What are the major tech challenges faced by the healthcare industry?
January 1, 2022We all live in the technology age where new innovations constantly make our lives easier and better. There are endless possibilities with technology to improve the quality of life.
When we talk about the “Quality of Life”, the most crucial aspect is HEALTH. And technology connects with the healthcare segment. It benefits everyone associated with it.
Presently, healthcare clinics, medical and diagnostic centers are making use of technology like never before, benefitting the patients.
Globally, healthcare tech is considered paramount by the medical fraternity, which provides better clinic management solutions to healthcare centers and clinics.
But when technology is making things easier for the functioning of the healthcare segment, it is natural to have some challenges too. Be it those who are using it or those who are still new to healthcare tech.
In this blog, we will focus on the major technology challenges faced by the healthcare segment.
Traditional data maintenance in the age of digitization:
In a healthcare system, the important resources like doctors, medical staff, caregivers, and hospital infrastructure that contribute to the setup’s overall success should be optimized efficiently for ensuring their best utilization.
The last few years have seen unprecedented advancement in medical technologies, whether equipment or medical staff functioning. The traditional method used in the healthcare segment is feeding the data manually in excel sheets, which has its limitations, dependent on human effort.
In case of emergency, the availability of vital statistics is mandatory, which should be provided immediately. But finding records manually may consume a lot of valuable time and effort, which may prove fatal for the patient.
While treating terminally sick patients, the medical history consisting of treatment and vital stats need to be monitored in real-time. Without appropriate resource planning and documentation, it can create big trouble for the patient.
What to do?
For better handling of medical emergencies, the healthcare provider should install intelligent software systems that can streamline the whole process. It can also organize the data related to employees and doctors like qualifications, availability and specialization, which helps assign appointments and shift scheduling.
Presently, even clinics and dispensaries are employing the latest healthcare tech by implementing hospital management solutions offered by professional companies.
Relying on paper records instead of e-filing:
It is a common problem for healthcare professionals to fetch records and data of patients, including medical reports, bills, medications, insurance claims etc. Healthcare & clinics that have still not adopted the latest technologies are finding it difficult to operate.
Presently, paper records are a thing of the past. Now e-filing all the records in spreadsheets is prevalent.
What to do?
To ensure the accuracy and transparency of the whole treatment, proper alignment is required to ensure instant data transfer, outstanding patient-care processes, and hassle-free claim handlings.
Medical practice management software (PMS) is a category of healthcare software that deals with the day-to-day operations of medical practice. Such software allows users to capture patient demographics, schedule appointments, maintain a list of insurance cases, perform billing tasks, and generate reports.
PMS gets connected to electronic medical records (EMR) systems for better hospital management. The proper alignment of this software with actual practice needs to be done with precise detailing.
Cyber threats making it difficult to operate:
Cyber security is one of the prime concerns of the healthcare segment. There are some life-critical services and treatments that are given to patients, which are monitored technically.
Sometimes uninvited cyber glitches could prove to be great threats. The hospital data is confidential and sensitive, so it must be preserved securely.
What to do?
To secure hospital data, you need extraordinary secure compliance, which ensures data encryption, transmission and decryption.
The telehealth or telemedicine services should be completely secured with comprehensive data protection, access control, business continuity rules and procedures for ethical functioning.
Dealing with data privacy and regulations can be challenging:
Every country has its privacy laws, treatment regulations and medical standards. This makes things difficult for healthcare professionals while sharing information.
Dealing with such regulatory measures can burden data fluidity and pose challenges in the adoption of advanced healthcare tech involving data.
What to do?
Be open to consulting and adopting the best clinic management solution offered by a professional and renowned company.
Lack of a user-friendly interface makes it cumbersome:
Too much data and information on the screen is overwhelming for the user to navigate. Going through all the information and too much navigation is annoying and time-consuming for doctors and caregivers.
What to do?
A user-friendly interface is extremely important for healthcare tech and innovations. The healthcare provider should adopt a clinic management solution offered by a globally renowned company.
Standardization and integration of data can create problems:
Data integration from various sources is not easy as there are no standard formats that the healthcare and diagnostic centers are following.
Also, the professional engaged in collecting and handling the data is not the one who is going to use it. So there are very good chances that some vital information can be missed out.
What to do?
Such hassles can be overcome by connecting with companies that develop and provide end-to-end clinic management solutions to healthcare facilities.
Interruption in mobile networks and failure of devices could be fatal:
Telemedicine or telehealth has revolutionized the medical industry. This setup’s performance and service quality are completely technical, relying on high-quality devices and a fast internet connection.
The clinic needs round-the-clock monitoring and immediate access to medical practitioners to provide real-time solutions to the patients.
What to do?
The caregivers must be equipped with technology and equipment, which help get high-quality video, audio, imagery, and patient monitoring data sourced from connected devices.
As every service is mobile-friendly, the common challenges related to uninterrupted wi-fi, 3G or 4G connections need to be addressed.
These are some of the challenges that affect the smoother functioning of healthcare centers and clinics. If you are facing any one of the challenges or simply want to upgrade your healthcare facility with the latest in healthcare tech, you can connect with one of the world’s leading provider of clinic management solution.
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