The healthcare industry has been trying to make the jump to digital for over a decade. While many practices have been able to successfully implement electronic health record (EHR) technologies, a full digital transformation has eluded many others. Nowadays, providers are actively searching for ways to achieve measurable results with these newer technology implementations. Today, we take a look at the healthcare industry’s IT as it stands in early 2019.

Optimizing EHR

As noted above, electronic health record technology has been made a priority for healthcare providers for the better part of a decade. By optimizing their EHR system, practices can solve many of the operational shortcomings they are typically falling for. They are able to improve workflows, provide an improved quality of care, improve intelligence of the practice, see more patients, stay compliant with state and federal mandates, and see a substantial increase in their ability to get reimbursed.

VR and AR

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are gaining more commercial traction by the day. In the medical industry, the innovations of these technologies hold an extremely important place in what will be the healthcare practice of the future. By being able to successfully simulate (or more accurately emulate) care delivery, they are important platforms for training and understanding the complex systems that make up the human body. By building software that provides visual representation of intricate systems health providers will be able to train staff by emulating a procedure before they undertake it.

AI Growth

Most industries are trying to find ways to use artificial intelligence more effectively, and healthcare is no different. There are several manners in which doctors, administrators, and medical staff are leveraging the burgeoning technology. From systems that can help healthcare providers communicate with patients with severe neurological diseases or trauma, to monitoring growing antibiotic resistance in patients, to using data analysis to monitor and predict when a person is going to have medical problems, AI is on the cusp of many major breakthroughs in the medical sector.

Expansion of Virtual Care

Virtual care is the act of providing one-on-one health consultation over the Internet. This practice is expanding quickly. In fact, 96 percent of health systems, or almost the entire market, plans to expand their virtual care systems in 2019. Virtual care, also known as telehealth, is the delivery of health-related services and information over the Internet or other communications platform; and, it has shown to dramatically improve patient health and understanding of the health services they undertake.

Virtual care expands a patient’s care from the doctor’s office to the home, offering many different manners in which to communicate, solutions to remotely monitor health, a cost reduction in care provision, and more. By providing outreach and virtual care services, a healthcare provider utilizes the strongest technology available to deliver healthcare services to people all over the world.

The healthcare industry is utilizing IT more than ever to connect with their patients, vendors, and other industry professionals. If you would like more information about IT for healthcare, or how your practice could upgrade its use of information technology, reach out to our IT professionals today at (502) 473-6407.