The healthcare industry has not been very welcoming to digital transformation before the pandemic. In 2020 with COVID-19 impacting industries worldwide, health care was hit by a storm due to the lack of digital implementation in various industry sectors. With technology being such a part of our lives, it has transformed how we bank, shop, travel, but it is yet to make a significant impact and inroads in the healthcare industry. One cannot deny that implementing a digital transformation in health care will be the building block for a more patient-focused approach in the industry. 

Digital Transformation will allow health care service providers to streamline operations, build loyalty and trust, understand what the patient needs more, and offer a better user experience. Having a digital transformation in health care for a business owner can be overwhelming. Deciding between the emerging technology worth investing in and getting investors on board and the team to accept the change can be challenging. Adapting to the ever-changing trend and the digital era requires a shift towards a risk-taking mindset and flexibility. 

Before we dive into the different ways digital transformation is revolutionizing the healthcare industry, we will discuss why digital transformation will positively impact the healthcare industry. 

Why will digital transformation in the healthcare industry have a positive impact? 

Artificial Intelligence enabled medical devices, blockchain electronic health records of the patients, and telemedicine are a few concrete examples of how implementing digital transformation in health care has reshaped how we interact with the health care professionals, how patient data is shared, and how professionals make treatment plans and health comes. 

The purpose of digital transformation in the healthcare industry will enable health care business owners and professionals to streamline physicians’ work, optimizing systems, reducing human errors, lowering costs by seamless mobile and web experiences, and improving overall patient outcomes. 

Unfortunately, the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries have been lagging beside in implementing digital strategies that will multiply the industry’s real productivity. To develop a comprehensive digital plan that will help your business thrive in 2021, you need to have a current healthcare landscape situation. Applying digital strategies effectively will allow patients to get better treatment with virtual reality tools, telehealth, and wearable medical devices. It will help doctors streamline their workflow using systems powered by artificial intelligence. 

Here are five ways digital transformation is revolutionizing the healthcare industry: 

1. Telemedicine: Patients always struggle with scheduling their appointments at the doctor’s clinic or the hospital. After the tests are done, it takes days to schedule another appointment to visit the doctor. But with the implementation of an effective digital strategy, this will be regarded as a bygone era. Telemedicine is one of the many innovative solutions for transforming how patients are currently interacting with healthcare professionals. 

This is one of the most significant evolutions in the healthcare market around the globe, and it has been emerging rigorously in many places. In a survey, it has been found that 90% of the health care service facilities have implemented or are integrating telemedicine in their system. Having an efficient telehealth technology implemented in your business will make it easy for a patient to schedule their appointments with a doctor of their choice. It makes it easy for doctors to manage patients with high risk and track their activities and conditions remotely. 

2. Big Data Saving in Health Care: Big data turns the table when it comes to analyze, manage, and leverage industries. Health care is a promising industry for ample data storage to prevent avoidable diseases, reduce treatment costs, enhance life quality, and forecast outbreaks of epidemics. This will allow health care professionals to store massive amounts of data and have positive life-saving outcomes. 

3.  Introducing the Internet of Things: Before introducing the internet of things, patient and doctor interactions were limited to physical visits, and health care service providers had no ways to track patient health continuously. Introducing the internet of things in health care has facilitated remote monitoring in the healthcare industry. It has unlocked doctors’ potential to remotely track their patient health from any corner of the world and take action accordingly. It has made doctor-patient interactions easier and more interactive and has improved patient engagement and satisfaction. It has significantly impacted the duration of stay in the hospitals and readmissions of patients. The Internet of things has successfully remodeled the healthcare industry by providing healthcare solutions at the click of a button. 

4. Using Artificial Intelligence: Artificial intelligence has made it easy for hospital admin staff, patients, doctors to do tasks easily with lower costs and less time. To drive surgery assistant robots to find links between genetic codes, conducting risk assessments, surveying chronic diseases, artificial intelligence in revitalizing and reinventing modern healthcare facilities to predict, comprehend, learn, and act through machines. It provides massive benefits over traditional analytics and clinical decision making. It has allowed health care professionals to gain unprecedented knowledge and insights into care processes, patient outcomes, treatment variability, and diagnostics. 

5. Virtual Reality: Virtual Reality has existed for years; however, its use in the healthcare industry was far beyond imagination until the recent past. VR uses 3D imaging, and the healthcare industry has adopted this technology to provide better care to patients. It is still in its early stages and has not yet been fully used. But the idea of virtual reality in the healthcare industry seems promising from medical rooms to clinics, virtual reality is exploding and is expected only to grow. The healthcare industry was not aware of the uses of VR until it started to realize where it can be used and the challenges that it nullifies. 

Final Thoughts: 

Digital Transformation in the healthcare industry is an ever-changing, emerging, and ongoing process. To drive innovation through the implementation of digital strategies, you need to think beyond technology. You can implement any technology mentioned above to deliver better patient care and consult healthcare software professionals who have expertise in the various technologies.