In the last two years, the whole world was shocked by the tragedy that affected all various aspects of human life. The emergence of the COVID-19 became a concern from all levels of society to industry players.
Apart from all the negative impacts generated by the COVID-19 virus, On the other side this phenomenon can open the eyes of many parties about the importance of accelerating innovation and the development of creative ideas Including the healthcare industry to understand the level of digitization and the efforts of healthcare organizations in adapting digital technology as daily basis.
Pandemic makes us realize that we need the digital expansion for a company to continue to exist and develop rapidly by following the time. The world of Healthcare is no exception, which is also the importance of accelerating development in transforming into the digital realm.
Digital transformation in Health is not a New Thing, especially in developed countries out there. It is just about the unequal distribution and application in various regions caused by many factors and conditions, such as the financial problem, unequal distribution of wifi, unbalanced implementation, lack of information, quality of human resources, obstacles to bureaucracy and socialization and many other reasons.
By the existence of the virus, The health industry instantly noticed the good impact of digital transformation from the service, tools and operation as a form of increased quality development. Examples are to be more connected to all parties, easier to have the medical record, simplify the medical diagnosis process, create more accurate treatment system, lack of human error and well managed administration process.
To be able to understand the level of digitization and the effort of healthcare institution on adapt technology as their basic need, BitHealth took the initiative to collaborate with one of the leading Survey Institutes in Indonesia – Markplus.Inc to conduct research on various chain hospitals such as private hospitals, government hospitals, hospital associations, also the Ministry of Health and see how impactful the digital itself. Markpkus.Inc is a leading professional services company in Southeast Asia serving companies and individuals in the fields of consulting, marketing research, education and media community.
Based on the research, there are various digital technologies as the key to improving hospital services. These technologies are grouped into five broad categories. Those are Data Driven Technology, Predictive Technology, Contextual Technology, Augmented Technology, and Agile Technology.
Of the five major categories previously mentioned, predictive technology has not become the main focus of current medical technology development in most hospitals in Indonesia because the irrelevance level is more than 20 percent, so the nine technologies will have potential to become the key of digital transformation in Indonesia. Those are contextual , augmented, and agile technology.
These are the interesting facts about 9 Nine Trends of Digital Health Information Technologies that have become popular in recent years.
A. Data-Driven Technology
1. Health Education Via Apps
The use of these applications to educate the public regarding health has been applied to most hospitals in Indonesia. Many people feel helped by this technology which has achieved an average effectiveness score of up to 4.07 out of 5. However, some hospitals consider the use of this application to be less relevant because of the high cost. Health education is better done through social media.
2. Electronic Medical Report
Almost all hospitals have implemented recording of patient medical data on digital platforms to increase efficiency. Although it is difficult to make a data record in the form of images and is prone to do a “copy-paste” for different diagnoses, this technology makes it easier for hospitals to monitor and collect patient data. So that it has a relevance level of up to 100 percent according to all hospitals participating in this research.
3. Hospital Information System (HIS)
HIS is the basic system of all procedures in the hospital. HIS has helped to improve the efficiency of most hospitals in Indonesia, and even has an effectiveness rate of more than 85 percent. However, some hospitals are still unable to integrate all of their systems and must need a relevant vendor to get involved in the development process.
4. Online Drug Delivery
The digital system that can help order and deliver drugs to the patient’s residence has been running quite effectively, especially during the pandemic. In fact, 80 percent of the hospitals in this research already have an online drug delivery service. However, there are difficulties such as ordering drugs for serious illnesses which require an explanation from the pharmacist about “how to use the drugs.”
B. Contextual Technology
5. Digital Discharge & Scheduling
Several hospitals in Indonesia are planning to develop a digital system for check-ups. These activities related to rehabilitation to a reminder system for patients. This technology has attracted the attention of several hospitals because its relevance level has reached 100 percent and is predicted to bring a great demand in the future according to the hospitals in this research.
C. Augmented Technology
6. Teleconsultation
In order to handle the pandemic situation, almost all hospitals in Indonesia have implemented teleconsultation services. In fact, 13 of the 15 hospitals in this study have applied this service. This technology allows patients to make a consultation with the doctors without doing a face to face method. in But this system is limited to patients with mild illnesses. In general, a more in-depth diagnosis still needs to be done face-to-face and needs a longer process to get diagnosed more deeply.
7. Patient Engagement Portal
Digital-based patient data portals have been implemented in almost all hospitals. Although some hospitals are concerned about the low level use of this technology, so far the implementation of the patient engagement portal tends to be effective with an effectiveness rate of more than 84 percent and helps in collecting and sending the results of patient medical actions.
8. Digital Follow Ups
Digital follow-up without a face-to-face method with a doctor to ask the patient’s condition after treatment has been implemented by more than 66 percent of hospitals in this study. This service has more relevance than Teleconsultation because the patient’s medical record is already owned by the hospital. Some hospitals also claim that there are many offers from start-ups to use the chat bots in their implementation.
D. Agile Technology
9. Health & Lifestyle Trackers
At this time, technology as a device like accessories to carry out health monitoring has not been mostly used for medical purposes. The reason why is because it is still considered less relevant, as assessed by more than 30 percent of hospitals in this research, most of them use this program for personal health monitoring. However, because of COVID – 19 several hospitals in Indonesia have started to adapt this technology for certain cases, such as monitoring the oxygen saturation of patients who are self-isolating.
Through this research, it can be concluded that technology sooner or later has become an important role for the health industry both for the present and the future in terms of medical process, treatment process, health services and many more. In general, hospitals, especially in big cities ( class A and B ) are hospitals that in the majority have started the development of digital transformation as their daily operations and services.
With a strong commitment and synergy by all parties to advance the world of Indonesian Health, slowly but surely there are a lot of hopes in creating significant progress to support the welfare of the Indonesian community.
Because health is the main thing that underlies and becomes a standard of various important aspects of our life.
In fact, digital advances are needed to improve human scope because they can provide more definite accuracy and more broadly solutions to create effective and efficient solutions and provide more focus information to spread the massive positive impact in the future.
