Above: Image from BigStock.

Meeting the demand of patients and the avalanche of tests and vaccines against Covid-19 are some of the challenges faced by healthcare providers across the globe. The promise to provide assistance and solutions during one of the greatest crises in recent history has required the reinvention of medical care as it relates to connectivity to the main hospital or office.

This pandemic has accelerated digital health initiatives. For example, telemedicine, which has been on the verge of being rolled out globally in the past five years, is now offered in an integral way. Additionally, digital technologies have played a key role in communicating Covid-19 test results and assisting in contact tracing.

However, it is imperative to do more, especially as it is related to the establishment of digital systems, to help the sector during this crucial time and in the long term.

More than 80 per cent of healthcare organizations recognize that digital health is the way forward and we are seeing investments in customer centred processes that optimize the patient experience. One of the main challenges in transforming healthcare with digital platforms is ensuring patient confidentiality.

“This is where secure, reliable and robust IT systems become essential. To be effective, data must be available at all times so that when critical health decisions arise, patient information can be immediately accessed,” said Miguel Duluc, Alliance & Premier Partner Account Representative, from APC.

“As such, availability or uptime is also critical. Compliance requirements also require critical infrastructures to have backup power; in the event of a power outage, the systems must be up and running in half a second.”

“Using Edge Computing means less latency compared to cloud-hosted services. This is particularly important when you need to consult patient information to make clinical decisions during an emergency situation,” says Duluc.

Edge Computing, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are powerful technologies used in the digital transformation of today’s healthcare industry.

For its part, AI speeds up the discovery process during drug trials. By being able to execute multiple scenarios and utilize biomarker identification and drug reuse, pharmaceutical companies can accelerate drug development and save millions in costs.

There are many other ways these emerging technologies create positive health outcomes:

• Use of AI to check images to reduce the time between patient testing and diagnosis. This can also reduce misdiagnosis rates.
• Patient monitoring using cameras and sensors to reduce the risk of falls in vulnerable patients.
• Patient monitoring to alert healthcare providers of any clinical changes.
• Reduce risks inherent in the healthcare supply chain with IoT and Edge technology, such as keeping medicines at the right temperature and identifying counterfeit products.
• Provide quality healthcare to isolated rural areas through portable Edge computing devices, which can collect, store, generate and analyze critical patient data without the need to be in constant contact with a network infrastructure.

The pandemic has also shown us the need to create resilient health facilities that can continue to function efficiently and effectively, even in the face of a disaster or emergency.

“Every health system must have the capacity to recover from network instability, backup power solutions, and be able to guarantee the safe and reliable provision of patient care,” insists Duluc.

Schneider Electric solutions are designed to do just this for hospital needs such as..

• Patient safety: the safety of the patients is the priority so it is necessary to protect them with reliable energy, that is always operating.
• Operational efficiency: inefficiencies are generating budget burdens. It is important to improve energy efficiency and staff productivity to reduce costs.
• Patient satisfaction: happy patients equate to healthy hospital budgets. It is important to create an experience at home so that patients feel better.

Schneider Electric offers healthcare IT solutions, including Edge Computing, backup power, UPS, server technology that can enable customers to better address and meet the needs of their patients.