Digital Health, what has the pandemic taught us?

As we enter a new era of healthcare, it’s time to take a moment and reflect on what the pandemic has taught us. While there are many lessons that can be learned from this crisis, one of the most important is that digital health is here to stay. But one thing is clear: we need to be smarter than ever before.

The world of healthcare is changing. It’s a challenge to stay ahead of the curve, but it’s essential.
In this post, I want to talk about what we learned from the pandemic and how we can apply these lessons moving forward into an era of digital health.

• The importance of data sharing between patients and doctors
• How technology can help improve health outcomes for patients with chronic conditions
• The importance of getting "real-time" patient data feed into clinical decision-making processes at hospitals and ambulatory care settings (e.g., telemedicine)

Challenges within the healthcare sector are making it difficult to provide adequate patient care.

The main challenges include:

- The lack of an interoperable health data exchange ecosystem makes it difficult for patient data to be shared between providers and payers

- Data fragmentation among the different stakeholders in the healthcare value chain

The pandemic has taught us much about the challenges and opportunities facing our healthcare system, with the world's population growing rapidly and with a high disease burden.

Although there is a greater number of health care workers than ever before, this hasn't been enough to meet demand, especially in lower-income countries where most deaths occurred during the pandemic. In addition, governments and individuals have limited financial resources to support health service provision.

Health care services.

There are more than seven billion people in the world today, and this number is expected to grow to over nine billion by 2050. The current global population is growing at the rate of 1.1% annually; this means that an additional 90 million people will be added every year for the next two decades.

The burden of infectious diseases has a significant impact on healthcare services. Heavy rains, floods and other extreme weather events can lead to increased transmission of vector-borne diseases like malaria and dengue fever because they cause greater breeding grounds for mosquitoes (the carriers). This can further exacerbate existing conditions such as high rates of poverty, malnutrition and poor housing conditions, which put individuals at risk of contracting these illnesses when they have no access to adequate healthcare services.

In the context of these challenges, there is an urgent need for innovative solutions.

The contribution of digital health is one solution that can help overcome some of the key barriers in achieving universal health coverage.

For example:

• Increased access to remote locations via smartphones and tablets means that people can access medical information without having to travel long distances to see a doctor or nurse practitioner. This helps to keep healthcare costs down by reducing missed appointments due to remote location travel times, reducing congestion at busy hospitals, and improving patient flow through emergency departments by enabling staff to provide care remotely instead of waiting for patients who could be treated on-site more efficiently.
  
• Self-reporting devices allow individuals with chronic conditions like diabetes or asthma to monitor their health status at home rather than relying on periodic visits from healthcare professionals who may not have visited them recently anyway. This reduces hospital admissions because patients are better able to monitor their own symptoms rather than wait until they get worse before seeking treatment.
  
• It also reduces missed appointments due to both lack of knowledge about when they should seek treatment and the inability or unwillingness to drive.

Health care workforce and limited financial resources to support health services.

The healthcare workforce is the engine of society, and it's not just about doctors and nurses. It's about everyone working in healthcare: pharmacists and physiotherapists to radiographers, medical aides and cleaners. Without a strong, skilled and healthy workforce, we cannot provide the best possible care for our patients.

The digital health revolution has the potential to improve access to quality healthcare. It offers a unique opportunity to fill the gap between existing supply and demand for healthcare services.

In many countries, access to quality healthcare is still a basic human right that few people have. In some countries, only basic services are available in primary healthcare. In contrast, there are specialists in others, but they are difficult to reach because they are not available locally or at reasonable costs. In either case, patients face high out-of-pocket payments or travel costs which often discourage them from seeking care when they need it most.

The rapid rise in mobile phone penetration among large segments of the population provides an opportunity to use technology and digital tools to increase access to quality health care.

Mobile phones can be used for a range of health services, including:

• Disease surveillance. Mobile phones can rapidly report disease symptoms and outbreaks to public health authorities, who can respond quickly with appropriate treatment or control measures. For example, in Kenya mobile phone-based reporting of cases during the 2007 cholera outbreak helped reduce fatalities from 50% to 5%.
  
• Treatment monitoring and adherence. Mobile phones allow doctors to remotely monitor patients’ progress by checking their weight and providing tailored feedback on the effectiveness of treatment plans for chronic diseases such as hypertension or diabetes; this helps improve patient outcomes by reducing hospital stays and improving compliance with medication schedules.

According to a WHO report, more than 1 billion people cannot access health care due to many countries' scarcity of health workers.

This gap is expected to increase by 20% by 2030.

Among the main causes of this situation are:

• The growing demand for healthcare services
• Inadequate training of professionals and insufficient medical equipment
• Low wages paid to medical staff

Conclusion

During the Covid-19 pandemic and nationwide lockdown in the UK, a surge of people requiring home healthcare prompted the development of technologies that have become “must haves” instead of optional extras.

According to a study by Quin, 26% of the UK public would rather use health apps than visit their doctors or go to the hospital—and that number has increased by 37% since COVID-19 began.

"Quote from Vijay why he created POTG"

"After years of professional and personal health experience, I believe in self-monitoring health a way forward to have an independent healthy life. My mission is to provide secure digital platform to everyone to access and share health information anywhere on earth to seek best possible medical care".

Patient on the go (POTG) is a fully-customizable mobile application

Manage your health and organize your appointments with the Patient On The Go app. Designed around your schedule to help you track symptoms and communicate with your doctors, so they can give you the care you need. We can help you manage your health record and connect you with the doctors caring for you.

We wanted you to have more awareness, better accessibility and involvement in matters that affect your health and wellbeing.

Healthcare needs to be personal. Our platform to connect with local health professionals who are dedicated to helping you find the best ways to manage your health and ensure you have access to the best care when you need it.

Your POTG digital assistant supports you in bridging the communication gap between patients and doctors, ensuring that informed choices are made for the treatment plans. Empowers each citizen and creates healthy, independent lives at home

Today's health-conscious individuals can access medical advice at all hours of the day with access to diagnosis and treatment from the comfort of their own homes. The development of technologies like POTG will help reduce health inequalities in the UK—especially among patients who are unable to travel or afford regular consultations with doctors. These innovations have also transformed how healthcare is delivered around the world.

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