In nations where people don’t always have a specialized GP office and the government healthcare infrastructure is more semi-private, technology could facilitate a shift toward a notably better new style of service.
Fremont, CA : We’ve seen evidence of a more widespread transition in the larger healthcare technology business during the last decade. The market is transforming, and we’re starting to notice a more apparent pattern of companies pushing a more comprehensive digital transformation of global healthcare systems. We will start to recognize the much more transformative role that technology has to play in global healthcare systems as larger actors in the healthcare industry begin to utilize technological solutions in a much more active fashion.
Technology-enabled efficiency
We’re seeing signs of a larger digital wave moving across the broader healthcare sector, from hospitals and clinics to general practices and even care homes, as healthcare professionals and patients alike gain confidence in telehealth procedures and become accustomed to the convenience of remote consultations. But, again, this is happening at a core level, with significant investment enabling the adoption of IT systems for collecting and processing patient records and improving practitioners’ schedules.
Digitizing patient records
The digitalization of patient records is a crucial area where we will continue to witness progress across global healthcare systems. Around the world, progress is made at varying rates. For example, in the United Kingdom, we see the first indications of this change in a few places, with new technologies allowing for the sharing of information and data among institutions in the same group. This is a good start, however, there is understandable trepidation about the next step, which would be to expand access to patient records between practices and across the country.
A ‘big bank’ strategy with a central store of data for each healthcare practice to access when needed may certainly pose cybersecurity threats as one faulty link could put the entire system in danger if it were breached.
