The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted nearly every sphere of our lives. We now live in a completely different world, as compared to the early days of year 2020. Right now, we find ourselves in the midst of “the new normal”.
Google Cloud recently conducted a research that measured the impact of the pandemic, specifically on the healthcare sector. The unique feature of this research was that the respondents were professionals related to the health sector.
The most notable change in the health sector came in the form of telehealth. When compared to the first quarter of 2020, there has been a threefold increase in the use of telehealth solutions to provide remote assistance to patients.
Nearly 45% of the respondent physicians said their organization accelerated the adoption of technology in response to the pandemic. 62% of the respondents said their healthcare organization made tech upgrades that would otherwise have taken several years.
Interestingly, majority of the healthcare professionals surveyed were of the opinion that healthcare institutions were lagging behind when it comes to digital adoption. An overwhelming 86% physicians stressed the need for interoperability of data.
95% of the respondents believed that by using patient data to their utmost advantage, physicians will be able to significantly reduce diagnosis time. This in turn is expected to significantly improve patient outcomes, as treatment relies mainly on the diagnosis.
Almost 54% of the respondents opined that digital technologies like Cloud Computing have significantly improved their access to patient related data. This improved access to patient data and past history has enabled physicians to draw better conclusions, even remotely.
89% of the respondents, which is a significant ratio, believed they need to consolidate patient data at a central point. This in turn will put physicians in a much better position to treat patients, as they will have a complete background of what they are up against.
The crux of this Google Cloud research is an urgency to consolidate patient data over digital platforms like the Cloud. This in turn will play an instrumental role in making quality healthcare safe, accessible and affordable in extraordinary times like these.
