“Healthcare Technology” is a very very complicated issue for many physicians. Healthcare Technology has been developed for so many different areas within the overall healthcare space. Where do you begin? There are an overwhelming number of platforms available to suit any number of a dozen “needs” in healthcare. Sub-definitions and useful TACTICAL sub-categorization is needed to help physicians identify with a particular area and dive in to learn more and perhaps push that technology out within their own limited IT infrastructure… or into their daily workflow.
Healthcare Technology currently can be broken down into areas including:
- Electronic medical records
- CRM platforms
- Platforms to improve operational efficiencies beyond the PMS
- Patient engagement – Socially rooted or otherwise
- Patient portals
- Textual Communications
- Visual Communications
- Quantified Self
- Educational
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- Website development
- Video based
- Textual
- Social
- Curated List (Readlists, rebelmouse, scoopit
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What’s a busy physician to do ??? First and foremost, they must be open and willing to learn more, adopt certain platforms or apps and embrace them — to ignore them is to potentially ignore the opportunity to:
- Foster their relevance
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- Website, create content, Facebook,Twitter, YouTube Channel, etc….
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- Improve clinical workflow
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- PMS with proper training, Phressia or similar platforms
- 3rd generation EMRs — on their way
- Online appointment scheduling
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- Improve efficient bidirectional digital patient communication
- Improve patient education – Medical decision-making aids
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- Website content — rooted in new media channels
- Clear.md
- Orca Health
- Jiffpad
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- Humanize their organization
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- videos — just buy a webcam and talk… no pros needed!
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- Initiate useful outbound marketing initiatives
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- Too many opportunities to list :-)
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Proper understanding of the various components which collectively comprise the HealthCare Information Technology space, and meaningful utilization of this technology will improve:
- Encounter documentation —> while improving the patient-physician relationship
- dealing efficiently with post-visit questions
- online appointment scheduling
- efficient bi-directional communications
- Outbound marketing —-at a fraction of the cost of inbound initiatives which many chose to avoid.
- Happier, better informed patients will to share your efforts and qualifications
What are you waiting for?
Disclaimer: this information is for your education and should not be considered medical advice regarding diagnosis or treatment recommendations. Some links on this page may be affiliate links. Read the full disclaimer.
