The effects of the COVID pandemic on Digital Health Technology

The COVID-19 pandemic shocked everyone and has changed the way we function on a daily basis. Access to simple things became restricted and complicated which resulted in massive disruptions across industries. The Healthcare industry is one of the worst hit industries, directly as a result of the contagious outbreak of the virus and indirectly because of public health measures to reduce the risk against the transmission of this infectious virus. The pandemic brought along multiple challenges for the healthcare industry worldwide.

The pandemic has forced organizations and businesses to quickly scale up and adopt the digital innovations which are being introduced in the market especially in the healthcare sector. It also served as a maturity test for digital health technologies.

Digital healthcare technologies can help in improving healthcare by making the services more accessible for patients, leading to improved & controlled population health and enhancing the overall healthcare experience. Healthcare providers & institutions are opting for these technologies to reduce the inefficiencies caused by the pandemic, reduce the long term costs, enhance the quality of care & services, and make their treatment more personalized for the patients. Get in touch with our team at Daffodil Software to know more.

With the outbreak of the pandemic and effectiveness of these digital health technologies, there is an increase in the interest from both patients as well as healthcare providers to adopt digital health solutions for their betterment.

The pandemic situations made us recognize the true potential of digital health technologies to cater to the needs of patients, healthcare providers and the overall community from the increased exposure of uncertainty. The situations further catalyzed the adoption and implementation of these technological advancements.

Due to the multiple waves of COVID pandemic, the utility of telehealth solutions increased across the globe as there was availability of experts (healthcare professionals) and the care was accessible in remote areas, therefore, increasing the geographical coverage of healthcare services & systems. It further made healthcare providers and custom healthcare software development companies reflect upon the implementation of AI healthcare solutions and they can help in managing the current crisis. Online consultations and telehealth solutions have never experienced a surge like this before. From online platforms for mental health care to e prescriptions, to remote care & testing, we knew solutions like these existed but never expected them to get adopted so quickly at an increasing rate.

Digital health technologies include telemonitoring, wearable devices, mobile apps, telehealth, use of AI etc. Implementation of these technologies was slow and challenging but due to the covid pandemic, the scope of these technologies expanded quickly as the healthcare industry looked upon them at the time of crisis and there was an increase in the adoption rate of these technologies. The adoption of these technologies is just the beginning for acceptance of more technological advancements in the healthcare industry. The use of these technologies is growing at an exponential rate especially in the times of the pandemic where the need of the hour is social distancing.

While fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare industry understood that these digital healthcare technologies can be applied in different ways including digital patients, digital devices and digital clinics/institutions. These technologies were implemented to control the immediate outbreak of the virus and then later on used to control the impact and reduce the increasing risk.

Post the outbreak of COVID pandemic, one in every four healthcare professionals encourage the use of healthcare related technologies in their treatments & practices. They have a very strong belief that by embracing these digital healthcare technologies, there will be an improvement in the patient care. Also, it would help the patients with easier access to their healthcare information. Patients are also embracing these technologies as they are able to manage their health better now.

It is very evident that COVID-19 pandemic had a positive impact on the implementation of digital healthcare technologies. These crises led healthcare providers & institutions to quickly get familiar with these technological advancements.

COVID pandemic has changed a lot of things and the healthcare industry has experienced drastic adjustments through its course of fighting this pandemic. After seeing the positive impact of the digital health technologies, it is quite obvious that these technologies will continue to help the healthcare industry in serving their patients better post the pandemic situations in the new normal. It is very evident that with the implementation of these digital healthcare technologies, the potential to improve the healthcare services is substantial and will continue to evolve. The outbreak of the pandemic and the “new normal” situations have given the healthcare industry a much-needed makeover in terms of implementation of these digital healthcare technologies.

New technological advancements are now being widely accepted and it is not only healthcare providers who are eagerly accepting them, but the general public is equally interested in exploring these advancements for their own betterment.

Nora Winkens 

Author Bio– Nora is a copywriter and content writer for Daffodil Software. She specializes in ghost blogging, email marketing campaigns and content for sales pages. She works closely with B2C and B2B businesses providing digital marketing content that gains social media attention and increases your search engine visibility.