It is high time to leverage the problem-solving skills of physicians for developing physician-friendly technology solutions.

Have you ever interviewed a physician and asked him what drove him to become one? You might almost always hear philanthropic stories for their innate love for helping others, or admiration for a parent or another family member who is a physician, or even heart-wrenching incidents of how a loved one lost his battle to medical concerns. You might never hear someone say they chose medicine because they wanted to polish their data entry skills and learn EHR. Either way, being a physician is not an easy job.

Physicians work day and night to build trust with their patients. They have to be at their toes 24/7, being available whenever need be, and spending the necessary time to ensure delivering continuous care. However, their ability to do so is dwindling. And as they spend more time on performing administrative tasks, their focus on patient care delivery tends to greatly suffer. These are routine mundane tasks including filling out necessary paper work, navigating federal and state mandates, and medication authorizations. It is estimated that physicians only spend 27 percent of their time with the patients.

Changing Physician-Patient Relationship

Unfortunately, it is hard to identify when and why this change in the physician-patient relationship occurred. Perhaps healthcare technology is the lead influential factor in this context. While physicians juggle between technologies to deliver effective patient care, they are also trying to leverage these technologies to patient communications. It might not be an overstatement if we argue that technology in healthcare is particularly designed to not only facilitate patient encounters but also to lower costs. However, they fail short of enabling the physicians in understanding the health problems facing their patients or in helping finding solutions. Lack of physician-patient relationship is the factor to be blamed therein.

Since physicians are typically cognizant of what works and what doesn’t, they are the ultimate gurus of implementing transformative solutions. This then magnifies their medical powers; while they are the facilitators, they carry a default potential to become disruptors. Disruptors are essentially those entities, whether companies or individuals, that make big changes to the healthcare industry and redefine the way care is delivered. This typically means integrating new technologies, streamlining processes, and finding new ways to perform routine tasks.

Being at the front line of the industry, physicians precisely understand how and what they need to effectively manage their practice and their relationships. So, while they spend their entire lives solving complex problems, why not translate these skills to develop health physician-patient technology solutions?

Telehealth – Disruptor Case in Point

Eureka! We have telehealth as the most plausible solution. Telehealth has evolved as a breakthrough innovation in the healthcare IT, optimizing and maximizing a physician’s time, while delivering easy as well as patient-centric care. Such platforms are typically simple to implement, comprehensive, HIPAA-compliant, and easy to use for both physicians and the patients.

Bringing in regular real-time interaction to day-to-day health visits, telehealth allows the physicians and patients to stay actively connected with each other. Discussion of test results, changes in prescriptions, treatment clarifications and exchange of any other health-related updates are typically facilitated by telehealth. The notion of in-person visits is substituted by one-off online interactions. Physicians can then deliver care more proactively while overcoming numerous barriers of geography, time and space, fostering a health relationship with their patients on a regular basis.

Moreover, telehealth solutions allow exchange of vital patient data such as blood-pressure, heath rate, body temperate, and blood sugar level, in real-time and no time. Integrated medical devices facilitate this exchange and patients can easily use them in the comfort of their homes. Furthermore, video visits create efficiencies by responding to patient needs quickly, allowing the physicians to spend more time with their complex-needs patients. At the same time, callbacks and follow-ups are included in billable time, which translates into revenue generation for the physicians.

Disruptive technology in healthcare comes in all shapes and sizes. From pocket-size ultrasound devices to Artificial Intelligence, physicians have a wide range of innovative tools at their disposal to transform medicine at a remarkable pace. The role of physicians, however, remains of utmost importance since they carry the ability to shake up the healthcare industry at large.