Digital transformation in healthcare heralds a patient-focused approach in healthcare. It will help healthcare providers streamline operations, understand patients' needs, build loyalty and trust and offer a better user experience. It will reimagine how healthcare practices operate and help them to deliver greater value to patients. Transformative changes in healthcare will mean shifting from volume-based care to value-based care by focusing on the patient's perspective instead of that of the provider or the healthcare system.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated disruptive changes in the healthcare industry. The traditionally paper-intensive healthcare processes are proving inadequate in the new normal—the general public has switched to digital channels for information, payments and communication. Patients expect high-quality care that is more efficient, and accessible than what was available to them earlier. These demands are compelling healthcare institutions to adopt digital technologies that drastically change the current healthcare models, streamline business processes, and improve patient experiences.

How digital transformation in healthcare benefits patients and medical practices

Digital transformation will increase the capacity and scalability of healthcare institutions, improve their cost-efficiency and maintain interoperability in health records.

• The adoption of AI-driven communication channels such as chatbots will reduce the cost of patient interactions and query resolution.

• Digital technologies like VR will expand virtual care to overcome constraints such as time and place and help patients and medical practitioners interact beyond geographical boundaries.

• Expansion through virtual care and increased cost efficiencies in interacting with large volumes of patients will help healthcare providers scale quickly and cost-efficiently.

• Digitization and automation enhance the accuracy of health records and improve operational efficiency. 

• Electronic health records and other digital technologies make data portable and shareable across different healthcare operators and interoperable across different systems.

According to the National Health Expenditure Fact Sheet, national healthcare spending is projected to reach 6.2 trillion dollars by 2028, growing at an annual rate of 5.4% during 2019-28. The national health expenditure is projected to grow 1.1 faster than the GDP. Its share in the economy is projected to rise from 17.7% to 19.7% in 2028. 

Despite its growing market size, the healthcare industry has lagged behind other industries in implementing digital strategies. A recent survey showed that only 7% of healthcare and pharmaceutical companies had gone digital, a minuscule number compared to companies in other industries. 

Trends in emerging technologies that have impacted the healthcare industry

Universal electronic medical health records

For a long time, health officials have been trying to solve the problem of fragmented medical records. An electronic health record (EHR) is essentially the digital version of a medical chart. It includes everything from a patient's medical history and diagnosis to treatment plans, immunization dates, and test results. It also contains their personal information such as a home address, previous and current workplaces, and financial information like bank details and credit card numbers. Currently, medical data is being recorded in unstructured formats and stretched in a fragmented manner across multiple EHR systems. Short-staffed doctors and nurses struggle to record every piece of medical information manually. As a result, accurate and updated patient information may not be available across departments or different institutions. Lapses and errors in medical records are dangerous and could result in misdiagnosis, delayed treatments, and a negative experience for the patient.

Health in the palm of your hand

The healthcare system is undergoing extensive changes in how information is gathered and disseminated. Earlier, doctors held all medical information in their custody, and patients had to physically meet them and obtain access to their own medical records. However, consumers now want to access their health records whenever they need them and do so from the palm of their hand. With digital tools such as EHRs, online patient portals and various mobile apps that provide medical test results, diagnoses and explanations of illnesses, patients are now participating in their own wellbeing. When other doctors and healthcare institutions have full access to a patient's past medical history, it allows them to analyze patients in real-time, provide a higher quality of care, better patient outcomes and an overall better patient experience. Thus, digital technology is proving to be a valuable tool in healthcare.

Technology enhances patient care

Emerging technologies like Big Data & Analytics can provide a predictive aspect to healthcare services. Big Data aggregates data from social media, e-commerce transactions and financial transactions and identifies patterns and trends for future use. In the healthcare industry, it provides benefits like a lower rate of medication errors, facilitating preventive care and more accurate staffing. In addition, analytics experts can crunch the data to identify weaknesses and help companies understand the market better.

Technology is now available to leverage AI in treating patients, using virtual reality (VR) for remote diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring. All these emerging technologies help enhance the level of patient care. Importantly they help maintain the standards of patient care even when the patient switches service providers.

Medical practitioners need to evaluate patients' historical information to make an accurate diagnosis and recommend the best treatment options. Healthcare service providers need complete information about the patient via factually updated EHRs or digital records. It is mission-critical to digitize and aggregate all unstructured data sources like blood reports, X-rays, CT films, doctor reports, and even emails to make the electronic record comprehensive and relevant in real-time.

RDS deploys digital technologies to transform patient care processes

Revolution Data Systems (RDS) offers digitally transformative technologies and a range of services to transform the patient experience and improve the quality of care. 

Medical records scanning

RDS provides specialized high-speed medical records scanning services. Digitizing health records helps hospitals, clinics and healthcare service companies add paper-based patient charts to EMRs and integrate them into various EHR or HIM systems while ensuring HIPAA compliance.

Automated data extraction

OpenText Intelligent Capture is a platform that uses advanced machine learning to sort and classify all your medical documents. It automatically extracts key data points from unstructured data sources, improving the speed, accuracy, and cost of digitizing health records.

Content management system

OpenText AppEnhancer is an industry-leading content management solution capable of handling high volumes of healthcare documents and patient data. AE can be deployed on the cloud and on-premises and has a network of trusted partners to maintain and support installations of AE.

Process automation

Transform patient experience and create efficiencies to enhance patient care using the Intelligent Process Automation. It leverages artificial intelligence (AI), integrating it with existing ERP or HIM systems to improve process efficiency.

In conclusion

Talk to RDS to transform your healthcare institution with industry-compliant medical records digitization solutions. Talk to our expert OpenText consultants to get the best support for healthcare technology applications, digitize processes, and enhance patient care and the patient experience in your healthcare organization.

Connect with RDS to start your digital transformation in healthcare today.