The importance of digital health technology

Digital health encompasses the use of various technologies such as such as mobile health (mHealth), health information technology, and telehealth to enhance to overall efficiency between doctors and patients across healthcare systems. The scope of digital health creates opportunities for physicians to gain a holistic view of their patients’ health and for patients to have greater access and ownership to their information.

The importance of digital health technology has increased over time, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to increasing access to health information for both providers and patients, digital health also enhances patient-doctor relationships, increases patient disease prevention methods, and creates a shift toward value-based care.

What are the Benefits of Digital Health?

Better Patient-Doctor Relationships

Through digital health, patients can access information about their own health as well as have a stronger relationship with their provider. For example, many hospital systems have digital health portals where patients can message their providers and receive answers back relatively quickly, rather than needing to wait for their next appointment. With digital health portals, patients can also meet with their doctors via video chat, which is especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic. Providers can provide real time updates to their patients regarding lab work and testing all without the patient needing to come into the office.

Improves Access to Information

Using digital health technologies, patients can actively manage their own health and monitor any irregularities that they may experience. Through digital health, patients also have access to information related to the following:

• Disease prevention
• Physical therapy
• Occupational therapy

Having such information at their fingertips allows patients to make more informed decisions about their health.

Promotes Lifestyle Changes Among Patients

The amount of education individuals have access to because of digital health is immense and can lead to lifestyle modifications for patients who may be at risk for common diseases, such as heart disease or diabetes. Physical and occupational therapy can also be achieved through digital health platforms which are paramount to a patient’s recovery.

What Impact Does Digital Health Have on Value-based Care?

Value-based care has been discussed frequently as an alternative to fee for service care. Through digital health technologies, the shift towards value-based care is now being made in the United States.

Value-based care creates a model where providers are rewarded for giving the highest quality care to patients rather than providing care at a lower standard which leads to readmission rates and complications. This type of approach can be used to expand a patient’s care management and ensure that the patient is not suffering because of a lack of quality providers.

Digital health allows for multidisciplinary care management that could be lacking in value-based care. Multidisciplinary care management consists of constant communication between providers, something that digital health has a crucial role in. Digital health technology paired with value-based care gives patients the opportunity to decide for themselves which providers are best equipped to handle their health.

What is the Future of Digital Health?

Digital health is still relatively new in the United States but with continued healthcare services moving towards a digital model, patients will be able to take their care into their own hands. This means that individuals across generations will be more educated about their health and will be able to make informed decisions regarding their own care. Advances in digital health are numerous and the United States will see many more in the future.

As the demand for digital health continues to grow throughout hospitals and healthcare systems, so does the challenges of finding a cost effective solution. At Pathstone Partners, our expert consultants specialize in providing information technology solutions for healthcare systems across several different markets.

From contract negotiations to software rationalization efforts, we take a comprehensive approach to improving outcomes and reducing inefficiencies for health systems. Contact us online to sit down with our experience consultants to learn about our healthcare consulting services how we can help with digital health technology.

 

What is Healthcare IT?

Information technology (IT) plays an important role in the modern world, impacting many industries such as the banking industry and tech industry. Not as widely recognized is the importance of IT in the healthcare industry.

Before delving into the importance of information technology to healthcare, it is necessary to understand what exactly IT refers to in this space. Most commonly, healthcare information technology employs the exchange of health-related data via electronic systems involving the use of digital technology to record, assess, and distribute patient related-data.

Why is IT Important in the Healthcare Industry

The importance of information technology in healthcare is demonstrated when its effective use leads to improvements which medical care providers can bestow upon their patients. Medical care often involves the analysis and decision making of multiple specialists, payors, and the patient and readily available and accessible information is crucial to help inform the patient’s best treatment plan and increase overall efficiency of the health system. It is often difficult to share, access, and maintain consistent information across the many sectors and stakeholders present in medical care. Thus, minimizing the demonstrated gaps of information that present themselves in healthcare financial is where information technology proves instrumental to the industry.

That said, improvements to medical care are limited by the quantity and quality of the information that healthcare providers have on their patients. Insufficient medical information can lead to medical errors that may potentially affect the medical and wellness of patients, payors, and healthcare providers. For example, adverse drug reactions can be linked to insufficient access to medical information and cause over 350,000 hospitalizations and 1.3 million emergency room visits every year in the United States. Therefore, by assisting the delivery of accurate and accessible patient information, supporting shared decision making, establishing networks of social support for patients, and enhancing treatment compliance tracking, IT drastically improves the quality of care provided to patients and avoids the unnecessary costs of medical errors and information gathering.

The Benefits of Establishing a Healthcare IT Infrastructure

IT plays a role in medical data collection and research. By providing researchers with patient data, the development of new treatment options and clinical studies can be conducted.  Additionally, IT eliminates unnecessary processes, such as physical test result interactions and information gathering interchanges using software such as MyChart.

IT also facilitates healthcare providers in the process of remaining compliant with increasingly complex regulatory policies and federal programs. An example is the 340-B Drug Pricing Program, where covered entities must maintain certain statuses and coverage statistics to qualify patients for reduced drug prices. With the development of platforms such as RxStrategies, hospitals and hospital networks can adhere to the strict regulations, minimize the costs of doing so, and maximize the benefit from such programs.

In conclusion, IT has impacted the healthcare industry across the multiple layers and institutions involved in the industry. Patients have benefited from improved medical care, physicians have been able to make better informed decisions, payors have been able to better track their beneficiaries, hospitals have been able to reduce unnecessary costs, and regulatory powers have been able to ensure complex regulation are complied. As information technology continues to develop, so will healthcare.