A recent invite by a promising startup in Canada to be on their advisory board got me thinking about the many roles technology can play in healthcare. I certainly don’t have a crystal ball, but it would be safe to assume that with the advent of so many health apps, one area that will certainly see a quantum change, a huge paradigm shift is the delivery mechanism of healthcare at home.
We have indeed come a long way..from the life and times of Florence Nightangale, the founder of Modern Nursing.
“We’ve entered the era of low-cost, miniaturized, technological capabilities that enable smarter care giving and greater independence,” says Laurie Orlov,
Although mobile devices, big data, analytics, and cloud-based services permit almost every age group to use technology for better health, perhaps no generation is poised to gain more than the baby boomers.
I envision a future with more consumer-driven, preventive medicine in which consumers can evaluate their own bodies and communicate with health care professionals on an ongoing or as-needed basis.
Technology can help relieve some of this burden on family members while keeping elderly people connected to relatives, caregivers, and healthcare providers. Of course, technology is not a panacea. Not all elderly or physically- or mentally-challenged people are candidates for remaining at home. But experts in geriatric care agree more elders could stay in their homes longer if they installed several of today’s technologies.
Maintaining the highest level of independent living is a key goal for many individuals whether they are recovering from an illness, living with a chronic disease, or aging in place. Environmental barriers in and outside the home are often critical deterrents to maintaining that independence. Modern technology is producing medications and systems that allow our citizens to live longer healthier lives. Technology can bring services to individuals, rather than the individual to services it provides a way to compile all the information about a particular home care client. When all the information is stored into the home care software program it can then be accessed by a team of people who may be assisting a particular patient or client. It will provide them with all the care information, as well as provide the team of people with a way to exchange opinions and gather resources. Providing those who need it with the quick access to the patient information helps to ensure a higher level of care, along with a better accuracy rate.
Wearable technologies continue to grow in popularity and have the ability to revolutionize the way patients and health care providers share information, interact, and make decisions about their health and care plans. The use of wearables allows Health care providers to remotely monitor patient vitals and fitness activity, placing their real-time personal health data in the patient’s own hands and allowing them to monitor their progress on the go or in the comfort of their homes. Patient’s no longer need to solely rely on a healthcare provider to be proactive in their treatments and health progress, which could result in fewer and shorter visits, staying out of the hospital and better chronic care outcomes.
In India Home care Services seems to be growing at an exponential rate, but we are yet to perfect the business model, it is still evolving in India but looks very enticing. The bottom line is, no matter what medical devices are used or the wearables a home care patient uses, the satisfaction of a home care patient depends on many other factors and as a matter of fact it is not dependent on technology alone. What technology would do is at best assist the healthcare provider in improving the clinical outcome but Home care needs a more holistic and empathetic approach.
