In this age of digital hyperconnectivity, it’s hard to imagine what life was like before we could shop, check traffic and weather, monitor our steps, and turn on bedroom lights with a simple voice command or flick of the phone. The future has come so fast and seamlessly, we barely had time to notice. We simply, adjusted. However, if you’ve recently taken a trip to the doctor or heaven forbid, the emergency room, you were probably taken aback by how archaic and analog the experience was.
Filling out the same information, by hand, repeatedly. Answering the same questions to doctors and nurses, not knowing who will actually be taking care of you. Awaiting the transfer of your medical records from your primary care doctor to the surgeon performing a standard procedure. All of it seems so cumbersome and, given this digital age, unnecessary.
The Bright Side of the Pandemic
Given the millions of lives lost and countless more turned upside down by COVID-19, it seems almost callous to showcase the bright side of the pandemic – especially in the healthcare industry. However, due to hospitals and urgent care centers being overrun with patients during the first 6-12 months of the pandemic, a renewed focus on digital transformation, more specifically the streamlining of patient data, began to take hold. In fact, a recent Rock Health report showed investments in digital health had nearly doubled from $14.9 billion in 2020 to $29.1 billion in 2021, and is expected to increase an additional $16.6 billion in 2022. Sure, telehealth has become a fairly common practice as a result of some of these investments, but where does the rest of that money go? And what does it mean for patients and healthcare professionals alike?
The Proper Infrastructure for Electronic Records and the Connected Patient
It has been said that if you want to easily infuriate a doctor, ask them about their electronic medical and health records systems. In fact, according to a recent study from the University of New Mexico, EMR/EHRs contribute to approximately 40% of clinician stress and physician burnout. This is directly attributable to the time doctors spend filling out fields, not to mention the struggles they face trying to access medical information about their patients – especially when some patients had been seen at a hospital or clinic that uses a different medical record venue. And for patients, this time wasted could be a matter of life or death.
Now, with the massive investments in digital health, the proper infrastructure needed to streamline EMR/EHRs and, more importantly, the connected patient, wait times have been minimized and doctor/surgeon burnout has dramatically decreased. And all it takes is the right information in the right hands at the right time, all within a universally accessible digital framework, aka: the connected patient.
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