Recent global events have brought spotlight to the Healthcare industry. Everyone is shocked at the scale, severity and speed at which the Coronavirus spread brought the global healthcare industry to a standstill. This just didn't happen in developing or poor economies whose healthcare infrastructure was already strained. Even the healthcare systems of developed economies like Italy, Spain and United States could hardly cope as cases and deaths rose drastically. UK's health secretary, Matt Hancock in his address acknowledged that Healthcare industry must adopt new technologies such as IoT devices, AI and robotics if it were to fight modern day challenges. Even in Italy, there were many complaints from doctors who admitted that a lack of digitization in their operations costed them dearly as the staff was not able to cope with the scale of demand.

This pandemic has been an eye opener to the severe shortcomings in the Healthcare sector and the urgent need of technology to fill some of those shortcomings. In this blog, we will look at the key challenges related to Healthcare sector and understand the role of technology in solving those challenges.

Key challenges to Healthcare sector

In the western world, there is a common challenge in almost all the countries; an ageing population which is growing at a fast rate. Now people live longer and people (especially aged people) with non-communicable diseases (such as diabetes) require constant medical care and checkup. If healthcare has to keep up with this scale of demand then it must integrate intelligent innovations of today such as AI, Machine learning etc.

The good news is that AI has already been introduced in the Healthcare sector, although it needs greater adoption to become a common practice. One already existing AI program enables scientists to explore and analyze the DNA data of cancer patients. The scientists can leverage AI techniques to detect specific mutations which can be used to classify the level of risks in patients. This pattern recognition enables better screening and greater efficiency in terms of overall disease management.

Innovative technologies in Healthcare sector

As we discussed, there is an urgent need to transform Healthcare with innovative technologies of modern age. Below are the few use cases with their description:

1) IoT sensing technologies

IoT sensing technologies are allowing us to supervise the health scenario in a more efficient way. For e.g. we already have smart watches and other wearables which uses IoT to check our heart rate and overall fitness data. In the coming future, we can expect IoT sensors to be dispersed inside our bodies which would be able to track our temperature, glucose level, oxygen level etc. We can get daily health data and then by using advanced Machine learning methods, we can analyze the data and come to a suitable conclusion.

These set of data can be vital for healthcare professionals as significant reduction in diagnostic time and procedure will result into greater efficiency in terms of treatment.

2) Artificial Intelligence

The use of AI can be expanded to identify high risk patients and improve diagnostic capabilities of possible patients. For e.g. in the case of Covid-19, we know that people with underlying health conditions such as respiratory or cardiovascular have greater chance to be affected by the virus. AI can be used to identify and then isolate such people who have these underlying health conditions. If we bring structure to this data then it can be instrumental in early detection and this can save countless lives. In fact, IBM, in one of its reports said that around 80% of health data isn't tracked by current systems because it is unstructured. In diseases such as COVID-19, real time information is critical.

Another application of AI would be advanced chatbots which will use Natural Language processing (NLP) methods to better understand the physical and mental conditions of people. These "robot doctors" can collect information, advise on certain issues and help connect patients with suitable medical professionals.

Information Technology services in Healthcare domain

Information technology in Healthcare is spread over various applications and use cases. Innovations in emerging technologies and improvements in existing technologies will impact these use cases and help the patients get better diagnostics and services. A larger list of IT services in the healthcare domain include:

• • Financial management

• • Medical Document management

• • Patient Records Management

• • Lifecycle Product Development

  • Invoicing and payment management

  • Application Development and maintenance

  • Resource Planning and Scheduling

  • Logistics management

  • Staff management

The core idea is to use technology to progressively evolve in these services and to add more services in future. Tech service providers should holistically work with healthcare industry to integrate technology more efficiently in everyday functioning of hospitals and labs. One such company is ISSQUARED Inc. which has deep expertise to drive digital transformation in Healthcare domain.

ISSQUARED’s services for Healthcare industry

ISSQUARED Inc. is one of the fastest growing IT solutions and services provider. It offers comprehensive solutions in different areas of IT such as Cloud, Cybersecurity, Infrastructure etc. From many years, ISSQUARED has been helping Healthcare providers with digital transformation services and solutions.

With ISSQUARED, you can be assured of scalable, secure and agile solutions which can greatly improve the efficiency of your IT landscape.

The full list of services in Healthcare include:

1) IT Infrastructure Services: Our Infrastructure services can build you a comprehensive IT landscape strategy.

2) Cloud Services : ISSQUARED delivers an umbrella of cloud solutions to meet your every business need. From strategy, deployment to support, we cover every aspect of your cloud journey and help you extract maximum benefits from Cloud.

3) Carrier and IP solutions : ISSQUARED’s carrier and IP solutions help you escape the networking complexities and help you manage your Carrier services in a better way.

4) Security Operations Center (SOC) : ISSQUARED’s comprehensive Cybersecurity strategy keeps your system secure and safe.

5) Identity and Governance : Implement a failsafe Identity and access services which meets your overall business objectives.

6) Business Continuity : Ensures business continuity and protect yourself against any outage.

The ISSQUARED’s advantage for your Healthcare needs

These are unique circumstances, and nobody was ready or trained for this. Our learning, therefore, depends on absorbing our experiences and having an open eye which would capture these experiences. Having a journal where we jot down the lessons and then communicate them broadly cannot just lift you but also your team.

• • Greater safety, quality and efficiency across all aspects of hospital functioning.

• • Better utilization of your healthcare resources

• • Regular updates to your Hospital's IT infrastructure.

• • Support e-claims

  • Keep healthcare staff updated with patient data and other key information.

  • Eliminates human error with automated reports

Contact us

ISSQUARED’s healthcare services are tailormade to meet your every need. For any query, please reach out one of our experts. We would be delighted to showcase our services. You can reach out to us at info@issquaredinc.com or call us at +1 (805) 480-9300.

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