telemedicine – HarborSays

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

Essential but Underskilled: Healthcare Workforce is still Living with Tools from Ancient Times.

Healthcare facilities have finally acknowledged the necessity for upgradation to enhance care-delivery worldwide. However, it still wouldn’t be too irrelevant to ask – how can we upgrade healthcare systems when one of its crucial pillars is still functioning or perceiving healthcare in the same old fashion? Most importantly, is the medical fraternity aware of the challenges that their staff have been experiencing after the introduction of technology?

According to the studies – the Indian healthtech market is expected to grow to $5 billion by 2023 and to $50 billion in another ten years, suggesting that healthcare technologies are gradually moving to the core of healthcare processes while implying that the care delivery patterns are evolving and we are finally heading towards a new age of renaissance in healthcare. But, is our workforce strong enough to sustain the change, let alone flourish in the light of development?

Today, as the state of affairs between nurses/work staff and technology continues to influence the quality of care, patient safety, staff efficiency, and job satisfaction, these two have been viewed as being in a love/hate relationship.

HealthTech and Nurses – A mismatched duo!

According to the Head of Staff for Nursing Department, Mrs. Gayathri Iyer from Government Medical Hospital, Nagpur, nursing and technology have a complex relationship. Technology can improve the efficiency and accuracy of nursing care, but it can also introduce new challenges and stresses for nurses. Electronic medical records, for example, can make it easier for nurses to access patient information, but they can also add to the workload and take time away from direct patient care. Additionally, new healthtech tools are not easy to learn, which can create additional barriers for nurses. Overall, while technology can be a powerful tool for nurses, poorly designed software will bring nothing but chaos to a care delivery system. Further in the conversation, Mrs. Gayathri highlights the relationship dynamics between healthcare professionals and technology while telling us why the healthcare workforce is still underskilled to adapt HEALTHTECH!

Tech Literacy and Adaptability Issues.

The future of the healthcare systems is poised to bring better & more fulfilling work responsibilities for the healthcare workforce only if care facilities adapt to healthtech swiftly. However, with a low tech literacy headcount within the healthcare organisations, the adoption is not as easy as it was anticipated. As a result, the care facilities that fail to fuse their workforce and healthtech systems are not only missing out on great leaps in patient engagement and efficiency, but, in the worst-case scenario, it can also lead to a loss of position as a patient’s provider of choice.

So to bring your workforce to speed, here are a few strategies that can help:

Provide training and education: Training staff to use a healthtech platform efficiently is one thing and helping them understand why it is important is another. It’s more about the perspective they have regarding technology. Figure out a way to change the perspective of healthcare force towards the way they perceive healthtech, and reap the benefits of automation in healthcare.

Choose your tech partner wisely: Given that your healthcare workforce wouldn’t be pleased while functioning with multiple healthtech tools for different operations, opting for an integrated healthcare management suite will encourage smooth workflows. Integrated Management Suite comes with an all-in-one solution platform making your inter and intra-departmental processes easier while creating a balanced ecosystem for your patients and staff.

Regularly evaluate and update the technology: Updating healthtech platforms is necessary for several reasons. First, it ensures that the tool is functioning properly and is free of bugs or glitches. Second, it allows for the incorporation of new features and improvements that can enhance the user experience and make the tool more effective. Third, it is crucial for maintaining compliance with industry regulations and standards.
Opt for a healthcare system that does not require tech support: Having a tech-admin team is an added benefit, but if your practice management software doesn’t need a tech-support, in a way it implies that the system is easy-to-use and you won’t have to worry about all the hassles that might come while managing a tech-support team.

HArbor Says: The healthcare industry is facing major challenges such as healthcare accessibility issues, chronic disease, and a shortage of skilled professionals. In order to meet these challenges, it is essential for the healthcare workforce to be equipped with the latest knowledge and skills, including digital literacy and the use of technology. This will not only improve patient outcomes but also increase efficiency and reduce costs. It is time for the healthcare industry to embrace the digital age.

If you are looking for a practice management platform that is easy-to-use and would assist you and healthcare staff in everyday operations, feel free to reach out to HArbor!

By Vishakha Katekhaye

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.

Facing Systemic Exclusion, can the LGBTQ+ community receive better care Accessibility via HealthTech?

Healthcare is a fundamental necessity of life, but its accessibility and quality differ for different communities in India, especially for the LGBTQIA. For them, it is a privilege to get basic healthcare needs satisfied due to the deep-rooted stigma in the society. This often leads to creating gaps in essentials and basic healthcare needs. Plunged in ‘the swirl of social biases’, it is critical to address the medical needs of this community by leveraging modern healthtech platforms.

From waiting outside a clinic to booking consultations for yearly health checkups at diagnostic centers, the healthcare journey differs for each one of us. We all have our share of concerns while reaching out to a medical professional, but what if a social stigma around a human’s “partner choice” becomes the first barrier while seeking medical help?

It is generally the first thought for nearly 8% of LGBTQ+ people living in India while going for a medical visit.

For the LGBTQIA community, discrimination and fear of non acceptance leads to care disparities. As a result, they are more prone to chronic diseases and mental health issues that may often be left unattended, degrading their quality of life.

As a thumb rule for any thriving society, access to quality and continued care should be a basic and fundamental right and healthcare systems and the approach should be equal for all its beneficiaries irrespective of their biological gender or choice of partner.

Since, the patient experience for this special case, varies to a dipping point in India, we need to look at ways of restructuring care delivery right from its foundation. Primary care should and must evolve to be inclusive of all humans from all communities.

The Current state of Primary care for LGBTQIA community in India

Indian LGBTQ+ comprises 104 million people, and their exclusion is relatively tied to socioeconomic status, identity and community. Moreover, poverty and distance to care centers have exacerbated the lives of LGBTQ+ communities. In a recent study by NCBI, LGBTQ+ youth are more prone to substance use, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), cancers, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, bullying, isolation, rejection, anxiety, depression, and suicide as compared to the general population.

“When medical help comes with societal barriers, they choose to suffer in silence.”

On the flip side, the situations are different while yielding an inclusive care system with better health outcomes for anyone & everyone via TECHNOLOGY. On this side, Healthtech platforms facilitate medicos to build comfort and trust for the LGBTQIA community, to help patients get the best care possible at their fingertips.

Let us explain!

Telehealth can change the preconceived notions or experiences of the community members by connecting them with healthcare practitioners who can take care of their unique physical needs in a more confined and confidential way. While, going to a clinic might be inconvenient for most of the patients, humans from LGBTQIA community face those extra and not required “societal looks” while in the waiting area. Though this problem should not exist in the 21st century, it can be easily overcome with telemedicine.

In the future perspective, the wave of online consultations, homecare regimes via Virtual Care modules, DIY Kits and many other care delivery mechanisms this lines will assist LGBTQIA community to connect to Mental health groups, specialists, certified hormone replacement therapy (HRT) experts, and HIV specialists while giving the patients a chance at periodic monitoring and stigma-free treatment. Assisted telemedicine kiosks will successfully help in delivery care in trans member localities and government organizations for LGBTQ+, where these standalone kiosk modules will deliver public awareness and permanent health camps.

Empowered with Rapid Test Kits and battery operated pathological machines, these freestanding care delivery modules can even provide diagnostic capabilities with privacy to LGBTQIA community members and help in eradicating several communicable and noncommunicable diseases, right from the deepest levels.

Wouldn’t that be a befitting and cost-effective initiative for the Health authorities and society in General?

The surge in telemedicine in the LGBTQIA community is necessary to concurrently streamline and tailor the services for these under-served individuals.

Building Inclusive Clinical Trials

Clinical trials help the world population towards a healthier and better quality of life. However, generally speaking, members of the LGBTQIA+ community are often left out of these clinical trials. The lack of such diversity in clinical trials has significantly affected the LGBTQIA population while restricting them to only generic medications.

Such a diversity lacking study data fails to collect the drug effects on genetic levels of these marginalized sections of the society, especially the transgender communities. And, being uncertain of the risk factors of the medications, a medical practitioner will be indecisive to write the prescription.

Had it been for an inclusive clinical trial which was being run on a technology platform which does not discriminate, a patient’s clinical trial participation would have been strategically recorded in EMRs to assist care professionals in the longer schema of things.

HArbor Says

Social stigma in India has been forcing the healthcare system to be viewed under the lens of heteronormativity, sidelining the LGBTQIA community’s needs. As a result, this has led to the negligence of their health, driving the situation to a point of concern for the entire community.

Assisted Telemedicine can significantly assist private and public care practitioners to address the community-specific health issues while spreading awareness among LGBTQIA.

Let’s Rethink, Redesign & Rebuild a healthcare system which is inclusive and caters to the medical needs of every community!

Amidst the global health crisis induced by wars & Covid, assisted telemedicine is the only ray of hope for Billions.

Unprecedented time calls for extraordinary measures, especially when lives are at stake and healthcare is pushed into the forefront. This technology-leveraged shift has not only boosted care engagement but also bridged the existing healthcare systems to the future care modules. Telemedicine continues to address care delivery challenges within the care systems & may shine even brighter if operated via assisted care!

During the initial days of the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine usage surged as patients and doctors sought ways to access and deliver medical care. As a result, global telehealth utilization for outpatient care increased 78 times, along with tangible increased numbers for,

Patients’ engagement rates during the video consultations
Care professional’s efficiency due to virtual care convenience
Contactless and faster medical care delivery
Treatment and medication adherence

Moreover, a research survey by McKinsey & Company, in 2020 showed 40-60% of telehealth consumers’ interest in using ‘digital front door’ for a seamless care delivery experience & to remove barriers in providing care, while moving towards better healthcare systems. It not only helps with proactive consumer engagement, improved data integration but also improves the access to expert care, making care-giving more timely and convenient for anyone living anywhere in the world.

Yet, how convenient it can be, while facilitating telehealth in disaster & war zones?

Since its emergence, telemedicine has developed in terms of connectivity and design; for enhancing its usability. However, these modules tend to reach their limits when used by a ‘technologically illiterate’ or a population with no resources to access video-based telehealth (VBT). Similarly, in a natural disaster or war-prone zone, a significant disruption in healthcare facilities can quickly turn the situation into a health hazard. In such cases, pre-existing basic telemedicine needs assisted care modules for delivering more than just HEALTHTECH!

In natural disasters or war zones, assisted-virtual response enhances the care capacity while minimizing the logistical & security issues associated with deploying the care specialists. Assisted telemedicine introduces the concept of kiosk centers with trained professionals to provide round-the-clock medical care. Not only these setups can be light-weighted, but they are well equipped with basic diagnostic kits, vaccines, and medicines to provide comprehensive primary care. This futuristic digital care model will not only assist in primary care but rather will also assist in creating value-based healthcare, which involves;

Quick evaluation, diagnosis & medical consultations
More active patient participation opportunities
More active patient participation opportunities
Reduction in expenditure incurred while care-taking
Continuity of care even after the primary consultation is delivered

Assisted-telemedicine holds a key component to future virtual care, thereby creating a care model that integrates doctors, patients, diagnostics and other healthcare stakeholders on a single platform. That will be functional for any geographical area or any global crisis.

Future of healthcare with Telemedicine

From “virtual urgent care” to a convenient, value-based model; Telemedicine is gradually redefining the parameters of healthcare.

Future healthcare systems are supposed to redesign into a hybrid virtual/in-person care model to enhance the consumer experience, care access, treatment outcomes, and affordability. And, to be prepared for any healthcare delivery requirements of the future. Be it a natural disaster or war.

HArbor Says:

2019-2021 has given quite a boost to the Virtual Based care (VBC) model. However, at present, on the road to a post-pandemic world; Assisted Telemedicine offers a better fighting chance to reinvent virtual care models while improving healthcare access, outcome and cost-efficiency. It’s time we move towards sustainable healthcare for a future that holds healthtech at its heart.

Hope often comes after a lesson learned and if the global crisis between 2019-2022 has taught us anything; it is to strengthen while advancing the healthcare core. And, this time assisted healthtech is our HOPE!

By Vishakha Katekhaye

HArbor Says

Self-diagnosis; A Google trend that you shouldn’t follow!

From searching for home remedies to ‘do-it-yourself’ kits, Dr. Google answers every question that you ask and replies to a possible disease profile for every entered symptom into the search box. While online self-diagnosis resources seem like a savior in your moments of confused illness, healthcare professionals see the long term possible dangers in this practice.

With Dr. Google’s 24 X 7 availability and ease of access, can a user’s search queries really be “the doctor” we are looking for? — something we all must ask ourselves.

While healthcare professionals in India acknowledge the convenience of the internet and sympathize with an individual’s struggle to get the best possible care around them, here are a few dangers of depending solely on the “World Wide Web” for your health education.

Risk of self-diagnosis suggested by the care specialists

1. Unwanted Panic: For some of us, it is as simple as – Existing Symptoms + Internet Research = Chronic illness leading to death. A recent study aimed to profile symptoms related to common influenza infection showed every time a user googled these symptoms there is 44% probability of a fatal diagnosis on the internet. That’s not only scary but also troublesome to the extent of causing clinical anxiety.

And if you think you are reading too much into the situation and still couldn’t stop further to glimpse into the worst possible scenario, you may not be alone! In fact, Internet searches often contribute to hysteria which can become a serious detriment to mental & physical health before visiting a doctor.

Although it’s obvious to worry about the worst possible outcomes and surf the internet for more and more information, a panic state will do more harm than good for the patient.

2. Unreliable sources: It doesn’t require legit credentials to add your ‘two cents’ online. Also, the way it’s has been easy in this ‘social media dominated world’, considering that there is at least one false piece of information against a fact. Even if you are referring to a reliable source (Government websites/healthcare facilities or organizations), the information could be very general. Moreover, each patient has different risk factors and varying treatment & social history, all of which contributes to the decision-making process of a physician.

Hence, consulting a trained medical professional provides you with expert care instead of playing ‘doctor-doctor’ at home.

3. It’s nothing ‘serious’ chalances: Sometimes, when you are googling symptoms, you find information suggesting your chronic headache and cough are merely symptoms of the common cold. This could lead to waiting months for a symptom to subside and can further delay the optimum care you need. Pushing you more and more towards a deteriorated state.

Isn’t it ironic that the WWW of “we know it all” can push patients into believing that their headache is a brain tumor when it isn’t & a haemorrhage can be diagnosed as a headache due to acidity?

4. Distrust in doctor’s diagnosis: Human beings are known to be psychologically hung on what they believe to be true; even in the face of an expert’s opinion. Being obsessive about the findings of your symptoms on the internet can even enable you to resist the professional diagnosis, furthermore, rejecting the treatment plan.

Though it may not always come to these extremes, however, even some disbelief can cause unnecessary visits to seek second opinions resulting in increased medical expenses.

According to the patients – Understanding the perils of self-diagnosis is one thing and getting past the convenience of accessing information at your fingertips is another! Moreover, nobody wants to take an in-person appointment and sit in a waiting area!

For such patients, Telemedicine could work wonders and encourage medicos to take care of their patients via homecare modules. Similarly, self-test kits have also become so popular that patients at times assume they are enough for confirming the illness (clearly, not everyone is aware of the false positives).

Self-test kits may give you temporary assurance, but a real doctor consultation is way better!

Do-it-yourself diagnostic kits are gaining popularity more than ever with an equal push from online and retail market players. These kits which claim to diagnose everything from Cancer to Alzheimer’s disease are generally delivered with ‘caution while using’ disclaimer. Even several healthcare organizations claim that they can be unreliable, inadequate and are no substitute for a diagnosis by a healthcare professional. Moreover, even if the self-test kit is reliable, the person might use the test incorrectly causing further misinterpretation of the results.

Therefore, if you are concluding your health on the basis of a 5 min test, it’s better to keep a physician in the loop. And what’s the best way to get an online telemedicine consultation with the doctor of your choice.

Self-diagnosis makes users essentially assume that they know the subtleties that diagnosis constitutes. In such a condition, they may end up planning the ‘perfect’ course of action at home. There is a greater chance that a patient would neglect the disease if the symptoms seem harmless at the moment.

If you think self-diagnosis won’t push you to self-medicate instead of going to a real doctor; think again!

Prominent side effects & dangers of “Self Medication” & diagnosis by Dr. Internet –

Delays in seeking appropriate medical advice and proper treatment.
Potential adverse reactions.
Worsening of the health condition
Dangerous drug interaction.
Risk of dependence and abuse.

HArbor Says: Our Health is the key element for a happy life and if our medical care is in question — better to be assured and not regret it later. Virtual healthcare delivery modules can help to resolve the ill effects of self-diagnosis. Where it will enable care practitioners to consult patients, analyze their symptoms and supervise drug oversight without getting into the burden of in-patient visits. At the same time, since the doctor is just a virtual appointment away, seeking professional care is convenient and way better than guessing the illness on internet research.

By Vishakha Katekhaye

HArbor Says

Virtual Care: Looking beyond the existing solutions for Mental Health.

As we look into a pandemic struck world, healthcare industry leaders are brainstorming on – how to transform the crisis made, short term problem-solving technology into sustainable, efficient and secure solutions that can drive quality and provide proactive care, which is not limited to the physical but also mental health of a patient.

Today, what once seemed futuristic in healthcare (receiving medical care through a screen) has not only become a run-of-the-mill for patients but rather is a prefered choice for all sorts of medical consultations, including mental health. Particularly in this domain, HealthTech has opened a new frontier in care delivery. Mobile devices are giving the public, doctors, and researchers new ways to access help, monitor progress, and increase understanding of mental wellbeing.

However, these half-cooked telemedicine applications have kept the debate on their continued adoption alive especially with mental health practitioners since their faculty demands a much larger connection with the patients and continued care.

Let’s take a look at how telehealth has worked for mental health clinicians and their patients.

What a telehealth appointment looks like

A telemedicine appointment begins by logging into a dedicated app for virtual consultations, followed by booking an appointment with the preferred medical practitioner. Here, once the session starts, the patient can readily interact with the specialist, like in any other in-person visit.

Did you know, virtual mental health practitioners have even reported that their patients feel more comfortable and at times respond better to virtual consultations than in in-person visits.

That’s correct! For them, the biggest surprise is how easily children have been able to adapt to telehealth. The specialists are even trying to get creative to revitalize the sessions for better care outcomes, at the comfort of their homes.

Certainly, virtual mental health care can be very simple but effective and comes with several benefits for all stakeholders.

The pros of Virtual Mental Care for patients & care providers

Convenience: Virtual care is ideal for those who have trouble with in-person appointments. Which allows them to receive treatment from anywhere, any time.

24-hour service: Telemedicine provides round-the-clock monitoring or intervention support to the patients that can prove to be effective in the hour of need!

Service to more people: Technology enables healthcare practitioners to extend their services to people in remote or rural locations that lack mental healthcare specialists. Moreover, these experts can provide their services in times of sudden need (e.g., following a natural disaster or terror attack).

Anonymity: In India, seeking mental care is still a hush-hush affair and with an ideal telemedicine module, patients can seek treatment without involving anyone else.

Care Consistency: It is observed that due to long-distance travelling or time management issues, patients often miss therapy sessions. With telemedicine, patients can easily show up for their follow up appointments being at the comfort of their homes.

Data Collection & Survey: Unfortunately in India, lack of mental health awareness & paucity of mental health experts have prevented thousands of patients from receiving medical help. Therefore, virtual mental care is expected to be the care delivery medium in smaller towns and rural India.

Undoubtedly, healthtech has bestowed us with the possibilities of an advanced healthcare era for mental care. However, it has also raised a number of concerns that are or could be potential barriers in delivering care. Tackling these issues will not only ensure productive care practice but also a better patient satisfaction rate.

The ideal Healthtech platform for mental healthcare should have

Passive symptom tracking: Mental health isn’t just about therapy and it requires constant patient behaviour and routine. An ideal mental healthcare platform will assist the care providers to monitor their patients and determining their real-time state of mind.

Pro tip: Consider any healthtech module a waste that doesn’t come with home-based vital management!

Medication & follow up reminder: An ideal telemedicine platform not only connects specialists to their patients but also extends care beyond medical consultations. A telemedicine module should empower patients to take care of themselves with doctor scheduled medication and follow up reminders.

Easy-to-use module designs: A user-friendly platform is the first step towards making telehealth more accessible in both urban and rural parts of India. Perhaps, as simple as a template-based module could go a long way for an ideal healthtech platform.

Protection against Data Breaching: Patient data privacy & security breaches have raised some serious concerns regarding the adaptations of healthTech platforms. A healthtech platform must follow regulatory requirements under HIPAA and ensure maximum data security.

Continued Care: Finally, we need a telehealth platform which gives an option to the beneficiary to connect to a doctor, which they feel comfortable with and can reach out in emergencies like anxiety attacks, just to simply objectify the need for mental health.

HArborSays:

India has 0.75 psychiatrists per 100,000 people and from the above discussion, it can be inferred that telepsychiatry can efficiently bridge the gap between mental health experts & patients. However, a basic telemedicine application will always put barriers to the possibilities of telepsychiatry.

Being a mental healthcare provider, you need a platform where telemedicine takes the center stage of healthcare delivery, along with integrated EMR and diagnostic modules.

By Vishakha Katekhaye

HArbor Says

ALERT: Is our current healthcare delivery system just a ‘fix it’ module?

2021 has been a year of change for medical professionals. Be it Doctors or behind the scene IT professionals working for these medicos, 2021 had everyone on their toes. We saw old age consultation practices being challenged with urgent requirements to change to modern “video” based consultations, we also saw doctors performing complex surgeries remotely using robotics and what not! However, as we move ahead and delve into 2022, let’s look at these changes or transitions happening in the industry. Let’s ask ourselves, WILL THEY LAST in the current form or evolve to serve the greater good?

The current healthcare system in India is entangled into ignored issues and a few of the most significant points are –

Fragmented care delivery:

The Indian healthcare system is focused on niche areas while advancing various elements of care delivery in silos of growth. Although these silos of advancements are happening they are not adequately appreciating their relation to the whole ecosystem.

Hence, this unbalanced rather ‘broken structure’ at the grassroots level has built up a more obvious health crisis of unsustainable costs, poor quality and low patient engagement.

In order to resolve these underlying issues, several healthtech companies have tried to take the medical practices online with hundreds of thousands of healthcare providers around the world. This worked fine, until care providers realized the harsh realities of listing businesses. The majority of these trends, like listing the practices online, an unnecessary competition has now popped up between the care providers where none is needed. Given the fact that we are a country where the care delivery system is already suffering due to a lack of doctors and skilled hospital staff, a race to win more patients proves detrimental to the status quo.

Did you know? The doctor to population ratio in India is 1:1456 against WHO recommendations of 1:1000 only for Urban areas. This number skews up to more than 10000:1 if you add the rural population in the mix.

To resolve the above-mentioned problem, yet another patchwork was introduced by the big corporations trying to leverage patient data. They insisted medicos & practitioners have their own listing which fragmented the patient flows. Further not to mention the increased cost of domains and web maintenance which the medicos had the bear, with little to no knowledge on the subject.

For a healthcare professional, every new technology which pops up on the corner brings the promise of better practice, but when you look closely, you’ll find nothing but the temporary fixes to grassroot problems, creating more hindrances in the longer run than easing the operations for our beloved doctors.

Maintaining healthcare records:

It’s not a hidden fact that every year a hefty sum of money is invested into maintaining MRD rooms and the introduction of Electronic Medical Records was nothing but a blessing for healthcare stakeholders. However, EMR software came with its own set of drawbacks. For instance, Imagine being a healthcare provider with years of practice in writing paper prescriptions and patient reports and being asked to invest money and time in EMR software. Difficult right?

Let’s elaborate!

Today, Electronic Medical Record systems have become the core component in a hospital’s IT ecosystem, where patients book appointments, receptionists manage schedules, and physicians access patient charts. In addition to that, the care facility can even compile prescriptions and send them to pharmacies, receive lab results, prepare insurance claims, and so on.

But, in a country like ours, where the average time for a doctor to see a patient is less than 2 minutes, the process of filling out EMR sheets is excruciatingly time-consuming & cumbersome, especially for the doctors.

Later, in order to tackle this challenge, smartpens were introduced. Although, this new ‘fix’ has solved the problems of the prior EMR system, but added an extra expense to the care practitioners pocket.

Every time while adding new patches to the care delivery system, software companies somehow forget or choose to ignore that the technology is just a means to deliver care & for a close to perfect adoption of technology, it is required to be simple, minimally time-consuming and cost-friendly.

Half-cooked Video Consultation upgrades:

In the last 2 years, we have seen advancements in virtual health gaining momentum, which has facilitated patient monitoring through computer and phone technology. This enables care practitioners to verify prescriptions or supervise drug oversight. However, in India where the maximum population resides in rural areas with a low digital literacy rate, just a basic telemedicine tool won’t work.

The way these video consultations are happening currently, they seem to take away the human connection from the whole medical care delivery. For instance, a patient taking consultation from a general practitioner online for a frozen shoulder has no way of connecting back to the same doctor for continued care.

Expanding further, the majority of the Indian population basically needs these video consultations with doctors in remote areas because they do not have accessibility to the medical services near their homes nor a digital payment option available for them which blocks their entry into the care ecosystem.

Such technological advancements prove to be helping only the privileged thus further widening the gap between India & Bharat.

Let’s look at the possible ways for solving these nerve-wracking problems deep-rooted into the ecosystem for generations with simple yet effective solutions.

“The future of Indian healthcare will be defined by collaboration and not competition.”

For years, manual processes have been in place to create paper records for the patients which were personalized. So when EMRs were introduced, each practice needed its own customization. These customizations proved to be expensive for the technology providers and thus the EMRs were never adopted to the scale they were intended to!

A simple artificial intelligence, AI which can hear what their doctors are saying and convert the speech into machine-readable language can not only push the adoption of digital records but also replace the age-old medical transcriptionist which is still prevalent in 2021. Such AIs will prove to be an amazing assistant to medicos which will reduce work pressure on them.

While Telemedicine has taken a centre stage in healthcare delivery, it needs to be equipped with a personal assisted care provider while being integrated into diagnostics & pharmacies, thus completing the entire ecosystem. It is safe to say that these integrations will not only help the healthcare stakeholders to a great extent but improve clinical outcomes.

Technology is supposed to be maximizing value. While redefining healthcare delivery, it is a must that we step away from the fragmented healthcare systems that lack coordination, which is only possible with an integrated healthcare platform.

HArbor Says, It’s time that we discard the fix-it modules from care practices and establish a strong foundation that will serve the real stakeholders of the care!

Assisted Telemedicine: A roadmap to improve medical care in Rural Areas

Healthcare in rural India relies mostly on public healthcare units, which has limited public funding & a diminished doctor to patient ratio, which gets strenuous with the limited resources while meeting the large population’s medical needs. On the other hand, due to low profitability, less skilled personnel & low availability of doctors who are ready to work under challenging circumstances, private healthcare units are not able to sustain care delivery in these areas.But, is it necessary to build a big healthcare infrastructure to meet care demands in fragmented rural areas, when 80% of Indian doctors are located elsewhere?

Absolutely not!

Technology may have introduced retail opportunities for medicos practicing in urban set-up, yet the adaption of such new-age care practices in rural areas is low. Extensive adaption of assisted-medicine will facilitate medical practitioners to reach the rural population while solving unique challenges.

Retail healthcare platforms integrated with Telemedicine & diagnostic capacities will be a futuristic & effective digital care model for evaluating, diagnosing & treating patients without the patients needing to visit facilities that may be located far off from their villages.

Mapping each village to a “Village Health Officer” equipped with tools to carry basic healthcare packages along with diagnostic services would prove essential for chronic care management and access to emergency care providers in real-time for rural patients.

Powerful telemedicine integrated healthcare platform, not only benefits patients, but also assist medicos in:

Team-based care
Integrating diagnostic analysis in EMRs
In-home monitoring of patients for follow-up & continued care

HArborSays: Technology is changing the healthcare practices now, more than ever. Let’s dedicate ourselves to rebuild the rural healthcare foundation starting with Telemedicine and reduce the gap between the patients & medical care providers.

The secret of caregiving is doctor-controlled Homecare and Telemedicine in COVID times.

Being discharged from the hospital and returning home after testing negative for #COVID-19 is undoubtedly a relief. However, a good homecare regime and constant vital checkup can enhance the process of recovery faster and better.

COVID patients who are experiencing health issues like fatigue, difficulty in swallowing or have taken up long-term damage to the heart & lungs must receive full-time homecare care with regular vital check-ups.

COVID rehabilitation has proved to have a positive impact on patient’s health post-COVID recovery by up to 40 % while allowing the patients to seek continued care at the comfort of their home.

Even with a negative RTPCR test, recovered COVID patients may still be experiencing difficulties with everyday household chores or might have a chance of post-intensive care syndrome after spending time in hospitals. To avoid the risk of readmission, it is important to continuously monitor their vitals and an all-inclusive care assessment tool must be provided to the patient for well being & help them in gradually getting back to their pre-COVID strength.

Care Analysis: Treating the impact on the lungs and heart

Coronavirus can make it more difficult for a patient’s lungs to get enough oxygen into the blood and if left untreated or ignored, it can become a life-long health issue to deal with. Also, during the period of illness, doctors have reported an increase in the risk of cardiovascular problems in patients.

With homecare regimes, medicos should be able to digitally suggest an exercise routine and medications to help patients recover faster. Wherein everyday exercise timings can be easily recorded by their patients along with medicine doses. The homecare should assist to change the medications while being updated regularly about any unusual symptoms for immediate and effective medical help. Doctors should be available to the patient at a predefined consultation time.

Care Analysis: Difficulty in providing care for chronic patients

COVID19 lockdowns have been bringing everything to halt, adversely affecting all the patients in general, especially the ones suffering from chronic diseases. Since medicos are overloaded with COVID patients, it is difficult to monitor and track all such patients individually. Hence, an integrated monitoring system along with vital assessment & Teleconsultations must be available to patients while being controlled by the doctors on a pre-appointment basis.

Care Analysis: Managing patient’s mental health remotely

Post-COVID stress has also caused anxiety, depression and symptoms related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in patients and it can be difficult to cope with, if not treated with care and routine check-up. Teleconsultations can be a very useful method to address such issues while providing the best possible patient-centric treatment in a doctor controlled environment. Telehealth even facilitates mental health specialists to consult patients remotely that might not otherwise be available including those patients who reside in the hinterlands of rural Bharat.

In conclusion HarborSays, homecare & telemedicine are such powerful tools and they must now assist medical practitioners while enhancing the caregiving experience without increasing the overall infrastructure cost for doctors.