These healthcare software or applications help doctors and patients to manage vital health information. In addition to that, it also ensures to improve the quality of care and services required and make it more cost-effective for both doctors and patients. The healthcare administration tools refer to knowledge-based, decision support IT programs. These healthcare tools offer guidance, assistance, and can also submit feedback on your fingertips.

There are many hospitals that are shifting their offline activities of patient file maintenance and other hospital activities to electronic health record (EHR). Thus, to manage such activities effectively the application should be highly user-friendly and able to perform such operations quickly. Therefore, to make a quality healthcare application, it requires the best healthcare administration tools and software.

So, let’s checkout the best healthcare administration tools and software for 2021 that can introduce the quality final product and user-friendly UI and UX.

7 Best Healthcare Administration Tools and Software for 2021

1. Electronic Health Records (EHR)

Electronic Health Records (EHR) address continuous work to smooth out care by digitizing patient information. An EHR is an electronic form of a patient’s clinical record that can be updated in real-time by authorized health experts. It gives a broad perspective of a patient’s medical history by permitting clinical judgments, conditions, treatment plans, and test results received rapidly and safely by using Web-enabled gadgets.

As well as giving immediate access to health information details, one of the major advantages of an EHR is that it further enhances care coordination by permitting patient details to be shared by different medical service providers and associations, including trained professionals, drug stores, hospitals, emergency services, and imaging centers.

Adoption of EHR is turning out to be more broad, however the systems are not so perfect. The studies have shown pushback among specialist doctors themselves who feel that the innovation requires more administrative work, which minimizes their time with patients. Overall, it is considered one of the best healthcare administration tools to facilitate doctors and patients at a time.

2. Referral Trackers

A referral tracking system is a healthcare software that is used to monitor their patient references. It provides a powerful communication channel between two medical institutes. It likewise helps specialists and doctors to keep up with steady communication while monitoring patients.

A reference tool empowers doctors to tackle numerous practical issues related with medical references. For example:

• Doctors can use it to know the specific time their patient sees a specialist and the consequence of the appointments.
• It disposes of the need for faxing referral letters.
• It permits doctors to communicate with a specialist and choose if a patient’s visit will be important and beneficial to the patient.

Using this kind of healthcare administration tools eliminates numerous operational failures related to patient referrals.

3. Imaging and Visualization

Health information technology has empowered exact visualizations of imaging strategies, for example, CT Scan and MRI. It is one of the most demanding and best healthcare administration tools to facilitate healthcare services and ensure accurate diagnosis of patients. 

Medical Software Engineers were likewise effective in planning programs that allow visualizations for surgical planning and telesurgery. 

Such imaging and perception programming systems enable clinicians to assess the diverse body systems real-time and therefore, make exact diagnosis.

4. Interactive Personal Health Records

Families with intensifying medical problems – or even standard essential care appointments. It can without much of a stretch build reams of paperwork, from bills and statements to confounded insurance correspondence. Interactive Personal Health Records (PHR) – an extension of the EHR that permits patients to oversee numerous aspects of their own medical care. Such healthcare administration tools plan to replace this sort of record-keeping and all the while make it simpler for providers to understand their patients’ requirements.

The PHR is consequently populated with EHR information from all patient providers. However, is accessed by the patient with a Web browser whenever and from any location. Lab results, appointment dates, and immunization records, are a wide range of information you might discover in a PHR. Furthermore, the intuitive interface permits patients to enter data into their records; same information is then send to the patient’s physician.

The key difference between the PHR and EHR healthcare tools is that the previous is expected for patient use, presenting information in a configuration that is designed for the individuals who don’t have a background in healthcare. The advantages of PHRs incorporate increased patient commitment. The research has shown that patients who utilize one are twice as prone to stay up with the latest with clinical protection administrations.

5. Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE)

Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) is recognize as the center for developing healthcare services, particularly in hospitals. CPOE permits doctors to enter medical guidelines and order related to patient treatment straightforwardly into organized systems. Details are then shared to medical staff and with liable organizations for order fulfilment, including research facilities, pharmacies, and radiology departments.

The CPOE system is a healthcare tool that can possibly diminish blunders identified with handwriting and transcription. Thus, it forbid duplicate orders, recognize wrong dosages, and smoothen the inventory management cycle. These healthcare software systems add to increase visibility in the patient care unit. The tool also empowers a team approach among doctors and healthcare service delivery organizations.

6. E-Prescribing Software

E-prescribing has been in use since a long time by different hospitals. It enhance effectiveness in giving medication and restricting medicine prescription and purchase mistakes to improve patients safety. This healthcare tool ensures patients get the accurate prescription and find the correct medicines too at a time. This healthcare software permits doctors to directly communicate with drug stores for medicine prescriptions.

Advantages of the e-prescribing healthcare administration tool incorporates a more productive workflow. It also minimize prescription blunders, less time needed to resolve mistakes, and further improves record documenting too.

7. Medical Research

The progression in healthcare software types likewise delivers benefits in the medical research development process. Medical Research is one of the most demanding and best healthcare administration tools for 2021.

The digital stages designed for medical research can adjusted or modified to fulfill multiple purposes. Thus, the medical research software can set up as a store of medical research journals. It might help clinicians in setting up important literature reviews.

In addition to that, developing the healthcare software systems could likewise be incorporated with EHRs and this permits medical specialists or practitioners to reference patient records for detailed medical research purposes.

Conclusion

With the right and best healthcare administration tools and software you can improve your patient assistance. In addition to that, can increase operational efficiency, and can provide better patient care based on right and data-driven details. Whereas, these healthcare tools are valuable for improving the way healthcare centers manage and deliver healthcare services.

By harnessing the potential and power of computational systems, digital analysis, and data mining, the implementation of IT in healthcare holds a wide range of possibilities. It is just for improving healthcare system management and patient outcomes.

With this load of advantages and possible outcomes. This moment is the best opportunity to exploit healthcare information technology through the different types of healthcare administration tools and software.

As a matter of fact, not all businesses require the same tool or all the tools that are available in the market. Thus, to build a quality product you need to prioritize which software and tool will boost your business. Therefore, go through these tools details and hire the most efficient development agency and EngineerBabu is one of them to deliver the quality product. For any kind of assistance and to develop quality healthcare applications or website Contact Us. We are here to help you. We are a team of expert designers and developers that give a new dimension to your business idea and take it to the next level.

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From healthcare apps, on-demand nursing homes facilitation, on-demand doctors, doctors appointment to even medicine supply, the various kinds of hospital management software cover them all!

Certainly, you’re aware of apps like Practo, Lybrate, 1mg and DoctorInsta. These healthcare apps have made it possible for integrating technology with healthcare. If you consult any experts, they’ll tell you about the rapid growth in various demands of the industry over the years. Nursing homes are catering to comparatively new demands like on-demand doctors and medicine supply.

Big hospital chains like the Apollo group even have their machinery set to deliver medicines at home within 24 hours. But, did you know that the scope is much greater than that? Managing multi-speciality hospitals would’ve been a daunting task if technology weren’t there. Such apps fall under the category of Hospital Management Software.

What is Hospital Management Software?

These applications or software comprise of computer or web-based software facilitating management/ functions within a hospital or any medical set up. Basically, it is like an alternative to paper-records given how difficult it can get to manage and stack them.

These kinds of software integrate important information regarding various strata of people involved. For instance, patients, doctors and other hospital administration staff members’ details.

Robust computer or web-based hospital management system software can help in automation of patients as well as the medical professionals. There are numerous advantages for doing so: efficiently managing operations like quick diagnosis, timely patient care, collection of data for future reference, booking appointments, fast billing and generation of EMR (Electronic Medical Record), etc.

Recommended Reading: Top 10 Healthcare Companies in the US

In addition to that, doctors can quickly check the treatment history of their patients and test reports while taking time-crucial medical decisions. Patient management automates the process for various departments to work together and thus, provide optimum patient care. This has become a really important factor behind the growth in turnover of the healthcare institutes.

Patient Management Automation:

Patient management software is also commonly referred to as clinic management software, medical patient software, patient management software, or medical practice management software (MPM).

Such kind of applications or software can comprise of numerous automated systems developed to track patient information. This majorly includes their diagnoses, current and old prescriptions, interactions, encounters within healthcare organizations like medical clinics or hospitals. While some of them might just focus on general patient management, others could be to automate processes such as inpatient tracking or blood testing.

Common Features:

Let’s take a look at some of the common features incorporated by the top hospital management software companies in the development of such apps:

1. Easy Access To Medical Records

The ability to store, track and access patients’ medical records is a vital feature. While some hospital management software offer their own charting modules, others integrate with independent EHR/EMR solutions. Some companies integrate with other medical software for easy transfer of electronic health records between the care providers.

No matter what option you go for, charting features must record, update and archive the patient data within the software for access during future encounters. It produces flow sheets for each patient. These list chronic issues, previous diagnoses, surgeries, immunizations, test results and other important data.

2. Access Patient Encounters

This category of patient management software is developed for tracking and managing the patient’s previous medical encounters. It is facilitated by making the patients fill in electronic intake forms, prior to their visit to the medical facility. It streamlines a patient’s initial hospital visits to reduce the time otherwise spent in filling out such forms manually.

Once the patient has arrived, they have the option to check-in electronically. The application also monitors exam room availability, while tracking the progress of each exam. Once an appointment is over, the application automates checkout procedure, including payment of the fee and follow-up appointment scheduling.

3. Scheduling Doctor Appointments

The management of every professional space has entirely transformed with technology. Nobody uses telephones anymore to make appointments. In the medical industry, hospital management software now come with a scheduling module. It allows patients to book their own appointments online with 24/7 access to a patient portal.

Another feature of this module is automated alerts when routine preventive care appointments have been due. For instance, if somebody’s medicine prescription is very close to expiring, they would get an automated email from their doctor. It’s helpful in promoting the number one thing people must do to stay healthy: get consistent preventive care.

Recommended Reading: Innovations in Healthcare to Watch Out this Year

It even has features like cancelling and rescheduling appointments within the software. This eliminates the need for your desk staff to do so. Once somebody makes an appointment, the patient management software sends automated appointment reminders via various sources: email, text or phone call. It reduces the likelihood that patients forget their appointments. These apps include appointment histories, including no-shows.

4. Medical Billing

During a medical emergency, it might get difficult to prioritise the order of things, especially the billing procedure. Hospital management software offer billing modules as well. The purpose is to reduce the stress incurred in the revenue cycle management process. It keeps a record of all past and present diagnoses and payment information.

Suppose a patient has checked in, the medical billing module will verify insurance eligibility to ensure both parties are on the same page about deductibles and copays. After encounters, medications, surgeries and other medical services, HMS automates the entire billing process for standardizing bill and payment collections. In case payments have been due, the software can issue automated payment reminders for patients to pay directly via online portals provided within the application.

5. Inpatient Encounters

Some hospital management software even manages the information once the person has become a patient. From managing admission, tracking wait times to connecting with the healthcare provider, this feature integrates everything. Once the person has been admitted, the management can track their location, schedule operations and surgeries and co-ordinate in case of emergencies.

Also, scheduling and accessing bed occupancy, preventing over-crowded wards and maintaining hygiene. These software facilities help in managing medication doses. It’s crucial to ensure that patients receive the right amount of the right medications. Once the patients have recovered and are healthy enough to go home, the software allows the users to plan and execute discharges.

6. Facility and Security Requirements

Some software also offer direct messaging system internally. It facilitates the patients to directly communicate with their doctors. While the system seems like it is convenient and saves time, it cannot be overlooked that transmission of sensitive information is taking place. It becomes vital that the system is sufficiently secured enough. One of the most important parts of being a healthcare provider is to ensure that your patients’ data is secure.

All medical practices and patient information system software must be HIPAA compliant to meet federal security standards. Code implementation is important to ensure that the diagnoses entered into the software can easily be read and understood by other medical providers universally.

Development of Hospital Management Software:

The development process and machinery required for a healthcare application like this is unique. It is very different from the development of regular mobile apps in other domains. Also, the needs differ depending on factors like the size of the facility, independency vs being a part of some larger medical group, etc. The software can deploy linking practices and medical offices, keeping in mind that it is not too technical for medical professionals.

Some time back, a study was conducted on 100 companies that had shopped for patient management software. This questionnaire asked them about what was the most important thing they wanted to be integrated into their app. This was their response:

Also, most of these companies were not the first time buyers with this requirement. More and more of these were researching for replacements. They were looking for the second generation of implementing systems. Thus, it’s evident that these applications are not only very unique in their structure, but also need constant updates. Secondly, the possibilities with types and sub-categories can be endless.

Hence, not every software development can deliver the requirement of hospital management software. Look for one that can offer you expertise in the domain.

Here’s the UX of one more HMS developed by EngineerBabu

To sum up…

Technology has taken massive leaps in the direction of making our lives better in every way imaginable. Everything is accessible at the tip of our fingers. However, in some special cases like the medical industry, it’s really important to keep everything under a thorough check. While looking for an app development company, you must choose one that uses ethical practices and can guide you better in the legalities.

EngineerBabu is an app development company with a very wide portfolio. Our team has worked in various sectors like EduTech, Networking, FinTech, Grocery delivery, Travel and a portal for Service providers. Talking about the medical industry, our previous clientele includes Shalby, Gorus, Doctor G and some more still under the development process.

Did you like this information? Need us to edit or add something? Just let us know in the comments section below. You can also drop an email at mayank@engineerbabu.com, or talk to us right now

Recommended Reading:

• How is Technology Transforming Healthcare at Home
• Blockchain in Healthcare: Opportunities, Challenges, and Applications
• E-Prescriptions – Making Patient Care Effective and Efficient

The post Hospital Management Software: Automation Solution For Patient Management appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

Recommended Read: Latest Innovation in Healthcare 2019

E-prescriptions have gained tremendous popularity and are growing rapidly not because of the technological advancements, but because of the significant benefits it delivers to caregivers and patients. Though still at its nascent stage, e-prescribing is at its highest in the United States. Some controlled substances prevented physicians from e-prescribing, but after DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) implemented rules for e-prescribing of controlled substances, the physicians and pharmacists started utilizing the same.

Many hospitals and healthcare establishments have switched to e-prescriptions for patient treatment. Initially, e-prescriptions were termed as a no-brainer, as it was computer ordered and people were doubtful whether they could read a physician’s handwriting. The records and reports lead to a net positive effect of e-prescriptions; as they fulfill medical adherence. Lucidity is one of the most critical element of e-prescriptions that delivers an expansive patient safety advantage.

Evolution of E-Prescriptions

In the beginning, e-prescriptions were designed to assist pharmacies to save the delivery time of staff and other overhead costs along with fast & easy medication process. But gradually, it seemed that electronically filling of prescription forms, and sharing the same through electronic medium proved valuable in streamlining efforts and enhancing process operations at the pharmacy. As soon as these benefits came to the knowledge of the pharmacists, they were quick to adopt health-related IT solutions that manage e-prescriptions.
It was by the year 2008 that the pharmacies were open to e-prescriptions.

Conversely, care providers were at a backhand to embrace e-prescriptions, as the process did not seem quite effective for them as it was for pharmacies. But looking at the decision support and timely care features offered by e-prescription solutions; physicians too made their mind to adopt the same.

E-prescriptions evolved as it offered providers with enhanced patient safety by making better clinical decisions, reduced costs, and an improved workflow. The World Health Organisation reported that more than 50% of patients around the world do not complete their prescribed medication, which had a negative impact on patient health contributing to prolonged hospitalization, re-admissions and even leads to patient death.

Introduction of e-prescribing has managed less legwork for patients making it convenient for them to get their prescription. E-prescriptions have improved medication adherence of patients.

Benefits of E-Prescribing

E-prescriptions can either be standalone applications or platforms for ambulatory care units or can be integrated with the existing Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems. The reason many healthcare providers consider the integration of e-prescriptions with EHR is that it contains patient data such as clinical information, lab orders & pathology results, and clinical decision support system. If an e-prescription is a part of EHR, it becomes convenient for physicians to access all patient information and at the same time, he can share e-prescription with the pharmacist, ensuring efficacy and accuracy of treatment.
Enlisted here are some of the many key benefits of e-prescribing.

1. Prevents medication errors
   Many times it has happened that pharmacists tend to dispense wrong medicines due to incorrectly reading the handwriting on prescription and the pharmacists delivered medicines which sounded familiar to one mentioned. For example, Brillinta and Brintellix are different drugs but sound familiar, while the former is used for the coronary syndrome, the latter treads depression.
   
   If these two are confused, may lead to patient death or any severe symptom. E-prescriptions in such cases are of a positive impact. E-prescription can eliminate medication errors that occur due to handwriting mistakes. Also, e-prescriptions allow physician and pharmacists to access a patient’s previous medication and reduce the chances of dispensing wrong medication.
2. Automates Clinical Decision Support
   Almost all the drugs available in the market comes in multiple forms and in various strengths. Traditional prescriptions always suggested the combination of drugs and the dosage details. However, e-prescriptions caregivers are prompted to fill in the complete form which includes details like, dosage, strength, route, and frequency of medicine intake. The e-prescription form also provides a drop-down list with a dictionary of standard drugs and standard parameters to select from; to check dosage and additional therapy alerts.
   
   E-prescription applications assist in lessening the risks linked with filling & generating prescriptions; helping in better clinical decision making. Genomics is the best example of a robust clinical decision support system. Genomics determines the effectiveness of a prescription of any patient based on their genetic codes. Tools like this also perform disease profiling through which it is easy to identify any patient who is at risk of developing a particular symptom. This helps physicians to make informed decisions at the point-of-care.
   
3. Speed Up Medication Process
   Traditional prescriptions or paper-based prescriptions may tend to lose medication history, making it difficult for clinicians and physicians to track medication details. Also, the entire process of tracking medical records was manual which made it difficult to reconcile medication information. With e-prescriptions, a patient’s medication history can be instantly accessed. Every drug to drug interaction is saved in application memory. E-prescription applications fetch data from pharmacy benefit management and EHR platforms, to speed up e-prescribing.
   
4. Instant Notification & Medication Alerts
   E-prescribing assist physicians in gaining full visibility of the allergies and previously prescribed drugs; as everything is documented & stored within the application. E-prescription also provides alert to the providers if the newly prescribed drugs may cause any severe symptoms. Instant notifications through e-prescribing help physicians to provide alternate medication, suggest substitute therapies and treat any allergies on time.
   
   Recommended Read: How is Technology Transforming Healthcare at Home
   
5. Track Complete Medication
   As mentioned at the beginning of this article, traditional prescriptions do not guarantee patients are completing the prescribed medication. Handwritten prescriptions provide no effective method to track if the prescription is fulfilled. Some other reasons could be patients have lost the paper, cannot afford any prescribed drug, forgot to fill the prescribed form or might have started feeling better and hence stopped medication.
   
   E-prescribing helps physicians to track whether patients have filled prescription forms and if in case it is not done, the providers can counsel on medication management. Also, e-prescriptions allow providers to understand the frequency of filling prescriptions for any particular controlled drug so as to stop possible drug mishandling.
   
6. No Delays as No Lost PrescriptionWhen patients receive prescriptions from the doctor chances are that they may forget to fill their medication intake, may never fill details or may have lost the paper. In such cases, the patient needs to, either revisit the physician to rewrite the prescription or visit the pharmacy to get the details from pharmacy management data. With e-prescribing, the prescriptions are directly sent to pharmacy leaving no chances of errors from the patients.
   
7. Greater Patient Satisfaction
   E-prescriptions allows expediting the filling in prescriptions and reduced visits to pharmacies. Since refills are faster, there is less waiting time for patients to hear from physicians, and thus improving process satisfaction.
   
8. Single Workflow Prescribing
   Traditional prescriptions never spoke about controlled drugs in single-paper prescription history and required a separate prescription for controlled substances, that went to special mail-order pharmacies or retail outlets. The entire manual process of managing prescribed controlled drugs and conventional drugs was very tedious.
   
   E-prescribing software allows providers to send e-prescriptions to special mail-order pharmacies, through the same workflow as the regular drug pharmacies. The single workflow interface makes the process more efficient, enhance patient satisfaction, support medical adherence and create patient convenience.
   
9. Better Utilization of Staff Time
   Prescription refills requests are a burden for the healthcare staff. The clinical staff and physicians had to send several follow-ups to patients for a prescription refill, taking a lot of time to and fro. Sometimes, despite these efforts, the staff does not receive filled prescriptions and end up creating new ones. E-prescription enables healthcare providers to review, verify and share as many refill information within seconds. Also, the e-prescriptions allow staff to perform an emergency refill in case the patient is in transit and left with no medication.
   
10. Reduced Re-hospitalization
    The notifications and alert feature in e-prescribing software make healthcare provider track any adversarial reaction of drugs on any patient that leads to hospitalization. E-prescribing reduces re-hospitalization as it ensures timely filing of prescriptions.
    
11. Enhanced Medical Adherence
    Medication adherence is the proper conception of treatment by patients. Patients tend to stop taking medications once they feel better or may end up reducing the dose of prescribed medication. E-prescribing enables faster filling of prescriptions increasing better medication adherence.
    
12. Faster Verification of Medical Insurance
    Traditional prescriptions and outstanding medical bills need to accompany together for insurance claims. Manual verification of prescribed drugs and billing invoice of similar drugs takes a lot of time and effort. E-prescribing software tallies the prescribed drugs and pharmacy invoice and authorizes the purchase for insurance claims.

E-Prescription Adoption & Considerations

There has been a significant increase in e-prescribing adoption over the past few years. In case any healthcare organization has still not implemented e-prescribing solution,
Almost all the hospitals and clinical systems that already have EHR will go with the decision of e-prescribing solution implemented so that they can connect with pharmacies in their network. There are some questions that hospitals and other healthcare providers should consider while looking to implement e-prescribing integrated with their EHR:

1. Will the physicians use e-prescribing along with EHR?
EHR allows the physicians to update patient medication details. However, it cannot transfer the same information to the pharmacy for faster treatment. Thus, clinicians & providers are less likely to use e-prescribing.
But if e-prescription software is integrated with the EHR system, the caregivers will definitely intend to e-prescribe as it enhances the quality of patient care.

2. How secure is the health information network?
This is another critical question to check with the software network provider about system and security. It is extremely essential that the network is compliant to HIPAA and other regulatory compliance so that sensitive patient information is kept protected.

3. Which security network is used by pharmacists?
Since the pharmacies, retail and mail order outlets are the external elements for hospitals and healthcare givers; it is essential to keep a tab on the network they are connected through. E-prescribing is sharing of sensitive drug details pertaining to specific patient-id. Hence one should ensure secured network for implementation of EHR and integration of e-prescription solution with same.

4. What is the acceptable transaction fees for any payment done on a platform?
When a patient receives medication from pharmacy through e-prescribing, some networks charge for transactions done on platforms or directly charge medi-claim providers for the same. One should clarify the charges before implementing e-prescribing with EHR.

5. What are the steps to suggest e-prescription to patients?
The elderly population is less likely to go with e-prescriptions as they are more comfortable with paper-based prescriptions. It is essential for the caregiver to train the elderly patients about the e-prescription use and benefits.

Wrapping Up

Even if the above considerations are taken care of, there still lies a debate on the usefulness of EHR if e-prescribing is added as a vital functionality. The healthcare staff feels that the utility of EHR may reduce with the arrival of e-prescriptions.
But since it is about improved patient care and quality health services; the hospitals and clinics have thoroughly adopted e-prescribing. The collaboration of pharmacists and healthcare providers have engaged the patient as an essential component. E-prescriptions shared with patients via email and other channels; provide patients with more flexibility to shop from a pharmacy of their choice.

There has been a significant gap in healthcare practices due to non-adherence. With e-prescribing, the system builds a bridge between providers and pharmacies to improve the overall process and ensure patient safety. E-prescription processes also provide transparency in the price of the prescribed drug and re-routes a prescription to some other pharmacy if the patient is not satisfied with pricing.

E-prescribing makes the medication management process effective and improves ambulatory care workflow. E-prescribing is changing healthcare delivery by reducing prescribing errors and saving on healthcare costs.
EngineerBabu has a track record of designing and developing numerous healthcare products. We have been able to successfully automate 120 hospitals with our solid expertise in this domain.
Check out our portfolio, how we developed an App to automate 120 Hospitals! 
Consult us, if you are looking for a tech-partner who can take your product to the next level. 

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The post E-Prescriptions – Making Patient Care Effective and Efficient appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

Top 10 Innovations in Healthcare to watch

1. Internet of Medical Things

IoMT, as a part of IoT, refers to a collection of medical devices and applications that connect to healthcare IT systems through online computer networks. Medical devices connected with Wi-Fi allow a machine to machine communication which stands as a base to the IoMT.
Some of the ways in which IoMT can help the healthcare industry are:
1. Remote monitoring of patients with chronic symptoms.
2. Easily tracking down the medication orders of patients.
3. Location of the patients admitted to the hospitals.
4. Allows communication with medical experts even in remotest places.
5. Increased operational efficiency.
An excellent example is a partnership of Salesforce and Philips which have collaboratively created a platform to enable smooth functioning of medical devices in conjunction with complex sets of data.

2. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence has played an integral role in transforming the healthcare industry in unimaginable ways. From managing day to day data and medical records to be up-to-date with personal data, artificial intelligence has been successful in bringing the legal changes in the workings of this industry.

Apart from that, artificial intelligence can also help with managing the medication, monitoring the health of patients, the creation of drugs, the list is endless.
Here’s how AI is changing the dynamics of the healthcare industry:
1. Managing medical records and data: Health industry cannot do away with this very first step. What lies at its heart is analyzing and compiling the information. Robots help to store, collect, trace and re-format data to provide faster access.
2. Doing repetitive jobs: Mundane tasks of the day can easily be managed with the help of robots. Radiology and cardiology are two disciplines where the amount of data to analyze can be time-consuming. Hence, artificial intelligence can help in minimizing human efforts.

3. Treatment design: Selecting a customized treatment plan becomes more comfortable with AI as it can analyze data relating to a patient’s previous history records, clinical expertise, external research and more.

4. Digital consultation: Apps like Babylon have been very helpful in giving valuable advice to patients based on medical knowledge and personal medical history. It has succeeded in breaking barriers between doctors and patients. Users can easily report their symptoms in the app by using speech recognition feature to compare against a base of illnesses.

5. Virtual nurses: Digital assistant who helps people to do follow up treatments by monitoring patient’s condition. It uses machine learning techniques to support patients.
6. Health monitoring: Health trackers like Garmin, Fitbit, and others can help one keep a check over the activity levels and heart rate. They can provide useful information to doctors regarding the regular habits of the patients. Doctors can then prescribe a proper medical treatment based on such crucial data.
For example, Oncore Medical aims to help in cancer treatment especially radiation therapy. Radiation oncologists can now access, collect and organize medical records electronically through an integrated digital database. Also, it can help doctors design treatment plans for patients.
Similarly, Sentrian is another remote patient intelligence company wants to bridge the chasm between doctors and patients by using smart algorithms. It allows easy prediction of whether patients will become sick even before they experience symptoms. Also, its remote patient monitoring technology enables it to collect patients’ data from various biosensors and then deal with this data by continually detecting problem areas.

3. Centralized Management of Hospitalized Patients

Managing a vast number of patients can be cumbersome for the management of large hospitals. Hence, some of the critical tasks can easily be decentralized by relying on advanced technology. Easy monitoring is possible even without the doctor-patient interaction on day to day basis. With the use of sophisticated equipment like HD cameras and sensors, regular monitoring of the patient’s heart rate, blood pressure, and pulse oximetry can be carried out without any hassles. Thus, it eliminates the need for the physical presence of a doctor and can be extremely helpful during actual emergencies.
Apart from that, it also enables patients to book appointments online, receive test reminders and updates regarding appointments, and communicate doctor through chat features and more. Such technological changes have played an active role in managing time and money resources effectively. If such things are executed properly, then they can allow patients to have easier access to scheduling, reduce stress for staff and lead to increased revenue as all critical conditions will be managed appropriately.

4. Patient Engagement Technology

Digital patient engagement techniques are aimed at providing patients with access to clinical and administrative support in a personalized manner. These engagement tools have helped patients to connect using remote patient monitoring capabilities. Patient engagement is the first step to getting better clinical outcomes by improving communication between care providers and patients. They allow timely access to healthcare by enabling efficient illness management.
The ultimate goal of adapting this technology is to improve the quality of healthcare by reducing costs. In spite of various barriers like a fragmented end-user market, substantial investment requirements and more, patient engagement technology makes use of innovation to the fullest. The need to make healthcare more customer-centric has been realized in the recent past. Hence, the use of patient engagement technology is bringing about an overall positive change in the experience of patients.
For instance, Welvu helps healthcare providers to customize patient education content which includes disease illustrations, treatment plans for each patient and personalized medical photos. Also, mobile-based platforms can read information directly from record visual features, EHR and share educational video for review.

5. Hybrid Closed-Loop Insulin Delivery System

This is an essential technological advancement in the medical field especially for the people who suffer from Type 1 1 diabetes. In this condition, the body is unable to produce sufficient insulin which leads to day to day suffering. Hence, keeping a check on blood glucose levels becomes necessary several times in a day. Taking insulin injections in proper dosages at fixed intervals is thus essential. A hybrid closed-loop insulin delivery system is the perfect solution to this problem. Currently, the MiniMed 670G is the only licensed hybrid closed-loop insulin delivery system in commercial use. The next step in healthcare technology innovation is developing a full proof automated delivery system that allows constant monitoring. However, it comes with its share of risks which include its failure to reach out to the patients at a broader level. Its use is to monitor the glucose level with a pump for delivery of insulin in the right manner. This will eliminate the need for those who are suffering to test and manage their insulin levels by themselves.
For instance, in the year 2016, Ochsner Health Systems provided its hypertensive patients with wireless blood pressure cuffs. This resulted in better control of hypertension of patients as this device successfully allows secure transmission of data to the medical experts.

6. Payer-Provider Analysis and Software

Claiming insurance money for treatment has always been a very tiresome process. It comes at the cost of disrupting the mental peace of patients who don’t have enough time to indulge in various complicated paper formalities. Such situations can lead to bitter experiences in case of emergencies in case the person fails to arrange the money needed for treatment and recovery.
Hence, bridging this chasm is the need of an hour for the healthcare industry.
Innovation in the field of healthcare has helped increase the efficiency of insurance companies as they can now quickly access data about the patient as well as reliable service providers.

This benefits both the payer and the provider because they no longer have to be dependent on online reviews like Google and Yelp. With factual data and detailed information, one can be assured of connecting with the right provider. The easy access to in-depth analysis has helped to evaluate the credibility of providers in the market. The information is more reliable as compared to hard facts. The ultimate goal is to improve safety for individual patients and improve the quality of care. The coordinator between the patient and the specialist will have all the information about the specialist, ranging from experience, affiliations, and network to even the proximity with the patient. The coordinator can now even rank the specialist for further reference.
Referral MD is one such carrier that provides complete analytics and referrals to enhance workflow and optimize the decision-making process in the healthcare system.
One such instance is the successful partnership between Granite Health and Cigna. Both have claimed improvement in their cost scores and quality which can be attributed to process improvement for providers and payers.
Some of the significant changes that occurred after this development:
Advanced imaging was shifted down to 7%.
Medical costs were recorded to be 1.2% lower.
ED was measured 4% lower.

7. Non-Invasive Diabetes Monitoring

People with diabetes need to regularly check their blood glucose levels to keep track of the fluctuating levels and the prescribed medications to use. This monitoring is usually done with a finger prick blood test. Undoubtedly, this test is very much accurate, but at the same time, it can turn out to be pretty inconvenient and messy. Also, many patients feel that they are unable to test themselves as frequently as they should be. Hence, a pain-free, non-invasive and straightforward method can work as a significant improvement in diabetes care. Some of the advantages of this useful technique are:

• Continuous glucose monitoring can indicate the direction and magnitude of change in glucose levels
• Enhanced metabolic control
• Improved quality of life due to reduced hypoglycemic levels.

8. Gene Therapy for Inherited Retinal Diseases

While children share their parents’ genes, they also inherit diseases by default. Scientists are now developing technologies that would directly treat the genes of the parents so that the child does not inherit these diseases and leads a healthier life. There are very few cases of inherited retinal diseases, but there is extensive research going on for the specific genetic etiology that might restore vision loss in patients. This technology can treat retinal diseases caused by biallelic RPE65 mutations.

9. 5G Mobile Technology

With increased dependence on online methods to reach out to doctors, there has been a dire need for 5G network technology. 5G mobile speed holds the potential to enhance hyper-connectivity which can ultimately lead to quick service. This technology also paves its way into your virtual world, wherein you don’t have to travel to meet the doctor. Reaching out to the doctor online can thus become easier. All he will do is analyze your condition and provide a personalized solution immediately. These are some of the advantages of 5G network technology on healthcare market:

• Effective and efficient handling of patient’s data
• Offers an opportunity to gather all networks on one single interface
• Extensive broadcasting data can support more than 60k connections
• Uniform, consistent and uninterrupted connectivity across the world
• Eliminates the need for physical presence of the doctors
• Easy and comfortable treatment for patients who are located in remotest parts of the globe

For instance, recently, Nokia was involved in a multi-partner research project with Oulu University Hospital which is situated in Finland. Its motive is to convert it into a 5G hospital to test and develop advanced healthcare use cases.

10. Big Data Analytics

Big Data has changed the way we can leverage, analyze and manage data in the healthcare industry. It holds immense potential to predict outbreaks of epidemics, reduce costs of treatment, improve quality of life and more.
Its applications which can be adopted in the healthcare industry are:
• Patients predictions for improved staffing:
One of the biggest challenges which are faced by the healthcare sector revolves around availability of staff to manage the patients. If there will be too many workers, then the hospital will have to bear unnecessary labor cost. At the same time, also few workers can profoundly impact the customer service outcomes. In such cases, big data can help to solve the problem where data can be analyzed to come up with hourly predictions of the number of patients which can be expected at each hospital.
Using “time series analysis” techniques, one can use machine learning to predict future admissions trends. Hence, big data can be used to reduce waiting time for the patients and ensuring better healthcare facilities.

• Electronic Health Records:
It is one of the most sought-after applications of big data in medicine. Every patient has its digital record which includes detailed information relating to medical history, allergies, demographics, laboratory test results and more. Doctors can implement new changes without paperwork procedures and data replication.

• Enhanced Security and Reduced Frauds:
According to studies, the healthcare sector is most vulnerable to data breaches than any other industry. It is 200% more likely to suffer significant consequences. As personal data is precious, organizations have now started using analytics to prevent security threats by identifying changes in network traffic or reflecting on other suspicious activities like a cyber-attack.

The Advantages of Innovation:

• Digitization of Data Records:
Proper maintenance of data is essential for the smooth functioning of healthcare industries. From filling patient treatment histories to analyzing diagnostic reports, healthcare facilities need to maintain plenty of records. Thus, the introduction of Electronic Health Records has brought about a positive change in eliminating paperwork. It has been a game changer for healthcare professionals as everything can now be managed through a centralized digital system. Input information relating to a patient’s weight, vital symptoms, and test results can now easily be tracked on a single interface. Apart from that, scheduling appointments, submitting medical claims, updating patient records with diagnostic codes have become more comfortable with digitalization.
• Increased Efficiency and Easier Workflow:
Managing things in an organized and systematic manner becomes hassle free with feeding data into a computerized system. It is less time consuming and leads to increased efficiency due to the replacement of paper-based methods. Also, it reduces the risk of human errors while maintaining financial details and patient data.
• Lower Healthcare Costs:
The transition to electronic health records has the potential to reduce the cost by 3%. According to the researchers, this can lead to savings of up to$5.14 per patient each year.
• Better Treatment Options:
New technology has helped to provide new machinery and equipment and improved medicines which has, in turn, led to the improvement of the quality of life of people.
• Improved Communication:
It can be challenging to get in touch with doctors due to busy schedules and limited timings. Technological advancements have facilitated in bridging this chasm between doctors and patients. Some of the exclusive options like translation software allow easy conversion of a doctor’s spoken words into another language. Also, social networks provide a collaborative platform for doctors who can easily interact with each other. This increased communication has helped the industry in a significant manner.
• Remote Monitoring:
It allows patients to access the records from the comfort of their homes. Usage of home monitoring systems can help to save a lot of cost and time associated with frequent visits to hospitals for regular check-ups. This specially designed device allows doctors to detect specific medical issues with the patients. Also, this device enables health specialists to analyze data of their patients and forewarn them in case something doesn’t seem right.

Concluding View

Healthcare industry holds the potential to grow leaps and bounds. The need of the hour is effective and proper utilization of available technological resources to bring about that positive change. These are some of the baby steps which have been taken to enhance the overall functioning of this promising industry. Due to improved connectivity through consumer demand and mobile technology, the healthcare sector is touching new heights every single day.
Statistics state that about 90% of the healthcare executives are investing in building telehealth programs for the overall well-being of their patients. Also, these innovations are exponentially on a rise as distance health technologies are becoming popular with time.
The ultimate aim is to provide personalized services to patients in a hassle-free manner.
Hence, in a nutshell, innovation in the healthcare sector can be a blessing in disguise as it can easily displace traditional practices which are becoming obsolete in this changing world. Apart from that, the need of the hour is to adopt rigorous evaluation methods to find new ways of incorporating technology in healthcare. Evolution is necessary to meet with the increasing requirements of patients. Thus implementing these solutions is integral to the workings of the healthcare sector.

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