Prior to the pandemic bringing healthcare into a state of utter confusion or disorder, physicians had already been struggling with burnout, yet technology offered a solution.
After the pandemic, the U.S. has been dealing with a significant physician shortage that many have described as “devastating.” Doctors had to handle long hours, complex regulations, costly malpractice insurance premiums, and a vast amount of paperwork that kept them busy outside office hours. Additionally, the updated student loan forgiveness program should have covered their medical school debt.
No doubt, Covid-19 has only made an already-troublesome issue even worse. During this pandemic, physicians have had to handle immense stress, such as treating ill or dying patients, inadequate PPE, limited hospital beds, and conflicting information on Covid-19. On top of that, they also deal with patients’ fear and dread of contracting the virus.
As the pandemic enters its fourth year, we have vaccines to fight the virus, and people have returned to their lives as before. However, doctors are feeling the toll of the pandemic; many of them are exhausted, depressed, and stressed, even considering a change in profession. A study conducted by Mayo Clinic, funded by the American Medical Association, reported that one in five doctors plan to leave their medical practice by the end of 2023, and one in three will reduce their hours in early 2023.
As suggested by the AMA, the Great Medical Resignation can be alleviated by offering more support to doctors as caregivers and providing them with a sense of worth in their roles. Additionally, technology can also be used to lighten the load of physicians’ day-to-day obligations. This is how technology can be used:
Engaging in Virtual Conferences with Pharmaceutical Representatives
Many of us are familiar with the sight of pharmaceutical representatives rolling their sample carts in and out of doctors’ offices, trying to get a few minutes of their time. Then the pandemic hit, and many major pharmaceutical companies sent their reps home to work remotely. Now, while they can visit the doctor’s office in person, both physicians and representatives have found that virtual visits are more effective and lead to more productive conversations. Furthermore, virtual meetings allow doctors to optimize their schedules and spend more time on virtual visits than in-person ones.
It is now possible for physicians to keep in contact with pharmaceutical companies in a legally permitted fashion. Messaging can be as straightforward as a text message, which is advantageous for doctors who have a brief inquiry about medication and are between appointments. They don’t need to take time to sign in and can be sure that their correspondence is safe and encoded.
A Global Data Healthcare survey revealed that the majority of physicians (75%) prefer remote video conferencing to traditional in-person meetings. The pandemic has been a significant catalyst for the digital transformation of the pharmaceutical industry, which is now permanently changed. Physicians are now feeling less stressed and relaxed. Now they can give more attention to their patients.
Quantum Computing and the Use of Telehealth
The 2021 McKinsey Physician Survey showed that 88% of people had used telehealth during the pandemic, and the utilization of digital platforms is 38% higher than before. People are more comfortable with remote health care, especially those looking for mental health care; a 2022 report from the Kaiser Family Foundation revealed that 36% of those seeking mental health and substance abuse disorders treatment now use telehealth.
Hucu.ai is HIPAA compliant healthcare solution fully integrated with EHR. Physicians, patients, healthcare partners, and patients’ relatives can be accessed through secure video conferencing, two-way texting, and audio calls. They can share their image test reports on the most secure cloud-based data storage.
Patients are unknowingly transitioning into well-versed digital healthcare consumers, and this development is only likely to progress further, with quantum computing at the forefront of medical technology. Quantum computing has the potential to conduct virtual diagnoses and scans of a person’s genetics quickly, and it is projected that in the next decade, it may create custom medicines for individuals without requiring any physical interaction.
With telehealth solutions and quantum computing technologies, doctors have been spared the overburdened, and they can be more efficient and stress-free.
Hub Services Provided
Presently, healthcare professionals still face the challenge of dispensing specialty drugs within a complex, slow-moving, and expensive structure. These medications, created from living cells and used to treat serious and long-term illnesses such as cancer and rheumatoid arthritis, must be prescribed within this difficult system.
Since the 1990s, the number of specialty drugs available has increased dramatically, from just 30 to over 500. According to the IQVIA Institute’s report on the Global Use of Medicine in 2019 and Outlook to 2023, it is projected that by the end of 2023, 65% of newly developed pharmaceuticals will be specialty drugs.
The evolution of hub services is a great asset to the specialty drug industry. These services, as their name implies, organize and consolidate all the relevant data, including patient history, drug information, adherence regulations, and insurance details, in one convenient place, making managing the specialty drug process more straightforward.
Q.R. Codes, Conversational Bots, and Artificial Intelligence
Digitization yields positive outcomes for both patients and healthcare professionals. While these professionals are not typically tech-adept, tech has responded by becoming more user-friendly. Initially created in 1994, Q.R. codes are frequently utilized in medical brochures, magazines, and patient records. A Deloitte survey from 2020 revealed that consumers feel more at ease sharing their medical information, thus establishing trust in using Q.R. codes.
Patients are becoming more comfortable conversing with artificial intelligence-driven chatbots that use machine learning and continually become more intelligent. These chatbots are beneficial to doctors, as they are able to quickly and accurately answer inquiries that may otherwise take up time in a physician’s busy schedule. Furthermore, they provide a layer of privacy when it comes to personal topics such as genital warts or colonoscopy preparation that could potentially make patients uncomfortable.
It’s evident that artificial intelligence in healthcare has grown exponentially during the pandemic, and it looks like it will continue to be a permanent fixture. The use of artificial intelligence in healthcare accelerated during the pandemic.
Conclusion
The utilization of AI-based technology in healthcare is ongoing and has many advantages, from administrative tasks to drug development and predictive analytics. Doctors will not be replaced by it, but it will support them and help to relieve their workloads. Especially in light of the decline in life expectancy in the U.S., these technologies are more critical than ever to ensure doctors can be as efficient as possible.
It is evident that the usage of technology has brought about many improvements in our daily lives. The convenience brought by tech has revolutionized the way we go about our daily tasks and activities. From how we communicate to how we shop, technology has impacted us positively in numerous ways.
