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Healthcare gets human touch thanks to technology
Healthcare gets human touch thanks to technology

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As the world goes through digitalization at a rapid pace, fears of the dehumanizing aspect of technology are pervasive—and these fears are no exception in the healthcare industry. Certainly, no one wants robots directing their healthcare needs.

 

With the pandemic highlighting just how vital empathy and humanity truly is, people’s reservations around adopting new, technology-driven ways of treating patients have been reinforced. But as the world turns towards more technology, we’ve uncovered something truly unexpected in healthcare.

 

Contrary to our initial fears, digitalizing healthcare is proving to be even more human-centric than we could have hoped for. Even through virtual connections, we have maintained and often intensified the human element of healthcare. With the push from the pandemic to digitalize, we’ve discovered the sweet spot: finding ways that technology aides and advances innovation and medicine, while ensuring that one of the most important aspects of healthcare the human touch—is at the forefront of everything we do.

 

As patients have become more willing to embrace diagnosis tools and chatbots, they are often coming to physician visits more informed and asking more precise questions about their symptoms and conditions. What’s more, with telehealth, appointments and follow-ups, while providing treatments and diagnoses quicker since scheduling is now easier.

 

Digitalizing healthcare has also created new communities and networks, helping to connect patients with one another. As people turned to online groups to gain support, a Facebook study found that 49% of respondents received emotional support from groups during the pandemic. But technology allows for more than just patient-to-patient emotional support. 

 

Through different platforms and groups, patients can share and learn more about others’ experiences, conditions and treatments even if they are miles apart. For patients with rare diseases, connecting with someone who is battling the same condition can be invaluable.

 

Lastly, COVID-19 has revealed great disparities in healthcare, and there’s a high priority in finding solutions that will improve outcomes across all populations. Utilizing technology can help recruit a more diverse patient population by gender, ethnicity, income, geography, and more, which we discovered throughout the pandemic. 

 

As we looked for ways to continue R&D amid the height of COVID-19, we turned to decentralized trials. These trials utilize technology to allow researchers to conduct studies that are more inclusive and accessible. This includes everything from using electronic signatures for approvals, to having patients wear monitoring devices at home that allow researchers to follow the patients’ habits and health patterns appropriately.

 

Source: Fast Company/Paul Hudson


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NatashaSharma

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