Benefits of Digital Transformation in Healthcare

What was once a buzzword, is now an imperative. Digital transformation is ready to reshape the way healthcare is built and delivered. It stems from the idea that there’s a lot of trapped value. An analytical, personalized, and value-driven digital transformation can overhaul the system towards more efficiency, better patient care, and higher profits. The outdated siloed and slow legacy systems will make way for a modernized, agile, and resilient framework.

A regional health provider achieved 2% to 7% reduction in avoidable hospital readmissions from implementing remote patient monitoring and at-home devices — Deloitte

The ROI is poised to be huge. These human-centered digital investments will reap substantial rewards that enhance operational efficiency, reinforce customer loyalty, and build a competitive edge. It’s just a matter of making a compelling business case for it. From stakeholders to patients, caregivers, clinicians, and more, all are set to realize better experiences from a multifaceted and omnichannel digital transformation. Let’s find out how.

10 Benefits of Digital Transformation in Healthcare

Operational Efficiency

A digital transformation will automate repetitive, laborious, and error-ridden work in healthcare. Clinicians won’t have to make patient notes manually or spend time filling up spreadsheets and docs. Workers won’t be occupied with claims processing, patient scheduling, and inventory management. All these wasteful activities will be left to RPA, AI, and ML-driven apps, creating efficiency, saving time, improving patient relationships, and reducing administrative overhead.

Data Security and Compliance

Record keeping of sensitive health information in sync with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulatory standard in the United States is more seamless now. From access control to multi-factor authentication (MFA), End-to-End Encryption, Transport Layer Security (TSL), audit trails, and more, health facilities can exercise better control, traceability, and accountability of the data warehouses. All this reduces the risk of data breaches and ensures more transparency during compliance checks.

Personalized healthcare services

New-age healthcare is all about personalized services that are in sync with the patient’s genetic makeup, lifestyle, and medical history. Healthcare providers can leverage AI and ML algorithms and data modeling to analyze big data such as electronic health records (EHRs) and wearable device readings to provide actionable, bespoke, and near real-time treatment plans. Targeted therapies lead to early diagnosis, lower adverse drug reactions, increased efficacy, and disease prevention — resulting in improved patient engagement and satisfaction.

Seamless data exchange

Cloud-based collaboration environments and secure messaging platforms have made it easier to create and transfer patient data (EHR) in real-time across hospitals, clinics, labs, etc. They can easily do so across disparate systems, devices, and applications that are secure and compliant with HIE, HL7, and FHIR protocols, ensuring critical patient information is accessible regardless of location. No more sending sensitive files over WhatsApp, Telegram, and emails. This enhances rapid coordination and clinical decision-making between multidisciplinary teams.

Remote Patient Monitoring

Wearable watches, smart glucometers, ECG patches, and continuous blood pressure monitors have revolutionized Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM). It is possible to continuously track health vitals like heart rate variability and oxygen saturation round-the-clock for expert immediate intervention and transmission to centralized EHR systems. Early detection reduces hospital readmissions and emergency escalations. AI, 5G connectivity, anomaly detection algorithms, IoT sensors, analytics, etc., make it possible to catch red flags and expedite clinical interventions.

Telemedicine

Online video calls, chat support, forum discussions, virtual appointments, etc. all fall under the gamut of telemedicine, and guess what it makes healthcare services more accessible in the interior and rural areas. Patients can connect with a doctor through HIPAA-compliant telehealth portals for medication management and simple follow-ups. Most native mobile apps can facilitate this service, making healthcare access and support more reachable. Book an appointment and a doctor will see you in 15 minutes at any time. The result, fewer offline visits and less crowds at the centers.

Faster Emergency Response

Any offset on the vitals of critical patients on their real-time telemetry feeds can send notifications leading to paramedics and first responders responding immediately. No more relying on support nurses to ring it in. AI-powered IoT wearables with analytics and 5G connectivity can monitor data 24/7. Simple rules configured in them can track and transmit data in real-time and serve as decision-support systems. From cardiac arrests to strokes and trauma cases, all the risky patients can be attended to on a priority basis — improving survival rates.

ML-Powered Diagnostics

Advanced ML models leveraging pattern recognition algorithms and neural networks trained on vast datasets can detect abnormalities faster, overlooked in traditional diagnostics. Early and accurate identification of benign tumors, fractures, and pulmonary diseases, reduces the likelihood of metamorphosis and misdiagnosis. Catching disease markers in X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans for cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and cardiovascular disorders proves cost-effective and time-efficient. Further, it can analyze biometrics, lab results, and EHR data to forecast disease progression and identify drug interactions.

Improved Decision Making

Healthcare professionals get speedy one-click real-time access to actionable insights about their patients from their EHR data, lab reports, medical imaging, and other documents on the Cloud. They run AI, ML, and analytics to identify patterns & anomalies and craft a tailored treatment plan — minimizing diagnostic errors and enabling timely interventions. They can also view disease progression, medication reactions, and likely complications for proactive care. Further, they can access peer-reviewed studies, research papers, and the latest medical guidelines sooner.

Cost Savings

Digital initiatives that radically reimagine business processes, better decision-making, better customer delivery, improve connectivity with external stakeholders, and offer more advanced data-driven innovations can transform a healthcare provider’s financial backbone. From reducing overhead expenses to making administrative services more affordable, a digital transformation in healthcare could decrease spending. For instance, remote monitoring and virtual visits could decrease in-person consultations, lowering fuel, food, and wage costs.

Final Thoughts: Digital Transformation in Healthcare

Healthcare providers are slowly waking up to a more connected and data-driven ecosystem where AI, RPA, Analytics, and ML could deliver measurable value across the board. They know that the underlying benefits of digital transformation in healthcare will reshape how the services are delivered, accessed, and optimized. It’s just a matter of embracing technologies to make these services more personalized, proactive, patient-centric, and efficient.

Most survey respondents of a multipronged research are hoping to achieve better patient experience (92%) as the top desired outcome from digital transformation — Deloitte

If you want to future-proof your healthcare ecosystem and make it more scalable, seamless, accurate, and cost-effective, connect with Altumind. Our experts carry in-depth industry knowledge and can personalize solutions for a more robust and data-driven ecosystem. From IoT to Cloud and Analytics, we’ll get you up and running on all fronts in this digital world. Work with Altumind to innovate and expedite your operations for sustained growth and improved patient care.