Organization of network interaction in medicine
The healthcare field has undergone significant changes in a matter of months, which at another time would have taken years.
The need to transform patient care and reorganize care has pushed the boundaries of the services provided by most medical organizations and changed the understanding of what patient care should be. New forms of care are becoming much more hybrid, and services are becoming more and more interconnected, with patients and healthcare providers relying on the mutual exchange of information.
The need of patients for unhindered access to digital technologies at all stages of the provision of medical services has become a fundamental pillar of medical care and not just a pleasant addition to them. Healthcare professionals are aware of the benefits of cooperation and context-dependent access to information regarding the quality of care and work experience, which reduces the burden on doctors and nurses.
Medical organizations that have overcome the pandemic and successfully coped with this task have stimulated rapid digital transformation at a time of complete uncertainty. These enterprises have used their critical digital infrastructure capabilities to ensure sustainability and scale innovation. Innovative technologies such as chatbots, artificial intelligence, advanced connectivity of medical devices, IoT, peripheral computing, and the cloud will be critical to supporting business models that can prepare medical organizations for the future of healthcare.
One day from the patient's future life
The day has finally arrived. Ami is going to have a planned operation, and she's a little nervous. While Leonard takes her to the hospital, she rechecks her phone. A push notification reminds her when she needs to register, the name of the department, and the surgeon assigned to her. She is warmly welcomed in the lobby - she was expected. The secretary directs her to a designated room where a nurse will help her prepare for surgery. Using the ward navigation function with her smartphone, Ami quickly finds her room and shares her location with Leonard.
The operation goes successfully. Ami wakes up in her room, and Leonard is next to her. They log into the guest portal and can immediately connect to Wi-Fi, browse the web, access informational entertainment services, watch their favorite Netflix series, and check email. Through the mobile app, Ami can access a chatbot that answers basic questions such as the time of the guest's visit and meals per day and includes postoperative questionnaires to measure the results reported by patients.
Three days later. After being discharged, Ami notices that her wound is getting worse. She sends a photo to the surgeon via chat, receives some advice, and a scheduled video call the following day. After a couple of weeks, Ami almost completely recovered and returned to the office. She receives a notification reminding her to make an appointment at the hospital through the app.
A day from the future life of a doctor
Joy works as a doctor at a primary children's hospital and has just started her morning shift. For the first time, she visited the ward with a seven-year-old boy Kai and his family. Before entering the ward, she checks the system on her phone and finds records shared by another doctor. The last few nights have been difficult for Kai, and his symptoms are worsening, so Joy decides to have an MRI.
After checking the scan results and the patient's health history, Joy would like to ask her mentor and department head, Dr. Chizimu, for her opinion before prescribing Kai a new treatment. Dr. Chizimu is working remotely today, so Joy shares an MRI image with Kai on a medical imaging platform through a secure network for medical professionals. While waiting for a response, she receives an urgent notification from the messaging system on her smartwatch: one of her patients has had a potentially life-threatening attack. The bedside surveillance system sends an alarm to her and the nurses available through the network. Joy quickly scans the geolocation snapshot on her smartphone to locate the ward and runs to the patient. Thanks to her immediate intervention and the help of nurses, the patient is safe and healthy.
After lunch, Joy is notified that a new patient has been assigned a ward. Her name is Josephine, and her condition requires specific health monitoring systems and medical equipment. Joy quickly sends instructions to the nurses via the hospital's communication system. Using an internal network and a location solution on their phones, the nurses find what is needed, and when Joy enters the room a few minutes, later-everything is set up according to her instructions. Joy smiles at Josephine and her family and sits on the bed to explain the problem and answer all their questions.
Fundamental technological foundations of healthcare of the future
Healthcare organizations such as Cantabrian Health Service are increasingly exploring opportunities to support connected healthcare strategies that can optimize care delivery paths and redefine care delivery, from admission to follow-up and beyond, such as telephone consultations, remote examination, and EMR integration.
Organizations seeking to scale innovative technologies in a complex healthcare scenario and for multiple people should invest in three main areas:
- Connected, seamless, digital interaction with the patient: exceptional connectivity, navigation technologies, ubiquitous access to hospital portals, and mobile communications supporting digital services that are easily integrated into the patient's path and take into account the needs of patients at every stage of their journey from admission to follow-up and ongoing monitoring.
- Transformed workspace for medical care: a platform for round-the-clock collaboration and mobile notifications in the cloud, providing access to information, patient monitoring, unhindered communication, and secure data exchange inside and outside medical institutions.
- Enhanced Efficiency, Security, and Privacy: a scalable, flexible, and highly reliable network infrastructure that supports APIs for securely connecting IoT and connected medical devices to the system, facilitating asset tracking, alert issuance, and equipment monitoring. An intelligent network capable of prioritizing and ensuring the security of critical data exchange, management automation, work efficiency, patient safety, and a higher quality of service.
Future-oriented healthcare facility managers can use technology investments to support use cases that meet business needs and priorities. This alignment will ensure the right experience for both patients and caregivers, increase clinical effectiveness and compliance, and allow healthcare professionals to spend more time with patients, significantly impacting clinical outcomes and patient value.
All these solutions can be implemented in Ukraine on the basis of equipment from Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, a European manufacturer of switching equipment for the healthcare sector.
InfoTel specialists have experience in implementing such solutions and are ready to provide advice and selection of solutions depending on the needs of your business and the company's budget.