There is no doubt that cardiovascular medicine is at its core high-tech medicine. The medicinal arena has an extensive history of utilizing new technology such as transcatheter valvular therapeutics to improve on their patient’s outcomes. The unfortunate aspect is that the delivery of efficient and preventative healthcare hasn’t advanced at the same rate as the cardiovascular arena. The result is that the United States ranks as having the costliest and least efficient healthcare system amongst all of it’s equally developed countries.
Cardiovascular disease and Cancer are two of the leading drivers for US healthcare spending, and the wound care that is needed as a result of both conditions as well as Diabetes is a contributing factor as well. Solutions are needed for the improvement of healthcare delivery in our nation.
Enter stage left: digital transformation.
A successful digital transformation isn’t simply deploying new digital technology like an application or a biosensor and it’s most certainly not just having an EHR. In actuality, EHRs are the fuel for some debates that they are an example of failed digital transformation rather than anything positive. Opponents of EHR technology cite inefficiency and dissatisfaction as reasons for their claim of failure.
Successful transformation on a digital level is the deployment of technology that improves performance, whether that be an upgrade to efficiency or maximizing patient’s health and their outcomes. Outside of the healthcare arena, major sectors of our industrious economy have adopted a digital transformation on some level. These sectors include finance, retail, transportation, and entertainment.
The time for the digital transformation of healthcare delivery is now. The ideal healthcare digital transformation will likely be centered on virtual delivery, remote monitoring via wearable and non wearable biosensors, and AI-driven care that utilizes advanced analytics such as ML to improve the processes of imaging interpretation, prediction of risks, and supportive diagnostic and treatment choices.
This technology already exists on a large scale. There are hundreds of digital health companies as well as large tech companies with astronomical amounts of money invested that are already in the healthcare delivery market. Vohra Wound Physicians utilizes the proprietary Vohra EHR that was designed by physicians specifically for the healing of wounds in the post-acute care setting. As stated, an EHR alone does not make for a digital transformation. Vohra uses clinical decision support (CDS) and AI to leverage their vast wound database and they supply their doctors with an elite support system to design and initiate top-of-the-line patient-specific treatment plans. This company has formulated a niche-specific digital transformation that is working for their physicians and their patients in a phenomenal manner.
Vohra Wound Physicians have battled the blockades to their digital transformation.
Some of the common barriers for transformation are:
- Too much technology in search of a problem to solve
- No payment model alignment
- Focusing too heavily on data and neglecting clinically actionable information
- barriers to deployment of digital tools into the clinic’s workflow.
The formulation of partnerships between technicians, clinicians, and patients are key elements to the team that is needed to create and accomplish a successful digital healthcare transformation. As healthcare providers and executives, unparalleled clinical and scientific insights can be provided to help solve the most crucial problems and impact the technology that can move the industry forward.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Heidi West is a medical writer for Vohra Wound Physicians, a national wound care physician group. She writes about healthcare and technology in the medical industry.
