Future of Healthcare

Reimagining Women’s Healthcare: HealthTech’s Transformative Thread in Healthcare Systems

Have you ever seen a tapestry? A textile art created with an exquisite fusion of colourful threads interlaced with meticulous precision. Now, imagine a tapestry in which each strand portrays distinct facets of women’s healthcare – access to care, the influence of socio-economic factors, the impact of community healthcare practices, and disheartening realities of disparities in medical research and treatment. Also, view the delicate nature of tapestry as a symbol of their intricate health needs, which often stay overlooked or undervalued. However, just as a tapestry regains strength with care, attention, and collaboration, is our healthcare system correctly navigating the multifaceted challenges faced by women in the country? Let’s find out.

In India today, access to care has seen improvement through various government and independent organisation initiatives. However, socio-economic factors continue to cast shadows, creating financial barriers that limit women’s ability to receive the necessary care they need. Despite advancements in medical technology, women often find themselves marginalised within healthcare systems due to factors such as tech illiteracy, geographical remoteness, and entrenched community beliefs. This highlights the crucial understanding that long-term healthcare challenges cannot be solely addressed by technology-driven solutions alone. One notable example is the ‘JEEVAN BINDI’ initiative, which specifically targets rural areas in north-west Maharashtra to tackle iodine deficiency among women. Notably, such programs not only address nutrient deficiencies, but also shed light on related health concerns like Goitre, Breast Cancer, and Fibroids prevalent in these rural communities. However, the sustained success of such initiatives relies on continuous monitoring and regular patient follow-ups to ensure enduring positive outcomes.

The Way Forward with Assisted-Telemedicine & Real-time Diagnostics

According to the National Iodine Deficiency Disorders Control Programme – the alarming prevalence of iodine deficiency disorders among over 71 million Indians. Addressing this critical issue requires not only immediate intervention but also long-term monitoring to achieve optimal results. Assisted-telemedicine healthcare units emerge as a promising solution, ensuring that women can receive continuous care even after the conclusion of camps or health shivirs. These innovative platforms enable remote consultations, allowing women to access healthcare services from the comfort of their own homes. Furthermore, these economical, assisted care delivery units can also deliver Real-time Diagnosis Solution via Rapid Test Kits & diagnostic tools and quick referrals for specialised care.

“In the tapestry of women’s health, assisted-telemedicine units weave a lifeline of continuous care.”

In underserved communities, where daily practices are shaped by collective community beliefs, the integration of advanced medical care often progresses at a sluggish pace. Regrettably, this sluggishness extends to the realm of women’s health, where access to comprehensive prenatal and postnatal care is limited, leaving expectant mothers vulnerable to complications that can profoundly impact their mental and physical well-being. Although in the last few years, India witnessed an overall declining maternal mortality ratio, huge disparities still persist between different states.

Fig: Maternal mortality ratio in India from 2017 to 2019, by state (per 100,000 live births) Source – Statista

India has one of the highest maternal mortality ratios (MMRs) and neonatal death rates in the world. And, every year 77 000 women die due to pregnancy complications. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, parents often lack the knowledge and awareness, but the knowledge barrier is not the only concern. Rugged terrain, unpaved roads, lack of transport at the critical hour, poor communications, and poor health infrastructure are also some of the key barriers between pregnant women in remote villages in India and good quality health care.

Integrated EMR systems can ensure seamless information exchange, enabling healthcare providers to access accurate medical histories and make informed decisions, even in remote areas.
Quick diagnostic tests, designed for easy and rapid deployment, can aid in the early detection and management of complications, saving critical time and improving outcomes.
Healthtech platforms can establish telemedicine networks, facilitating remote consultations and enabling doctors to reach patients who are geographically isolated.
EMR and personal health record (PHR) systems can simplify the work of ASHA workers, empowering them to efficiently track and monitor pregnant women’s health, share data with healthcare professionals, and provide targeted interventions.

By harnessing the power of healthtech, India can surmount the barriers of rugged terrain, poor infrastructure, and limited transport options, elevating the reach of healthcare services and potentially saving thousands of lives each year.

HArbor Says:

In the intricate tapestry of women’s healthcare, technology emerges as a crucial thread, weaving together access, empowerment, and improved outcomes. As we navigate the challenges of socio-economic factors, geographic remoteness, and community beliefs, healthtech platforms offer a lifeline of care. By embracing the power of assisted-telemedicine and real-time diagnostics, we empower women to break free from the shackles of limited access. Together, let us stand up for women’s health and unravel a future of equitable care.

By Vishakha Katekhaye

HArbor Says

Healthcare for Everyone: Striving Towards Healthcare Accessibility in Bharat

In matters concerning healthcare accessibility, individuals possess the right to hold their own opinions. Nevertheless, many are unfortunately constrained by inadequate access to healthcare, and their voices often go unheard.

However, HArbor has taken the initiative to bridge this gap by extending a platform for those who must articulate their views for a healthier tomorrow.

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Era of Digitalization in Healthcare: So much done, yet so much left.

Taking only the POSITIVE events into account – COVID-19 PANDEMIC has driven the digital transformation in the healthcare industry. We’ve seen healthcare units extensively adapting the workforce and technologies to mark up with the new-age care delivery standards. But, can we assume the transition to be equally easy for every healthcare stakeholder? In other words, what does the era of digitalization mean to you as a healthcare stakeholder?

As a supernatural fiction writer, H.P. Lovecraft once said – “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” Similarly, the real world is scared of the extent of the digital world and their susceptibility to accept healthtech is no different. Simply put, even if the healthcare stakeholders could surpass the fear of trying something technologically innovative while delivering or receiving medical care, the digital care delivery ecosystem has its own perils, which cannot be left unaddressed being on a global mission to create affordable, acceptable and equitable healthcare for all.

Using technology in hospitals for diagnosis and treatment is not new, but when healthtech tools were introduced to deliver or receive medical care, chaos wasn’t far away. However, a little was done to ease out that crease and it has created a significant divide between the healthtech innovators and its users. A divide which was mostly caused due to the fear of not understanding technology. In other terms, this divide mostly entails stakeholders who are technologically illiterate. In India, despite a constant push towards a deeper penetration of the internet, digital literacy is almost non-existent in rural parts of the country. With almost 60 percent of the rural population still not actively using the internet. Although this population seems comfortable with manual practices, and for them conventional healthcare practices have worked so far. Unfortunately, this group also represents the population whose overall out-of-pocket healthcare expense is off the charts. As they end up spending for unnecessary care facility visits, poor referral systems and lack of definitive diagnostic tests.

Internet literacy index across India in 2021, by category.
Source: Statista

The graph represents digital literacy in India in terms of web accessibility, population’s literacy and more.

The above argument proves that manual to digital care delivery ecosystem shift can be challenging for medicos as well as patients, but a change in perspective can help the stakeholders to create a big difference. Potentially, assisting healthcare practitioners to expand their reach and patients to receive care efficiently. Here’s how?

1. One way to address the challenges in the transition to a digital care delivery ecosystem is to focus on improving digital literacy among healthcare stakeholders. Wherein, assisted healtech technologies like standalone assisted healthcare KIOSK and Diagnostic machines can be deployed to remote locations to provide medical care and educational campaigns. Gradually bridging the gap between ‘Bharat’ and ‘India’.

2. Addressing and eliminating the socioeconomic differences by using equally accessible and equitable healthtech technologies. Also, Collaboration between healthtech innovators, and healthcare providers can play a crucial role in ensuring that digital healthcare solutions are developed and implemented in a way that is effective, safe, and equitable.

3. Taking effective actions towards understanding, what are they worried about, what are their fears, what are they trying to do? If we don’t engage with them that way, it doesn’t matter what technology we use.

The Bling of Smartphone, Fitbands & Advanced Applications!

According to Deloitte’s 2022 Global TMT, the smartphone market is expected to reach 1 billion smartphone users by 2026. However, the roadblock is the lack of solutions for simple smartphones in healthcare, which is a significant challenge in providing healthcare for all. It is essential to have access to healthcare information and services on all types of devices, including simple smartphones, as they are often more accessible and affordable to a broader population. Moreover, Most health apps and wearables are designed in English, which is not the primary language of many Indians. This makes it difficult for them to understand and use the technology effectively.

One possible solution to this problem is to develop mobile healthcare applications that can work on all types of smartphones, including simple smartphones. These applications should be optimised for low-end devices and slow network connections, making them accessible to a wider range of users. They could be developed using technologies that require minimal storage and processing power. HealthTech solutions that can provide healthcare information(Patient records, Prescriptions and appointment notifications through downloadable formats and SMS.

To Summarise, the processes need to be simple, so that digital literacy can be enhanced!

HArbor Says:

A new age has dawn upon us, and digitalization offers immense opportunities for economic growth, innovation, and social development. However, it is essential to address the challenges of digital skills and literacy to ensure that everyone can participate fully in this digital era.

HArbor is making strides towards a better tomorrow where healthcare is ACCESSIBLE, AFFORDABLE & EQUITABLE for all. Let’s talk, if you can relate to this vision.

https://harborvision.in/contact.html

Vishakha Katekhaye

HArbor Says

Are You Really Upgrading Your Practice or Getting Swayed by FOMO?

In attempts to stay relevant, healthcare professionals have been trying a hundred different things starting with social media awareness reels to listing their practices on aggregators that supposedly are helping patients to find doctors. Truth be told, if care practitioners want to connect with their potential audience via social media magic wagon, it is not a bad idea. But if they have mistaken listing websites as their fairy godmother, sadly the spell will not last long. On the contrary, they might find themselves amidst pointless competition that did not not even exist before the boom of new age aggregators.

However, not all hope is lost, and with the right tech healthcare practitioners still have a chance to upgrade their care practice for the better.

Telemedicine is one of the most compelling fads that has recently surfaced. Undoubtedly, it has played a significant role during COVID, but as a future perspective, its ingenuity is still in question. Let’s take a step back to understand this. According to a study by Nielsen, digital literacy is almost non-existent among more than 90% of India’s population. Although rural India has 352 million internet users, possibly because of low digital literacy, nearly 60% of the rural population is still not actively using the internet. So can a telemedicine tool be enough to reinforce a better primary healthcare ecosystem in the country, especially in rural areas? Evidently, NO!

Now, maybe a mere tech tool may not be efficient to assist medicos in extending their bandwidth, but several successful assisted healthcare models like ICMR-AAROGYASRI, NeHA and VRCs have proven their competence in the past. This implies that an assisted-telemedicine OPD clinic functional in a doctor’s chosen locality has the potential to harbor similar or even better results.

Speaking of the choices, medicos often bow to the fear of staying unnoticed by their potential clients. As a result, they end up registering themselves on several different listing websites without realising the consequences of such a step on their current state of business in the long run. Here are all the more reasons adding up to the disadvantages of listing practices on websites –

Listing a business can involve additional costs such as paying for a listing or advertising and the cost of maintaining the listing.
Conflict of interest, as it must show the paid listings higher than the better-rated listings.
Listing a business creates unnecessary competition among doctors, especially when the world doesn’t have enough doctors to treat everyone. As a result, one may find their patients swayed by premium account holders with dashing profiles.
Listing a business can subject doctors to additional legal and regulatory requirements, such as providing certain information to patients or adhering to strict advertising guidelines.
Listing a business can put doctors’ personal information at risk from hacking or phishing.

Like other businesses, healthcare is also in the age of personalization. Delivering on the promises of personalization of care, healthcare practices are persistent in their effort to create a holistic ecosystem for patients to tailor care to their unique needs and preferences and in this technology plays a significant role. However, patient-centric care, which is being delivered on the wheels of data analytics is somehow getting in the way of medical data privacy. You see, if healthcare data is exposed to a third party for analytics, it falls under the breach of doctor-patient confidentiality. Moreover, healthcare practices are falling prey to the lure of ‘free’ practice management software which accumulates data through the system’s back door and later auctions it to highest bidders.

Do you know – On the dark web, a complete medical record easily sells for $60. Moreover, in terms of data theft – In 2019, hackers reportedly stole data of 68 lakh patients from an Indian healthcare website allegedly for cancer research.

Even if the data is acquired by the existing loopholes in the systems and if care customization for patients is happening via ‘snooping’ on their private healthcare data, it would still be a theft. Thereby establishing that often the data analytics run to enhance the personalization of patient care in a clinic has more to do with the benefits earned by software sellers than to patients and doctors. The real solution here is to run “case-classified” analytics with anonymized inputs not only to ensure privacy and safety for patients but also to enhance clinical decision making for medicos by building disease patterns. A simple but in depth study that will be based on symptoms, diagnosis and treatment and not the patient’s demographics and personal information.

On the other hand, the tougher challenge for technology is to build an ecosystem to deliver personalised care with better data security, healthcare practitioners can adapt integrated OPD management solutions.

How?

Integrating an OPD management solution with homecare, EMR, and telemedicine can help reduce data theft by providing a secure and centralised platform for storing and managing patient data. By centralising patient data in a single location, it becomes easier to monitor and protect against unauthorised access or breaches. Additionally, integrating EMR and telemedicine can enable healthcare providers to securely access and share patient data remotely, reducing the risk of data breaches that can occur with paper records or unsecured networks. Moreover, OPD management solutions can also include advanced security features such as encryption and role-based access control, which can help protect patient data from unauthorised access.

In addition, it is required to ensure that the OPD management solution being used is compliant with regulations such as HIPAA, which sets standards for protecting patient data.

Being a healthcare practitioner, FOMO can hit you in a million different ways, but it’s crucial to evaluate your healthcare needs before all.

HArbor Says

When value is the key to relevancy, you would want to enhance your care quality with the healthtech solutions that are easy-to-use, break the barriers of low tech-literacy and elevate your patient experience.

Interested to know how? HArbor can help. Let’s talk.

HArbor Says

Telemedicine, Its Challenges And, Their Solutions with HArbor

Using Telemedicine on HArbor’s integrated platform is super easy and can be easily managed without IT support. Moreover, HArbor’s assisted-telemedicine can assist patients to cut down on their costs for in-person and ER visits, thereby proving to be a good investment for medical practitioners.

Today, HealthTech is the only solution for some of the age-old healthcare issues, but we can’t ignore the fact that every technology comes with its own drawbacks. With #Telemedicine picking up the pace of healthcare delivery, here are some of the issues that #medicos face while operating with it.

Here are the major barriers to health integration and how HArbor platform solves the problem.

1. Just a Telemedicine tool, not enough!

TeleMedicine, Its Challenges And, Their Solutions with HArbor

2. Believe it or not, Tech literacy is a thing!

3. Medical Data security is priority!

4. Affordability is the first step to accessibility.

3 Lessons that Every Healthcare Practitioner must know from the Year 2022

Has the COVID-19 pandemic reached an end? Maybe not. But, the reality check experienced by the healthcare systems across the globe since Janauary 2020 is on the centre stage. Significant enough to impact patients’ idea of care delivery, healthcare systems are gradually adapting to this change, and the ‘newfound revolution’ in the healthcare industry may even fill the age-old gaps in medical caregiving.

But the real question is – Are we really stepping towards the long-anticipated healthcare transformation?

Back in the day, when technology was not a substantial part of our lives, healthcare demonstrated a pestle-and-mortar stage of care delivery. From consultation appointments to invoices, everything was super slow and manual. It is one of the prime reasons that has restricted patients from receiving advanced healthcare even in emergencies, let alone visiting a care facility for preventive and palliative care. For them to access healthcare from an equipped medical facility was primarily inaccessible, costly and time-consuming. Imagine – spending dreadful hours in queues for appointments and bill payments while constantly worrying about the cost of care. To be honest, we all have experienced this at some point in our lives. Every year, around 55 million people in India are still grinding on the same slab, distressed over the current healthcare system and worried about their future generations.

This vicious cycle has affected every stakeholder in healthcare, and the nightmare came alive in the last two years, suffered by millions together. So what can we do about it? If you find yourself searching for the answers, lessons from 2022 will guide you to build a better healthcare delivery environment for your patients. And, the road to better healthcare starts with the accessibility of care.

1. If your care services are accessible to patients, it’s half the battle won!

Image Source: worldbank.org

We know primary healthcare professionals function at the forefront of the healthcare system. In India, where maximum care practitioners are functional in cities, the rural and remote populations are still struggling for good quality primary care. With no early detection, chronic disease management, preventive and palliative care, the mortality rates in India are high in response to poor healthcare quality. As evident in a report published by The Lancet- Every year approx. 2.4 million Indians die of treatable conditions, implying that Bharat is not just in need of skilled primary healthcare professionals but a redefined system to connect patients to the medicos.

As impossible as it is for medicos to build a full-fledged infrastructure facility, it is feasible to connect with your patients from different parts of the country via technology. Yes, healthTech. However, in order to benefit the mass population, rural populations need a little more than just Telemedicine. The assisted-telemedicine module is one such advancement that will equip medicos with seamless connectivity while enhancing their patient reach. In addition to this challenge, emergency cases suffer the most.

Patient perspectives: At times, patients with chronic care management and preventative care prefer short-term consultations instead of the recommended long-term treatments. Studies by NCBI have shown that patients often misunderstand their primary doctor’s approach and think they lack the skills to facilitate required medical care. As a result, they end up substituting inaccessible care services with ER services. And, now that the locality’s ER units are all occupied with non-urgent cases, the emergency patients suffer. But, if patients could access primary care at their doorsteps, compounding pressure on emergency room(ER) admissions could be tackled efficiently.

Ever wondered why do patients restrain from reaching out to primary care practitioners in other locations?

While some are under the impression that every healthcare facility is supposed to provide care for all health ailments, for the majority – cost efficiency is the other barrier on the road to care accessibility.

2. Because The Overall Medical Expenditure Matters!

Health expenditure is one of the crucial determinants of health status. It determines a patient’s ability to obtain basic medical facilities, continuity of treatment, and access to preventative and palliative care. According to a BMC report, The average cost per episode of outpatient care is around INR 400 for public providers, INR 586 for informal private providers and INR 2643 for formal for-profit providers. This cost is marginally above almost 55% of households in India. It is no wonder that quality healthcare is a luxury that only a few can afford.

While considering the factors responsible for rising healthcare costs, one can easily conclude that the patients’ needs have evolved, but our healthcare system is still running on wheels from the 90s. And, it is not sustainable at all.

Here are a few ways that can assist you, unburden your patients of the (un)necessary out-of-pocket expenditures.

Facilitate online/in-app appointment scheduling.
Encourage Telemedicine appointments for follow-ups or diagnostic report evaluations.
Opt for standalone-OPD satellite centres with integrated assisted telemedicine and Point-of-care-testing(POCT) in remote locations.
Encourage preventative care plans for your patient to avoid any future chronic ailments.

3. Developing a Sustained Partnership with Patients

With change comes opportunity. The COVID-19 Pandemic phase stimulated just the same response wherein granular levels of responsiveness and interoperability within healthcare departments pushed the slow and careful healthtech adopters towards intuitive and agile healthcare systems. As a result, doctors were seen providing care to patients from anywhere, anytime. Somehow, perfecting the age-old challenge of doctor-patient connectivity.

The doctor-patient relationship plays a crucial role in trust-building and treatment proceedings. However, nurturing this relationship is not as easy as it looks, especially when medicos have just enough time to interact with patients. Today, healthcare practitioners are dealing with mainly 2-sets of patients. It includes tech-savvy patients who prefer technology-mediated care instead of spending hours using conventional care delivery modes. The other kind is comfortable with years-old established healthcare care delivery methods, who are currently paying the price for the outdated system.

The new-age millennials who prefer tech-savvy caregivers are redefining and encouraging a transparent and convenient healthcare delivery. On the other hand, it facilitates the caregivers to connect with their patients efficiently and to convey that their doctor is just a click away. This is as simple as getting a text from your care provider – “ How are you today?” or “Did you confirm your appointment slot for the follow-up session this month?” Moreover, patients usually get annoyed while keeping track of their medications or vitals, and in this case, an integrated medication reminder and a periodic vital management module can work wonders. Similarly, using different modules such as EMR, Patient Health Monitoring, Telemedicine and more integrated into a clinic management software can boost doctor-patient relationships.

However, people who prefer the less fancy, age-old ways of treatment – driven by experienced yet, old-schooled doctors, often lack faith in healthtech. For them, it is one extra thing to take effort on, while missing the point that integrating one healthtech tool into their lives will eliminate the ten time-consuming and tiresome practices they perform every day. Manual functioning may have worked in the past for the care practitioners, but in order to meet the required healthcare needs and to keep a steady patient flow, conventional care practitioners need to meet them halfway. And, Kiosk-based remote satellite-clinic center is the right foot forward.

With the surge of another COVID variant(BF.7), we are likely heading towards another fight, but nonetheless, the lessons and challenges unravelled need a stronger healthcare system. Which is impossible without widely adapting technology in healthcare delivery operations.

HArborSays

We’ve been given a wonderful opportunity to learn from the past to re-evaluate, redesign and rebuild our healthcare systems. Let’s make it better and widely accessible, cost and people friendly this time via healthtech.

Want to know how HArbor is in stores for healthcare practitioners?

Visit us at www.harborvision.in

By Vishakha Katekhaye

HArbor Says

Running a clinic? The success depends on acing your interdepartmental processes and communication.

Have you ever wondered why patient engagement and care satisfaction is so challenging even when your staff has given their best? The answer is not out of the world.

For patients, the end #Goals are simple: accessible care, economical medical bills and positive treatment outcomes. But, medical facilities face varied challenges in ensuring patients desired experience during hospital/clinic visits. Besides this, every healthcare facility aims to deliver the best possible care, but if only, every care encounter would guarantee patient satisfaction and engagement!

Out of the various parameters determining a care facility’s success, inter-departmental coordination issues have taken a front seat in healthcare units lately, as the repercussions can be lethal if left unchecked. Fundamental to a healthcare unit, inter-departmental processes guarantee smooth workflows and diminish human errors.

“ When lives are at stake, asynchronous communication is a health hazard”

Challenges of Interdepartmental coordination in Primary care

Ineffective inter-department interactions

Imagine being ill and constantly juggling from one department to another (OPD – DIAGNOSTIC CENTRES – CLINIC RECEPTIONS – OPD Chambers). And, it gets egregious, followed and preceded by hours of wait time.

Patient care and their transfers are dependent on smooth interaction between the departments. Whether it is between clinical to non-clinical departments or between clinical-clinical transfers, an efficient healthtech platform can be the key to eliminating the gaps and unforeseen hurdles during the processes. It assists the receiving departments to be on alert while being prepared for the same. For example – In NSD (Normal Spontaneous Delivery) cases or Accidental Trauma cases – a secondary care unit (with the prior information of the transfer) will be prepared with specialists on call, OT and any diagnostic evaluations essential for that particular case.

While it’s crucial to understand the importance of healthcare systems for smooth interdepartmental processes in a hospital, it is essential to note that without a healthcare system, a primary care unit separates itself from the entire healthcare pool. Think of it as a ‘break of chain’, which is paid in ‘patient’s health’ currency and leads to patient satisfaction.

Ineffective information hand-offs

In between primary care to specialty care transfers, abrupt interdepartmental communication may create hindrances in the continuity of a patient’s care. The timeliness of information hand-offs between clinical departments or “calling of patient reports” is crucial for enabling the receiving department to check their specialists, equipment & staff availability and more.

During a conversation with staff nurses regarding patient transfer calls, she speaks about why patient transfer and further proceeding hit a delay. When the staff nurses are busy managing other patients in the department, manual report transfers of a patient can take ‘forever’ to process. As a result, patients wait in the state of illness for the treatment to begin. Helpless they stand to manual operating systems of the majority of clinics/speciality clinics in India, the transfer period imparts additional stress in treatment processes.

A simple solution to this times-old enervated problem is EMR. Think about it – if all you have to do is press a button to send a patient’s report to another healthcare facility, wouldn’t that be easy? Similarly, if your patient wants to discharge and shift to another healthcare facility, it’ll need just a few seconds to be done.

It seems ideal but not impossible, right?

Ineffectiveness of information technologies

Talking about EMR’s role in patient transfer, often information from EMR is not enough. The reason being, the fragmented and compartmentalized nature of information in the EMR.

“In a parallel universe – an ideal EMR would be the transcript of a patient’s health.”

Technically, EMRs are performing what they were designed and chosen to do. Which is harnessing all of the clinical, operational, and patient-specific data and cataloguing them perfectly for the entire health system to refer. But, EMRs are not, by design, communication tools. They are just treasure troves of information and not purpose-built for workflow communication.

For example: If you are a software developer working on Android studio, you can’t expect to communicate with your team members via the framework designed by you. You’ll need communication tools like team chat rooms, emails or skype to transcending ideas. But, wouldn’t it help if you can conduct meetings on the same platform or add your teammates on the same to process the work together?

Similarly, EMRs should be on supporting platforms to enable easy communications, vital data analysis and in a one-tap share module between healthcare staff, of course with role-based access control.

An approach of this kind will assist the care professionals to interact efficiently not only with the care facility’s staff but with the patients. Like while ordering a series of lab tests. With an integrated system, medicos can discuss the findings of the ordered test samples with the patients via in-app alerts or notifications.

HArbor Says:

Managing a healthcare facility isn’t easy, especially when the care facility’s operations and management may get ‘lost in translation’, leaving patients high and dry after every consultation. When it comes to patients, you need a more integrated approach and smooth interdepartmental communications to back your care delivery.

Want to know how? Ask us today! https://harborvision.in/contact.html

By Vishakha Katekhaye

HArbor Says

Doctor Patient Relationship – An Ever Evolving Mystery!

The doctor-patient relationship is dated back to 5000 years. Back then, in ancient Egypt, it resembled a priest-supplicant type engagement – a relationship involving healers to stage themselves as MAGICIANS who have mastered sickness and death through magic, mysticism and spiritual healing. For the most part, this relationship can be categorised under ‘beneficent paternalism’. Wherein, not only the healers were seen taking responsibility for their patients’ health but procured the right to make health decisions for them. Somehow managing a unique but functional relationship; Functional but not ideal!

On the other hand, In India reputation of doctors were beholden next to GOD and labelled under social and humanitarian line of work – a profession yet to be introduced in the business realms of the service world.

It was a different scenario back in the ancient times, when majority of medicine practitioners would be around much of the rural areas and only a handful were to be found in the high citadels of the towns. This helped these ancient medicine practitioners know personal details and the personas of their subjects, which led to greater trust and round-the-clock availability. With time, when the civilizations evolved and professional structures emerged, these care professionals leveraged their interpersonal relationships with patients and their families for probable diagnosis and explaining treatment protocols. Thereby, ensuring the best care outcomes.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the dynamics of this relationship have evolved to the way we see it today. Where people seemed to be doing better, but the trust and compassion elements have hustled to stay afloat. This relationship strained further with new-generation doctors choosing cities over rural areas for their practice setups. As a result, the two-third of India’s rural population suffered tremendously by being dependent on mere 27% doctors available for medical care in these areas.

Fast forward to the present —

TECH-ADVANCED AGE, BETTER RELATIONSHIPS SCOPE

Although the public & private healthcare systems tried to compensate for low doctor-availability issues in Gramin areas of the country, the limited medical care was not enough to enhance patient satisfaction!

Rapid commercialization and globalisation has influenced every part of this globe, and healthcare is no exception. With the enormous impact of technology in the healthcare industry on it’s whole, the patient behaviour & their expectations, care professional roles, and doctor-patient relationships have all evolved and changed. Meanwhile, the non quantifiable like these have changed enormously in recent times, the technological advancements are still made on the SOPs made in the past, leaving us with a healthcare systems haunted by the ghosts of the pasts & jammed with the growing expectations of its stakeholders.

If played on its merits, care practitioners can leverage technology in their favour by enhancing patient care satisfaction and elevating doctor-patient trust.

For example, Dr Prakash Sharma, a renowned Cardiologist diligently points out the small yet significant changes in doctor visits in the last two decades —

Patients hate waiting in lines for appointments or bill payments, which is why most of his appointment scheduling has shifted to digital payments and telephone calls before the patient actually arrives.

Patients living at far away localities in cities prefer primary consultations via video calls and would happily visit the clinic for their second consultation if required.

Patients are now getting conscious about preventive care and like to evaluate the possibilities of developing a disease via genetic or lifestyle related issues.

Not all patients prefer an in-person primary doctor often, they are satisfied with Telemedicine consultations or any other health related instruction.

Overwhelming medical expenses can demotivate patient will to seek medical help; a healthcare practitioner is expected to find ways to decrease the overall medical costs to eliminate the burden of medical bills on doctor-patient relationship.

Dr Prakash Sharma further speaks of the impact of empathic and clear communications. As a doctor, he feels — “It is an indicator of competence and skills. It enables my patients to express their illness and establishes a friendly connection with me which encourages their treatment and medication adherence”

When asked, if it is okay to be friendly with patients?

He nodded ‘YES’. It’s easier to converse with patients when they perceive doctors as friendly. This relationship isn’t just easier to break down a patient’s anxiety levels but allow the care practitioner to make deductions of the factors influencing the overall treatment’s outcome. However, he warns to be wary of the risks of becoming friends with a patient. It could distort a doctor’s judgement. Nevertheless, having a friendly interaction is not against the law and has reported positive outcomes, mostly!

THE FOREVER CHANGED DOCTOR VISITS

Technology is re-structuring the doctor-patient relationship and re-defining their roles in the healthcare system. Bringing in a sustainable method in healthcare, Telemedicine eased-up the consumers and providers responsibilities on a single platform while enabling the healthcare system to reduce the overall care cost. With the increase in virtual healthcare visits, medicos are now being able to facilitate primary care at any time, anywhere with just a few clicks on their mobile phone. Today, digital technology has transformed healthcare enough to provide excellent primary care with the assistance of easy-to-set up, remote satellite clinics. And, assist medicos to insure continued care via homecare healthtech devices.

Currently, digital technologies are revolutionising care delivery by assisting it to be more precise and personalised to an individual’s need. Enhancing value-based care in the years to come.

HArbor Says:

The common misconception of doctor consultations being merely about treating the disease is outdated and with changing healthcare stakeholders’ behavior, the healthcare world is shifting its gears towards a stress free, sustainable and secured healthcare. And, if that involves simplifying the conventional and tiresome doctor visits, then so be it!

Ever thought about what clinics of the future would look like?

If not yet, then here is a good start as the care delivery design is gradually changing and influencing all our lives as DOCTORS, PATIENTS, HEALTHCARE STAFF and well everyone!

Cost-effective, timely and efficient are some of the oft-used adjuncts when healthcare leaders discuss tech in the medical industry. Convinced as they are regarding the impact of technology in healthcare, we must admit that they are mostly right, generally because we have seen the vital role of technology from disease diagnosis to care delivery during COVID-19 Pandemic. Although, it goes without saying that tech has ‘waved at the tides of chaos’ in the existing healthcare system, but it wasn’t all so good – was it?

Let’s face it, the issues that technology has caused in the existing healthcare systems during COVID-19 pandemic point toward the lack of infrastructure and trained workforce in healthcare systems. And, if someone should take the blame for it, it should be tech literacy in the healthcare workforce which can be resolved with optimum training!

Fast forward to the present — today, healthtech systems have also caught the attention of Governmental organisations, Private Practitioners & as well as Patients, who find it an accessible and efficient form of care delivery.

In between the rising expectations of healthcare stakeholders and healthtech companies aspiring to fill these up silos using in the age-old healthcare system, the future of healthcare delivery looks quite different from the healthcare units of today.

Towards Digital Health

The digital age has given rise to a whole variety of online services, apps and virtual tools that have made our lives easier in so many ways. From booking a flight to finding the perfect holiday destination, we can access information and services on demand with just the click of a mouse or tap of an app. Many traditional industries have been forever changed by this new way of doing things – and healthcare is no exception. The medical world has also been transformed by the digital age, with AI-assisted diagnosis, Automated Reception-desks, Remote patient Monitoring and Telemedicine, all found commonly in diverse specialties. With several innovations taking place within healthcare, what does the future hold for a doctor’s visit?

Let’s take a closer look —

Medical Consultations

Being a patient, imagine getting a doctor’s appointment, on-time consultations and easy check-out – feels like a blessing, right?

In digital/virtual clinics, this is very much a reality, with just a few taps on your phone, enabling you to seek treatment from the comfort of your home. Such digital clinics can efficiently reduce the overall care expense to a great extent. With inpatient health care services being pushed to home via easy-to-use vital monitoring tools, digital health also guarantees to elevate personalisation in healthcare.

Although many complicated medical cases and severely ill patients will continue to need acute inpatient services, but, at least the primary consultations are expected to be faster and hassle-free.

For medicos, other than showing up to less crowded clinic hallways, they can monitor patients intermittently, while collaborating with specialists in other locations about diagnosis or treatment. Not only they’ll be able to make a prognosis in virtual clinic rooms but will reduce the patient load from secondary and tertiary hospitals. All this while, such virtual clinics will give a chance to primary care providers to expand their services in remote/rural locations by setting up Satellite OP-Clinics in the destination of their choice.

Other than the healthcare delivery reach, the existing care system is struggling because of poor healthcare record systems and digital clinics of the future seem to have a solution for it.

Medical Records and Data Security

If you search for your medical records, it is a stack of ‘yellow pages’ with clinics/hospital & diagnostic centre logos — Too old to be read and too fragmented to base a diagnosis on! This fragmentation usually happens at the primary care level, presenting a challenge for secondary & tertiary care units while delivering better patient care. In response to this challenge, digital healthcare records have emerged as the new standard for healthcare management making medical records more streamlined and secure than ever before.

While operating via digital clinics and digitising health care records, providers can more easily and accurately track patient care & medications thus reducing medication errors. Additionally, digital healthcare records can be easily shared between providers, which can help improve coordination necessary for personalised care at the grass root levels. For patients, digital healthcare records can help to ensure that their health information is accurate and up-to-date. Additionally, digital healthcare records can give patients more control over their health information and make it easier for them to access their records from anywhere.

It is understandable that accessibility of medical records will raise several data security issues, and the brilliant minds of IT professionals in healthcare seem to have it covered via below mentioned key functions —

Data Accountability: Medical information is protected by ensuring health care providers are accountable for their access and the platforms that are used to deliver virtual-care protect the data via role-based access control.

Master Backups: Eliminating all the middle-men and being the sole-key person to access the data from cloud reserves will reduce the data breaching issues in healthcare to great extent. The future digital clinics consist of such EMR modules that are absolutely unbreachable.

The journey towards digital healthcare delivery has already begun; now the question is, do you see yourself associating with the advancements in healthcare?

HArborSays

The involvement of technology in healthcare, stakeholders behaviour and overall economic challenges are evolving the way we perceive healthcare. Moreover, with secondary and tertiary healthcare units adapting tech-driven solutions to enhance the care outcomes, and somehow the silos in the primary healthcare structure are unblurred. Hence, the introduction of Digital Clinics in primary care not only promises to support the exponential care requirements but will cement the age-old care delivery issues.

It is time to change the healthcare delivery practices from the core, make way for Digital Healthcare units!

By Vishakha Katekhaye

HArbor Says

Ghanshyam- A Vegetable Vendor with Chronic Ailments

A vegetable vendor, Ghanshyam from a rural area of Sitapur with health aliments, relies on the Government health centre in his village. He is aware of his deteriorating health but prefers to visit the facility only when his condition becomes unbearable.

Caption: The conversation between PHC doctors and Ghanshyam

Irrespective of his rare visits, he was optimally treated by Dr Ram, in-charge of the PHC and was suggested further tests to confirm the prognosis. Ghanshyam, being ignorant of his condition, hoped that this ‘temporary’ alignment would go away with traditional home remedies. And, thus he ignored the tests, medicines and routine follow-up requests suggested by his primary doctor.

After a few days, when he got severely ill, he was admitted to a Government Medical College in his district. When his wife was asked about his condition and related healthcare records, sadly she didn’t have any. With no previous history and medication data, the doctors started their protocol procedure followed by tests one by one.

This led to,

– Delayed diagnosis and treatment resulting in deterioration of health.

– Time, Energy and Resources spent by Ghyansham and his family while travelling to GMC.

– Prolonged days of pain and illness.

After running all the tests, doctors concluded the diagnosis, which turned out to be a condition due to a simple chronic disease.

If only, Ghanshyam had taken his primary doctor’s treatment seriously, he and his family would have avoided this unfortunate event and contained the disease in its initial days.

If only, Dr. Ram had a health tech platform which would keep consistent reminders of appointments, and treatment for his patients, his patients would have been better literate about their health.

Like Ghanshyam, several other examples are living in every corner of India and facing the consequences of ignoring health.

Low health literacy levels can negatively impact an individual’s ability to navigate the healthcare system, manage chronic diseases, follow a healthy diet, and monitor medication.

Don’t be like Ghansham, be responsive to your doctor’s treatment.

Don’t be like Dr Ram, be responsible for your patient’s adherence to your treatment.

Be a part of our mission to strengthen the health literacy rate in India. Join us today!

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