How The Pandemic Showed The Promise Of Technology In Modern Healthcare

Leave it to a global pandemic to demonstrate the shortcomings of the U.S. healthcare system to provide modern, accessible care to its most vulnerable citizens. While the health system rose to the occasion on many fronts, the negative influence of non-medical factors, often referred to as social determinants of health (SDOH), contributed to a lack of access to affordable, quality care on an equitable, widespread basis.

Even in the best of times, healthcare organizations must walk the fine line between improving patient outcomes and controlling costs. In many cases, technological advances, both on the clinical and remote care fronts, can offer the best of both worlds, providing broader access to quality care while keeping the cost of care affordable for providers and patients alike.

From access to transportation and the ability to triage patients remotely using telehealth to the seamless portability of health records from one caregiver to the next, technology may not only help the U.S. healthcare system address the next large-scale public health threat but bring the best care possible to communities that no longer have a medical facility or even a full-time doctor.

Here are five examples of technologies offering near-term potential to improve patient outcomes:

Mobile Text Messaging

Advances in communications networks and connectivity have greatly improved the way patients can communicate with a primary caregiver, nurse or medical consultant. While text messages have become ubiquitous as a method of communication between family and friends, it is not as widely used within the healthcare system.

But text messaging does have a clear nexus to improving at least some aspects of healthcare. The FICO Global Survey says that four out of five people prefer text messaging to communicate with healthcare providers. Many steps in the patient journey—appointment reminders, links to paperwork and initial screenings—can all be powered by artificial intelligence using text messaging to deliver a more timely, interactive and familiar patient experience without increasing staffing requirements or costs.

Web-based Scheduling

Online scheduling provides patients with additional control over their interactions with healthcare providers. Rather than making appointments during office hours, patients can make appointments when it is convenient for them and interact in real time to change or cancel an appointment without waiting for the office to open. Some web-based scheduling sites go one step farther, allowing patients to locate caregivers by location, specialty or insurance coverage. Patients can find a provider, schedule an appointment and interact with office staff, all without calling the office or being put on hold.

Provider Portals

One of the most significant advances is in access to provider records. Provider portals allow patients to not only communicate directly with their primary caregivers in a secure environment but access test results, immunization records and post-appointment information, such as prescription renewals.

In some instances, patients can also order additional services, such as home care equipment or rides to and from appointments as well as schedule non-emergency medical transportation to procedures or appointments. Caregivers can track fleet vehicles in real time to ensure that the patient’s continuum of care is uninterrupted.

​​Remote Patient Monitoring

Medicare provides about 3.4 million people in the U.S. with skilled home healthcare, and this number will climb as more members of the Baby Boomer generation enter retirement. To make home healthcare more routine and less disruptive for patients eager to maintain a sense of independence, technologies that facilitate remote patient monitoring may alleviate some of the strain on existing networks of healthcare providers.

With remote patient monitoring, patients can live independently for longer since the monitoring services aren’t intrusive but stand at the ready at a moment’s notice should the patient’s circumstances change.

Telehealth

The pandemic brought telehealth to the forefront. A 2021 healthcare services report by McKinsey & Company revealed that “new analysis indicates telehealth use has increased 38x from the pre-Covid-19 baseline.” Social distancing and the need to reduce the possibility of exposure made Zoom meetings commonplace, not only with family members and coworkers but caregivers. The ability to interact with other human beings, even remotely and virtually, provided a much-needed connection and in many cases improved mental health.

In its fully matured state, telehealth has huge implications for rural parts of the U.S. that don’t have access to traditional care. Thanks to widespread adoption, logging into an appointment with your own provider or a specialist at a telehealth provider is easy and affordable. Some telehealth companies even provide in-person care through an urgent care home visit program, which is the next logical step in building out rural and remote telehealth.

An Uncertain Path Forward

Technology on its own won’t cure the issues with modern healthcare. The industry is in a state of transition as fewer caregivers enter the medical profession, remote working becomes the norm and the balance between what’s possible from a technical standpoint and the type of care patients want and are comfortable with receiving continues to evolve. Here are three tips to find this balance:

1. Know your end user. Collect input from all stakeholders—from medical and administrative staff to patients themselves—before making any changes. Don’t assume you know what the patients are looking for. This will help ensure that the technology meets the needs of everyone who will be using it.

2. Build for interoperability. Technology can make it easier for different parts of the healthcare system to communicate with each other. However, this only works if the various systems are compatible and built with the larger system in mind.

3. Test, test and test again. Testing technologies before you fully implement them will avoid any frustrating surprises down the line. Test to ensure that the technology works as intended and that users are able to get the most out of it.

The pandemic showed the promise as well as the pitfalls of the use of technology. Ultimately, the industry will need to strike a balance between cost, privacy, access and the need for quality, affordable care, even in the smallest, most remote communities.