Digital
Healthcare Systems
Vision...
Preventive, paperless, empowering, personalised, and accountable. Digital healthcare strengths lay not in technology but rather that digital technology will be present in processes, professionals and people, in ways such that everyone can be a healthcare creator. He/she can be a prevention specialist; care for him/herself and family with the best scientific support; access digital therapeutics by default. Moving to any form of needed physical care, drug therapy, surgery, hospital admission, or ventilation support, etc, as last resource
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Read my recent paper on: Digital Healthcare Systems, Now more than ever
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Digital Healthcare Systems and the story of eHealth in Portugal. Read my most recent paper in Vision&Publications, or download pdf or visit HealthManagement.Org​ Journal
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What does it mean for all?
When humans can know enough to care not in a domestic, amateur, unprofessional way but empowered with digital tools designed, oriented, and monitored by scientists and professionals, we will have less shortage of resources to focus on highly specialized care that may still be needed.
Basis of DHS...
•First, healthcare transformation – of processes, professionals and patients, alternatively, of the care philosophy, interprofessional collaboration and of health-aware citizens.
•Second, significant investment in rethinking any need for physical interaction – even before COVID-19 crisis we should protect frail citizens from nosocomial infections, unnecessary travel, cost and suffering – Tele-health is the new health.
•Third, security of data, privacy and interoperability – The basis of trust, necessary for the new social contract required for using advanced population-based digital tools or for Robotic professionals to step-in where humans are at risk, not enough, or where human-robot hybrids outperform both.
•Fourth, motivation – Rethinking healthcare systems worldwide was already needed. 2020 gave us extra motivation, especially if we now better understand why a digital-based healthcare system is desperately needed.
Why it could be better?
In a DHS digital tools are used to reduce the need for healthcare. Societal design of education, workplace and play, can be improved. Through the integration of knowledge about medicine and human behaviour with architecture, engineering, and law, digital-born solutions can create the grounds for a healthier society. While the focus of eHealth use in existing healthcare systems is better access, comfort and efficiency, the hallmark of a Digital Healthcare System is not better care but less need for care. Less is the new better.
Informed health-aware citizen
The pillars of new #DigitalHealthcareSystems are digitally enabled citizens. Managers, Doctors, Nurses, allied health professionals, informaticians, IT specialists and all others, should be enablers and actants, to trigger, respond, and guide, the Informed health-aware citizen.