Digital medicine 2024: How doctors and patients will benefit

A quick consultation via video chat, e-prescriptions on smartphones, electronic health records: These are just a few examples of digital medicine, which, on the one hand, enables patients to treat patients more efficiently and at the same time also relieve health workers.

COVID-19 has shown us that this is urgently needed. During this time, it became clear where the weaknesses and optimization options of our healthcare system lie.

In this article, we therefore look at what digital medicine will look like in 2024. What are the benefits for patients? How can large but also small medical practices (and healthcare facilities in general) relieve their staff and become more efficient at the same time?

What is part of digital medicine?

Digital medicine refers to the use of digital technologies in healthcare and comprises a wide range of applications. This sometimes includes:

1. telemedicine
2. Health apps
3. Wearables such as sleep or fitness trackers
4. Electronic health records
5. Electronic prescriptions
6. Electronic certificates of incapacity for work
7. TI messengers that transmit secure communication between doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, etc.

We will go into more detail about these individual elements of digital medicine right away. But for now, we'd like to answer the following question:

Why is digitization important in healthcare?

In recent years, digitization has transformed almost all aspects of our lives. Healthcare is no exception. This is because the use of digital technologies and processes offers many benefits for doctors, patients and the entire healthcare system.

Let's briefly summarize these benefits:

1. Improved patient care: New digital technologies enable patients to be diagnosed, treated and cared for more efficiently. On the one hand, this is practical for doctors and, on the other hand, offers patients improved healthcare.

2. Simplified accessibility: Digital health solutions such as telemedicine enable patients to access medical care regardless of location or physical limitations.

3. Increasing efficiency: Digital systems such as electronic health records reduce paperwork and also improve coordination. Mistakes that might otherwise happen in administration and support are noticeably minimized.

4. Cost efficiency: By optimising processes and reducing unnecessary examinations and treatments, digital solutions can help reduce healthcare costs.

5. Prevention and early detection: Digital medicine can help to identify patients' health risks at an early stage and to reactively promote preventive measures.

Specific areas & applications of digital medicine in 2024

1. telemedicine

Telemedicine includes the digitization of medical services and advice via digital communication channels. This includes:

1. video calls
2. telephone calls
3. online platforms

telemedicine enables virtual doctor visits and the exchange of patient medical information (e.g. blood pressure, blood sugar levels, heart rate) in real time.

In this way, patients can receive diagnoses, discuss treatments, or seek medical advice without having to physically go to the doctor's office.

Note: It's important to note that telemedicine doesn't always replace a physical visit to the doctor's office. Depending on the individual symptoms and needs of the patient, a personal examination may be necessary.

However, telemedicine provides a convenient way for patients to receive medical advice and treatment from home, particularly for routine checkups or discussing follow-up checks.

2. Electronic health records (EGAs)

EGAs provide a centralized platform to store and manage health data, including medical findings, laboratory results, medication history, and diagnoses. They enable the seamless exchange of data between different healthcare institutions and professionals.

In addition, patients can access their own health data through eGas, and this works via secure online portals or mobile applications. Especially today, patients are more interested than ever in the details of their findings and general health data.

By the way:

1. Electronic health records
2. Electronic prescriptions
3. Electronic certificates of incapacity for work

also fall under the category of EGAs.

3. Health apps and wearables

Health apps and wearables are becoming increasingly popular and are also making an important contribution to the digital healthcare landscape.

First, let's talk briefly about Health apps: Such apps can include various applications and run on mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets. Such features include:

• Recording health data (e.g. sleep patterns, eating habits, fitness activities)
• Medication reminders
• Accessing medical resources and information

And now on to the wearables:

Wearables are wearable devices such as fitness trackers, smartwatches and similar tools such as the Oura Ring. These measure data such as heart rate, step count, sleep patterns and activity levels.

Wearables and health apps are usually integrated into each other and use the data not only to provide relevant health information, but also to motivate people to lead a healthy lifestyle.

4. Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS)

Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) are software applications and tools that help healthcare professionals make well-founded clinical decisions.

In concrete terms, this means: assistance with diagnoses, treatments, medication management and other clinical decisions.

How does that work? CDSS access digital health records, then review relevant information and integrate it with medical expertise.

Important to note: Of course, this does not mean that doctors are no longer making independent decisions for their patients. As I said, these systems are “decision support systems” that help doctors keep track of all relevant factors and take into account every important piece of information.

How do these CDSS work?

As a rule, they are implemented in electronic health records (EGAs), hospital information systems (HIS) or other health information systems.

The main features of CDSS are briefly summarized here:

1. Evidence-based information: Based on current medical findings for well-founded decisions.
   
2. Integrate patient data: Uses data from health records for personalized recommendations.
   
3. Diagnostic support: Helps interpret tests and provides differential diagnoses.
   
4. Therapy recommendations: Gives personalized recommendations for medications and treatments.
   
5. Monitoring and alerts: Detects deviations from normal parameters and warns of adverse events.

5. Remote monitoring

Remote monitoring refers to monitoring a patient's health parameters remotely. This can be achieved with wearables, sensors, or via telemedicine platforms and various digital devices.

This has the advantage that patients can regularly review and monitor their health data themselves. They can also digitally forward this data to their doctors in order to optimally manage the disease and prevent possible complications.

With remote monitoring, many different health parameters can be observed as needed, including:

1. vital signs such as heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar, oxygen saturation, body temperature, and respiratory rate
2. Transaction data such as step count and activity level
3. sleep patterns
4. Clinical measurements such as blood tests and urinalysis

The potential areas of application for remote monitoring are also numerous. Just to name a few examples:

1. Managing chronic diseases (such as diabetes or heart failure)
2. Post-operative care
3. Care for older people
4. pregnancy monitoring

6th TI Messenger

TI messengers are special messenger services that are part of the telematics infrastructure (TI) in healthcare. TI messengers enable secure and encrypted communication between various players in the healthcare sector:

For example, between doctors, hospitals, pharmacies and health insurance companies. To ensure this, these messenger services meet high security standards and data protection requirements. This protects patients' confidential health data.

The benefits of TI messengers in a nutshell:

1. Secure and encrypted data exchange
2. Efficient communication between health professionals
3. Potential cost savings and streamlining workflows
4. Promoting interoperability in healthcare
5. Traceability of messages and transactions

Example: What can digital medical treatment look like for patients?

Here is a quick example:

Max, 55 years old, has been suffering from high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels for some time, which he already knows from previous doctor visits. This increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.

He decides to use digital medical treatment and arranges a virtual doctor visit via a telemedicine platform.

During the video call, he discusses his current symptoms, lifestyle, and medical history with his doctor.

The doctor decides to offer Max remote monitoring of his blood pressure and cholesterol levels. He creates a treatment plan for him, the effectiveness and progress of which can be checked in detail via remote monitoring.

Max receives a blood pressure monitor and a device to measure cholesterol levels, which he regularly uses at home.

The results are automatically sent to his doctor. Through regular monitoring, the doctor can evaluate the progress of treatment and ensure whether Max is implementing the treatment plan correctly or whether medications or new medications should be included.

Brief guide: Practice optimization for doctors & healthcare providers

In this section, we would like to focus on specific digital tools and applications that doctors and healthcare providers can use to optimize their practice in terms of profitability and efficiency.

The following areas with respective applications are relevant: ‍

1. ‍Communication and interaction: Through regular communication via various channels such as e-mail, telephone, SMS or patient portals, a strong bond with patients is established. This communication may include automatic appointment reminders, health information, and regular retrieval of medical history data.‍
2. Patient feedback and surveys: The regular collection of feedback makes it possible to address patients' needs even more precisely and to continuously improve services. This strengthens patients' trust and loyalty to the practice. Patient feedback systems can also be automatically integrated into everyday practice, so that there is no effort for the practice. ‍
3. Doctor reviews: Physician reviews play a critical role for healthcare providers as they influence the trust of potential patients and influence practice reputation. They serve as decision-making aids for patients who obtain information on the Internet before visiting a practice.

Positive reviews also improve local rankings in search results from search engines such as Google.

Here we can recommend Nelly's latest feature:

Nelly practice review 5/5 — this is how it works: In just 3 steps, Nelly makes building a good review score for your medical practice easier than ever before.

1. First contact: When checking in digitally at your doctor's office, the patient already states in the medical history flow how they came across your doctor's practice.
2. Review reminder: After treatment, the patient automatically receives a reminder to submit a review of your practice via Nelly. You can set the time and channel of the reminder yourself. By default, this is 24 hours after completing the medical history or payment of an invoice.
3. Google invite: If the patient has given at least 4 or 5 stars, he receives an automated invitation to the public Google rating. This increases the likelihood that the patient will rate your practice positively.
4. Efficient scheduling systems: These can ensure that the waiting time for patients is as short as possible. This is important because waiting too long is a common cause of complaint among many patients.
5. Personalized support and individual approach: Care tailored to needs, preferences and medical requirements strengthens patients' trust and commitment to practice.‍
6. Continuous follow-up: Regular follow-up after treatments or consultations shows interest in patients' well-being and strengthens commitment to practice.

By the way, such follow-ups and reminders, e.g. to sign documents, can with Nelly can be conveniently sent to patients via SMS. Other processes such as invoices and receivables management can also be digitized with Nelly.

Here you can find more information about our practice assessment feature.

synopsis

The digitalization of healthcare has made great progress in recent years and offers numerous benefits for patients, practices and healthcare professionals. From telemedicine and electronic health records to health apps and wearables, digital medicine has the potential to make healthcare more efficient, accessible and personalized.

The following trend can also be observed: It is becoming increasingly important for doctors (and healthcare institutions) to digitize their practice. Experience has shown that the convenience of a digitally optimized practice attracts patients and also ensures that they are more likely to return.

Special tools such as Nelly also enable your patients to manage documents digitally. It's very easy:

1. Your patients scan a QR code with their own smartphone.
2. All relevant data can easily be digitally entered into the electronic mask.
3. your patients Sign with one click and transfer all documents to your practice system.
   

Now you too can create a digital workflow in your practice. We advise you non-binding and free to your individual case!

Contact Nelly now!

The personal names used in this article always refer equally to all persons. Dual naming and alternate names are omitted in order to improve readability.