Why you need to give a ‘DAMN’ about Digital Healthcare Industry in Pakistan
We need you. Our healthcare needs you.
Sorry for the intimidating CAPS LOCK capture of attention. It was important.
Not because, your author here happens to be a bossy person who likes shouty capitals for conversation, but mainly because it’s high time we utilize advancing technology for our most basic fundamental need i.e, convenient healthcare.
Several healthcare breakthroughs over the past decade have shown tremendous potential for major classes of technology in revolutionizing healthcare.
Artificial Intelligence, medical minded wearable, augmented reality, blockchain, 3D printing stem cell technology- a bit more on these some other time- have been some serious healthcare solutions stemming from technical developments. If you surf through Google you will find a lot of buzzing excitement in, home healthcare, and how a variety of health solutions are finding their way to the general public.
But here is the tweak,
All of this tech happens to benefit a larger population of first-tier countries, which takes me to my main concern.
WHY NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT HOME HEALTHCARE IN MY HOME COUNTRY?
Understanding the Challenge
Given the sophistication of the 21st century, home healthcare remains at a stagnant pace in Pakistan.
An efficient healthcare system has become a dire need in dangerously changing trends, more so because it needs to empower our medical health staff in ways that help them focus better on patient care than flexing between the total no. of their clinical receipts.
Let’s take a look at the latest expansion of digital healthcare trends around the globe.
Hundreds of startups are active in developing solutions across different health problems. iCAD (breast cancer), Google and Amazon (ophthalmology), Vuno (pediatrics), Heart Flow (cardiology), and many more have initiated projects which utilize artificial intelligence using radiology in combating cancer developments.
Similarly, many companies have merged with the claims that their AI solutions are faster and better than doctors at diagnosing certain conditions. For example, Tencent’s AI can diagnose Parkinson’s disease in a matter of minutes saving a whole lot of exhausting tests.
In another setup, Swansea University’s researches have drafted a concept of using smart 3D bandages using nanotechnology, which will allow nano-sized sensors to transmit information about a patient’s wounds, location, and activity using wireless 5G data.
Coming down to the shift of healthcare in Pakistan, the life sciences arena still happens to have a very undercurrent status quo among other national issues. While I agree our breadth of solutions does not have to include AI healthcare solutions or complex tech creations, we still have the tendency to improve our healthcare systems.
Looking at the statistical distribution of diseases in Pakistan, our healthcare solutions should already be sprinting in a marathon.
Here is how we can digitalize healthcare solutions to enhance life expectancy, introduce sophisticated patient management, improve medical specialties, and make medical help more approachable.
Telehealth solutions: Telehealth is the use of smart technologies in accessing easy healthcare. In simpler words, keeping a track record of your food logs, medications, doctors’ appointments, regulating blood sugar levels, getting your health reviewed digitally by a nurse or doctor, using an app for estimating your BMI and fitness details, patient portals for checking your tests and ordering medications online is the most basic stepping stone of a new digital home healthcare opening.
Telehealth has ample room for innovative solutions with the simplest concept i.e, making healthcare easily accessible for all. For example, a simple patient portal can actually help reduce resources such as through online communication with a general physician or scheduling appointments without delays. Virtual appointments are also introduced now which include web-based visits with a doctor or a nurse.
Remote monitoring has been another prominent feature that has helped many elderly patients in regulating their blood glucose and oxygen levels, preventing health emergencies beforehand.
Intelligence and Analytics: The consistent evolving databases in healthcare require designs and clinical informed decisions to provide resourceful insights into inpatient data, conditions, diseases which will help them later on to form the right decisions.
Blockchain solutions happen to be an advanced innovation in analytical development. Blockchain is the process of keeping all of the sensitive information and records securely stored in one particular place digitally. This helps in transparent, almost impossible to tamper with transactions. Many organizations have already initiated the cooperation of this digitally smart solution, however, this is still an infant concept to benefit from, not only on a business level but also creating safe space for organizing and storing patient’s data.
Practice Management: By synergizing various HER and CRM systems, creating an effective integrated patient workflow is how practice management solutions can be created. Currently, Healthwire Pakistan happens to be a prominent organization that has set a certain benchmark by creating excellent Practice Management tools while expanding its healthcare services in other ways as well. So to say this has been the most developed and innovative sector of healthcare management in Pakistan.
Software as a Medical Device: As simple and convenient as it may sound, yet the dynamics of healthcare solutions with this particular concept are endless. Imagine having a smartwatch that does more than keeping a track of your daily footsteps and oxygen levels? Many companies have now started creating devices that are now smart enough to calculate dosage levels, track abnormal breathing patterns, deduce early diagnosis, and helps with determining the possible risk factors.
My address is now to all the entrepreneurs, doctors, tech giants and business tycoons of Pakistan.
We need you. Our healthcare needs you.
Our systems require intelligent data-driven decision supports tools with established care protocols. We need curating plans for delivering educational information, treatment instructions, and other smart innovations for patient-centric solutions.
With your support, your diligence, and your resources we can all emerge with digital solutions which will not only make sense for better healthcare but also enhance health, trust, and standards of living.
