The impact of the Pandemic has been massive all over the world and most importantly resulted in the loss of lives of several humans who would have lived a much longer life if not for Covid-19. The healthcare industry has been turned upside down in most countries to fight against this pandemic which has been prolonged and caused resources depletion in many healthcare facilities all over the world.  In some countries where the healthcare structure is not highly flexible and strong have felt the wrath of covid to a larger extent. The pandemic has also made the healthcare industry much stronger and induced wisdom to understand what are the most important aspects which need to be more focused on.

Just because there was a large pressure on healthcare resources the demand for modern IT advancements had increased by a lot. This is the first time when every type of healthcare information technology have been in demand and every sector of the healthcare innovation available are being used in all healthcare establishments for providing the best treatment to all patients in the most efficient way possible.

Experts in the IT healthcare industry along with the professionals in healthcare administration do suggest that this demand and change of dynamics in the medical industry is going to stay even after the pandemic is finished towards the end. Many industries have declined in sales figures and equity over the past two years of covid but the division of IT which deals with modern technologies of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, IoT and Telehealth software have got record sales figures which show constant demand of working for new healthcare organizations.

The advanced IT systems in healthcare which made Telehealth and Telemedicine possible had helped in a more distributive and efficient treatment of patients when the hospital bed ratio proportion was unstable due to the huge number of patient’s coming in every hour. Several hospitals and the government had to establish makeshift hospitals and nursing homes for patient management and the patients who stayed in home isolation were often treated through Telehealth and Telemedicine Systems. The healthcare requirements based on which different innovations were structured have changed a lot due to the Pandemic of covid-19.

It has been witnessed across the globe for healthcare and medical facilities that dependence on advanced technology should be proudly increased as it only makes the medical facilities stronger and efficient in patient service. This is absolutely true that the Pandemic has put the healthcare industry under a huge demand but the medical institutions have managed it much better than anticipated and this has been possible due to the innovative IT technologies.

During an epidemic or pandemic, effective public communication becomes a colossal aspect in controlling and managing the disease. Active community cooperation and community education need to be highly focused on which has been possible due to the advanced digital mediums and IT innovations. The digital communication platforms have been the most impactful during the covid-19 pandemic and have played a huge role in keeping stability in people’s lives. Many digital innovations have also been possible due to the new shape the human lives have been taking and the necessary demands which have been arising.

The remote monitoring technologies from the Healthcare IT industry

 The covid-19 pandemic has led to the demand for remotely operating and contactless technologies which the Healthcare IT industry has been constantly trying to fulfil. These qualities will be maintained in various innovations building up in the IT industry and healthcare equipment technology. The remote patient monitoring tools also known as RPM technology is being abundantly used in many countries but still has lots of room for development and innovations. The modern RPM is based on automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning which are all supremely smart technologies and have human-like capabilities.

The majority of healthcare facilities align with government medical facilities are investing in patient monitoring which can be operated remotely. During the covid-19 pandemic, this situation has arisen many times that there has been a shortage of healthcare workers because they have been in isolation themselves after getting infected by the virus. This had led to a shortage of medical staff in many regions at the rise of new virus strains.

The world has witnessed the use of advanced technology in these situations where patients have got remote treatment with the help of AI studied case history and lab test data. Remotely operated machines have been used in the treatment of several patients from whom there were chances of high exposure to nurses and doctors. Actual robots have acted as nurses in many situations and attended to care of infected patients and have also been used as the video conferencing medium of the hospitalized patients and the doctors treating from outside the glass room or from any other isolated point.

The normal OPD departments are not functioning in the way they used to before the covid-19 pandemic started. Most doctors have limited the patient visits to the ones absolutely necessary and are opting for treatment of the others by the innovative IT technologies of Telehealth software and equipment setup. There have been various detection and monitoring equipment being used during the pandemic which was not so popular and developed before the span of the covid-19 pandemic. The use of thermal detection guns, smart sanitizing tunnels and non-human collection of patient’s vitals are a few of the remotely operated advanced healthcare technologies which are being further developed by several IT companies who deal with healthcare systems and end products.

 Patients are also being empowered with sophisticated IT gadgets which are able to monitor the patient’s vitals in real-time and let the doctors check the data from any remote location. The technologies are also capable of alerting the doctors if there are changes in one of the patient vitals that should be getting attention. Some of these IT empowered gadgets are so powerful that they can find the vulnerability of a person who might be exposed to the virus or some similar diseases.

The use of these modern IT innovations has reduced the infectivity rate and are highly supported by the government in keeping the Healthcare system properly functional and non-disrupted by the long term exposure of doctors and nurses. Some equipment is being vigorously worked upon to develop a more simplistic model that can be operated even by patients who might be in isolation to collect or send crucial data to their doctors.

Requirement driven innovation and early detection benefits 

The diseases like covid can have very trivial symptoms that if taken seriously can be identified early on for having the best chances of getting cured in a very short time. There are other diseases that have the same criteria of internal damage and are best if detected early on. The modern innovative technological systems can actually save lives by detecting this kind of disease in the body early on by intense analysis of daily vitals. Several US and UK based healthcare IT startups are working on coming up with innovative technologies to develop new identification and treatment procedures.

 The startup called Breath Research has been developing a dual-sensor spirometer that is capable of providing vital statistics on the condition of a person’s pulmonary system. By using a pulmonary test that takes only a minute it might be possible to know whether someone has been exposed to a virus-like covid or not. This spirometer can also be used during the treatment of a patient as well to check on the improvements in the pulmonary system. This can help in remote treatment, better time management for medical staff and better non-contact treatment deliverance.

As these smart systems are also able to record data, the mass data can be used in forming important statistical reports about the detailed effect of the disease. The healthcare company called Tahmo has developed a wearable device that acts as a smart thermometer that is capable of sending the vitals of the person to another wireless medium where doctors and nurses will have easy access. This device has been made capable of compensating the body’s suppression effect of signals.

The viruses like covid are so versatile that they can survive on different surfaces for many days with the same capacity of spreading infections. This has made the doctor’s offices, nursing homes, hospitals and even the testing facilities are much susceptible to infection spreading. This has led to every medical facility functioning differently than it used to and having a more contactless format of diagnosis and treatment. To reduce the spread of viruses many healthcare IT companies are creating platforms that allow easeful processes of treatment and keep the medical facilities safe from easy infections.

 The company named Navimize has developed a system that is responsible for alerting the patient’s with time slots and notifying them if there is any kind of delay from the doctor’s end. This eliminates the gathering which happens in the waiting room area of doctor’s chambers and thus reduces the spread of infection in the doctor’s office. The company named Yosi Health has introduced a system for early registration of patients and putting them in an orderly queue and providing the patients with the ideal time of visit. This is the kind of innovation that is shaping during this covid pandemic and is going to boost further inventions from IT healthcare industries that will be perfect fits for tackling situations like the covid-19 pandemic.

Endnote on Healthcare IT innovations

Patients are mostly adjusting well to the new structures of treatment and do understand the benefits that come along with the modern systems of technology. But experts do suggest after extensive analysis that the healthcare technologies are not being utilized efficiently as they should have been in all fragments of medical facilities in the leading countries. The digital-first clinics, RTM and the basic telehealth opportunities should be the sectors that should have the most innovative inventions and systems being introduced to develop a stronger and versatile medical industry all around the world.