Digital Adoption in Healthcare and COVID-19
Has the COVID-19 pandemic been a watershed moment for digital healthcare? Indeed, this crisis has produced a greater need for data and digital access to promote population health and wellbeing in 2022 and beyond. Therefore, healthcare systems are now more willing to embrace and expedite the inevitable transformation of healthcare.
Because of its widespread use during the COVID-19 pandemic, digital technology is at the core of today’s healthcare systems. While the epidemic is undoubtedly hastening the adoption of new technology, technical improvements have already altered the world over the last two decades, from living standards to the nature of our employment.
COVID-19 — A New Era For Digital Transformation
The saying “a crisis provides an opportunity” could not be better suited for the COVID-19 pandemic. We no longer live in an era where physical location is an issue. Medicine and the healthcare world beyond has gone digital. Technological advancement has made it possible for people to receive medical information anywhere.
Physicians have begun to see the power and potential of digital adoption. Particularly in healthcare systems, adopting technology is about reducing costs, eliminating inefficiencies, and increasing the quality of care.
The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in a new era of digital transformation that will help healthcare providers connect with patients and other experts with ease and also stay in shape themselves from their homes or offices. So, let us dive into how healthcare has evolved in this era.
Healthcare’s Digital Revolution
This new reality is now hitting clinicians in many ways. For example, consider how often patients attempt to self-diagnose by looking up their symptoms on the internet or using a device to obtain wellness advice. In the past, seeing a healthcare professional would be the first step; it has now fallen to the second, following the patient’s (nowadays typical) search using their own devices.
The American Medical Association (AMA) provided estimates on the use of digital technologies. According to the AMA, their use has increased dramatically among all physicians, regardless of gender, specialty, or age. Patients’ treatment is prioritized using online tools based on the severity of their disease.
Another research group studied the use of digital technologies deployed throughout the COVID-19 crisis in 2020, publishing their findings in Nature Medicine. The following figure from their article depicts the interconnection of digital technologies employed during the pandemic.
Digital Disruption of the Healthcare Sector
In this latest era of digital disruption, the healthcare sector is a fascinating case study. Networked technology has enabled remote diagnostics, precision medicine, and distance consultations for patients. Post COVID-19, it’s now possible to provide healthcare services remotely through digital technologies and telemedicine.
According to a February 2020 report by the AMA, 28% of physicians utilized televisits or virtual visits in 2019, up from 14% in 2016, and 22% used remote monitoring and management for improved treatment in 2019, up from 13% in 2016. The paper comprises responses from 672 primary care physicians and 687 specialists among the 1,359 doctors surveyed.
Other significant healthcare disruptions include:
- Point of care at home
This domain comprises electronic clinical data exchange and sharing to consult with specialists, make referrals, and assist the transition of care. In the aforementioned report, the proportion of tools that included point of care being at home climbed to 47% in 2019 from 42% in 2016. The focus of treatment is shifting from diagnosis to prevention.
- More virtual assistance
- Data-based approaches are fueling medical device innovation and management
These disruptions prompted patients to seek streamlined experiences to compensate for fewer physical interactions.
Additionally, protected platforms will become more important, including:
- HIPAA-compliant electronic medical forms to protect patient data
- Controlled access to classified data
- Safe tracking of user activity
Artificial Intelligence Applications in Healthcare for COVID-19
Due to its remarkable benefits, such as self-reported data analysis, language processing, X-ray interpretation, computed tomography (CT) image recognition, and managing drug infusions, AI use is blossoming in the medical profession in the COVID-19 era.
To date, AI is being applied in at least five different areas of healthcare for COVID-19.
1. Screening for Infection
When it comes to identifying COVID-19, an AI model may be as accurate as experienced physicians. Machine learning (ML) -based techniques can be used to generate a complex and large amount of data. For instance, these methods can identify epidemic trends for forecasting purposes. Several researchers have employed such technologies in the COVID-19 pandemic for COVID-19 screening, categorization, diagnosis, drug repurposing, and prediction.
China, for instance, uses free web and cloud-based technologies to filter users and direct them to the appropriate resources.
In the United States, a private company, Kinsa Health, deployed digital thermometers to collect real-time data on clusters of feverish sickness, and national research is using a wearable application to capture resting heart rate, which could help detect COVID-19 outbreaks.
2. Monitoring the Effectiveness of Treatment
Through lab results, radiology reports, or translational electronic health record systems, artificial intelligence can also track the effects of medicines. Thus, AI enables quicker identification of beneficial treatments and ineffective treatments, allowing doctors to focus their efforts on the treatments that produce the best results.
3. Contact Tracing
One exampe of this is Singapore’s Trace Together app, a Bluetooth-based contact tracing app launched by the Singapore government. Scotland also launched a similar app, called Protect Scotland. By sharing short-distance Bluetooth signals between phones, this application instantly notifies a person if they have been exposed to COVID-19 through close contact with other Trace Together or Protect Scotland users.
4. Quarantine and Self-Isolation
Individuals exposed to or infected with the virus can be quarantined via digital technology, with less stringent limitations enforced on other residents.
One example is the Quick Response (QR) code-based applications used in China. This software aims to use relational cross-matching to assess if citizens should be quarantined or permitted into subways, malls, and other public venues.
5. Clinical Management and Vaccine Development
Through large datasets of clinical cases, researchers could use AI to investigate the epidemiological characteristics, clinical characteristics, and even any therapeutic effects of COVID-19.
For example, AI expedites the creation of therapies and vaccines by evaluating metadata and searching for treatments that will influence COVID-19’s RNA-specific sequence and proteins much more quickly than humans could do.
Below is a schematic view of AI’s applications for fighting COVID-19.
Digital Implementation of Mobile Technology
Recent research has highlighted the importance of mobile technologies in combating COVID-19. For example, a study undertaken in a Geneva pediatric hospital built a custom mobile app to disseminate up-to-date and validated information regarding COVID-19 to all medical professionals. The findings indicate that it was an effective and time-saving communication technique within the institution since it enhanced staff confidence in their everyday work and minimized misinformation.
Other studies have evaluated a few pieces of current evidence on mobile technologies for COVID-19 as follows:
- As shown in earlier outbreaks such as Ebola, contact tracing via mobile phones is one of the most effective characteristics in this context for identifying likely transmission channels inside the population.
- Geographical tracking through mobile devices employs geographic information systems (GIS) to enable real-time mapping, predictive risk mapping, and social responses assessment.
The Use of Digital Health in the Detection and Management of Diseases During the Pandemic
COVID-19 puts all healthcare providers at risk. During a worldwide pandemic, a significant goal of digital health adoption is to limit the risk of transmission to healthcare providers.
At the community and healthcare facility levels, multiple digital health technologies have been used by healthcare providers for various objectives to prevent and control the COVID-19 pandemic. They include:
- Telemedicine & telehealth
- Electronic health records
- Artificial Intelligence
- The Internet of Things
Even for physicians self-isolating or otherwise working remotely, digital health technologies improved their work capabilities:
- Sharing health information and reducing pandemic risk
- Early testing, quarantine, and treatment during an outbreak
- Virtual consultation
- Reducing psychological stress through enabling almost-normal work at a distance
In comparison to traditional epidemiological tools, digital health tools have the potential to increase the early detection of infectious diseases. In addition, since healthcare providers can respond to patients’ needs without being in the same room as them, such interventions can be provided while limiting or negating transmission. As a result, digital health technology can go a long way in reducing a healthcare provider’s exposure frequency.
Such as Alwashmi (2020) suggest that health professionals should take an active role in digital adoption, although also that further research is needed to determine how successful digital health is at detecting and managing emerging infectious diseases.
Implementation of Integrated At-Home Patient Self-Triage
As a healthcare provider, you’ve probably had to implement a self-triage system to keep up with the influx of people seeking treatment amidst COVID-19. More physicians can implement self-triage for many reasons, including saving testing for those sick enough to need hospitalization.
For example, the Dutch “Should I see a doctor?” app “(“Moet ik naar de dokter?”) is a self-triage tool for acute primary care. According to a study, it could be a valuable tool for guiding patients to the appropriate out-of-hours primary care clinic for critical care.
Patient self-triage tools merged with electronic health record systems can enhance triage efficiency and prevent unnecessary visits, which is particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic. This approach is consistent with a study conducted to rapidly deploy a digital patient-facing self-triage and self-scheduling tool in a large academic health system to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
Health Surveillance During the Pandemic
Medical gadgets and wearables can detect emerging patterns that indicate disease outbreaks. Fitbit devices, for example, have been utilized to inform timely and accurate models of influenza patterns at the population level. Smart thermometers have also supplied a unique data source for influenza surveillance and forecasting.
Some online surveillance-mapping tools currently being used for the surveillance of COVID-19 include Surveillance and Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System (SORMAS) and HealthMap. Furthermore, WHO has updated its guidance for public health surveillance of COVID-19 to include contact definitions, detection strategies, and surveillance.
Bottom Line
The COVID-19 pandemic has favored the adoption of digital solutions with unprecedented speed and impact because it has exposed several flaws in the current healthcare system. These innovations create efficient and cost-effective solutions to improve healthcare delivery, from patient engagement to virtual clinics.
Therefore, as a physician, we urge you to keep track of the proposed ideas and solutions today to implement best practices and models of care tomorrow and be prepared for future national and international emergencies.
