continuity and patient safety. One of the major causes of sentinel events in the United States has been identified as a breakdown in patient information transfer. Electronic sign-out apps are technologies that may be used alone or in conjunction with an EMR to ensure an organised transfer of patient information during "transfers" or "handoffs" between healthcare professionals.
Electronic Patient Portal
A patient portal is a website that provides patients with safe, accessible access to their personal records 24 hours a day, seven days a week, online or mobile. It allows patients and clinicians to communicate in both directions. Numerous studies have shown that patient portals enhance Preventive Care, illness awareness, and self-management results.
Telemedicine
Telemedicine is the delivery of distant healthcare services via the use of digital information and communications technologies. It allows the patient and the practitioner to communicate in both directions. Synchronous telemedicine refers to real-time, two-way digital communications. Synchronous telemedicine refers to transferring a patient's data to a physician via (store and forward). Tech businesses like Marham provide you with the facility to buy medicines online in Pakistan.
Remote Patient Monitoring
Consider your patient sipping coffee in her kitchen and reading a book while her blood pressure, glucose, and other vitals are collected and sent to her doctor at his clinic. Her physician is well-informed about her growth and capable of treating her Diabetes. Therefore it is not necessary to attend the clinic. That is the pinnacle of Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM). RPM is a method for automatically extracting data from medical equipment such as a patient monitor, ventilator, intravenous pump, wearable devices, and so on, using a Patient Data Management System.
Take Away
There is strong evidence that health information technology improves patient outcomes, increases patient safety, and saves time for physicians. The use of telemedicine and remote patient monitoring in the continuum of care has proven to be beneficial. These technologies work well in establishing a Connected Care ecosystem like Marham. One may find every healthcare treatment under the umbrella of this super-app. One may consult top physicians or surgeons in Pakistan through video calling and even make an appointment for an in-person consultation.