The Digital Revolution In Healthcare

We live in a time where technology is becoming more and more integrated into our daily lives.

The digital revolution has the potential to make healthcare more accessible to everyone.

There are ground-breaking possibilities for those who don’t have the financial means or access to standard treatment, or who just choose a different approach to their health.

Telemedicine, which allows patients and doctors to interact through video chat and collaborate on a treatment plan remotely, has also been made feasible by technology.

Digital revolution! What is it and how will it impact healthcare?

The healthcare industry is undergoing a digital revolution.

Big data, mobile devices, and other technological advancements are paving the way for new medical frontiers, a trend that has been particularly evident during the COVID-19 epidemic.

Mobile applications are tracking the virus’s spread, and artificial intelligence (AI) is assisting physicians in looking for symptoms of pneumonia it may cause in people’s lungs.

Further than the pandemic, healthcare digitization is projected to enhance a wide variety of outcomes, from illness prevention and treatment to nursing care.

It will enable national health systems to make better use of resources, in order to be more efficient and long-lasting as societies age.

To make the most of the digital revolution, a paradigm shift is required.

Most health-care systems are designed to provide consistent treatment to large groups of people, with the goal of achieving “the greatest pleasure of the greatest number,” as utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham put it.

Why is the digital revolution making healthcare more inclusive? 

It’s a strategy that made sense in the analog era when customizing therapies for each person was difficult and costly. Digitalization, on the other hand, is altering the game.

Highly personalized medicine is already a reality, allowing for a whole new approach to treatment.

The World Economic Forum’s Japan Centre has been working to increase the use of data and technology in healthcare for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

To maximize health and wellness, they believe that moving away from a one-size-fits-all strategy and toward one that is more diverse is critical.

The “maximum happiness of the greatest variety” isn’t a pipe dream; the campaign to make it a reality is already underway.

How can we make sure that everyone benefits from this revolution?

It would, for starters, be more diverse.

Fewer individuals are left behind in a healthcare system that caters to shifting attitudes, illness profiles, and nursing-care requirements.

With advancements in data, AI, and other innovations, the potential for bespoke healthcare continues to grow while costs decrease, opening up a slew of possibilities ranging from the ability to design the most effective prevention and treatment plans for each individual to better accommodating personal preferences in terms of risk or treatment options.

What are the obstacles to establishing such a healthcare system?

To begin with, overcoming information gaps in healthcare necessitates combining the analog and digital worlds.

This is a difficult task as well as a promising field.

One of the most effective governments in containing COVID-19 is Taiwan. Initially in the epidemic, Taiwanese authorities used the National Health Cards, cashless payments, and universal health insurance system to help alleviate medical supply bottlenecks and distribute masks to individuals who needed them.

However, the digital instruments involved were disproportionately employed by the young; just 40% of the elderly were able to acquire masks.

Only when the government gave elderly individuals specific extra information – such as guiding groups of elderly people to specific pharmacies at specified times – did that proportion grow.

Which businesses are successful with this hybrid strategy?

In a research study conducted by World Economic Forum, Healthcare and the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Realizing the ‘Greatest Happiness of the Greatest Diversity,’ the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Japan examined many efforts by healthcare firms that were successful precisely because of this hybrid approach.

• Takeda Pharmaceutical is the world’s largest pharmaceutical corporation based in Japan. Takeda utilized wearable gadgets and telemedicine to monitor Parkinson’s disease patients in a trial experiment. As a consequence, Takeda observed that the burden of illness management and hospital visits may be reduced.
• Salesforce is a software company that operates on the cloud. By centralizing digital patient data, it enhanced operational efficiency and patient engagement for healthcare professionals.
• SOMPO Holdings is an insurance company based in Japan. Data was used to solve staffing shortages, and more customized nursing care services are presently being developed.

To wrap things up

Each of these initiatives had one common element: they employed digital technologies to supplement rather than replace face-to-face interactions between patients and doctors, or between the elderly and caretakers.

The goal was to use data and technology to supplement and improve existing “analog” services.

This multimodal approach enables health practitioners to adapt to individual needs and social issues in ways that would have been hard to do otherwise using only analog or digital methods.