In a global pandemic such as COVID-19, technology, artificial intelligence, and data science have become critical allies in helping societies deal effectively with ramifications of an outbreak. There are smart devices that help diagnose fevers in communities, antimicrobial textiles that help destroy bacteria on hospital gowns and scrubs, drones and chatbots to help with delivery and anxiety from the disease, and AI – powered technologies that help with the diagnostic process. This entrepreneur made a DIY ventilator. Blockchain has helped streamline medical supply chains, preventing contaminated items from reaching stores. The impact of a pandemic severely affects clinical and physician areas of healthcare. But the impact doesn’t stop there as it also impacts the business side of healthcare with a surge of patients, new regulations and billing requirements, closed offices, rescheduled appointments, changing staff schedules and callouts, inundated facilities of care, and so much more.
As cases of COVID-19 increase, it is great to see the increased utilization of online and telehealth services. This has been an eye-opener for how we can quickly and effectively deliver care through alternate methods, and one (we hope) that remains in effect after the virus subsides. In addition, mental health has received a boost from companies like Headspace and Calm. Anxiety levels are through the roof, so it’s good to know there are apps that can help with sleep, meditation, and mental stress. The World Health Organization recommends, “gather information at regular intervals, from the WHO website and local health authorities platforms, in order to help you distinguish facts from rumors. Facts can help to minimize fears.” It’s important to balance the news with activities that promote well-being like meditation, exercise, and music.
Other technologies are working behind the scenes to help hospitals, health systems, and patients deal with the ramifications of this pandemic. The focus is on consistent, automated, and standardized data collection, because data sharing and upholding privacy concerns is a paramount concern in combating this pandemic. Technologies like tokenization work to create a partnership between patients and their providers, which can lead to better outcomes. By placing patients in control of their complete medical data, instead of having it scattered through multiple health systems and electronic medical record databases, providers can quickly and reliably learn valuable information about the patient from a central source.
Examples of customers using automation to respond to drastic shifts in demand include lab testing. Through use of automation, labs and staff are able to automate portions of handheld and batch processing, speeding send-outs and results even as demand spikes. Automation is also used to access and evaluate patient data to see if a patient is in the EHR, record the lab results, and send them to the local lab or CDC. While it takes a human 4-5 minutes to complete for each patient, automation can execute this in seconds.
Digital health has flexed its muscles during this time of uncertainty. Our digital health solutions were built for this.
Automation can also handle rapidly changing clinical, laboratory, and billing regulations and responses much faster than EMR vendors, which may not be able to push updates until their next release. In HR, the processing of forms, sick leave, and PTO can be a time-consuming process made easier and 90% more efficient with automation. Response center and clinical dashboards, productivity reporting, gathering and updating critical information in multiple disparate sources are all great uses of automation during this crisis. And scalability is simple. Automation and RPA solutions can be up and running within 2-4 weeks, sometimes as little as 72 hours, providing a digital workforce that is not exposed to illness, alleviating hours of manual or human interaction, and allowing staff to focus on what matters most: taking care of sick patients.