HOSPITALS Magazine issue 62

Page 108

ARTICLE FEATURES . The Digital Health Sector

The Digital Health Sector Accelerated growth and increased investments

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fter the COVID-19 pandemic and most sectors going into pivotal digital transformations, digital transformation in the healthcare sector has become more important than ever. Hence, healthcare institutions started developing a digital strategy centered around patients and healthcare workers with an in-depth study of the IT options, financing issues and best practices that can be adopted in this field. This transformation urged specialists and decision-makers in the health sector to ask many questions, including: How can digital transformation help achieve the goals of health institutions and add value to patients and quality of healthcare services? This is based on the fact that digital transformation should make healthcare institutions more financially sustainable, more confident and future-ready. The World Health Organization stresses that digital health should be an integral part of health priorities and benefit people in a way that is ethical, safe, reliable, equitable and sustainable. Digital transformation in healthcare has been described as the art of using IT to transform its work methodology, including patient

JAN.FEB 2022

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ACCORDING TO THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, THE IMPLEMENTATION OF APPROPRIATE DIGITAL HEALTH TECHNOLOGIES IS A KEY COMPONENT OF A NATIONAL STRATEGY BUT MAY BE DIFFICULT TO ACCOMPLISH ESPECIALLY IN LOW- AND MIDDLEINCOME COUNTRIES.

care, business strategy, and organizational processes in these organizations using technologies such as telehealth, predictive analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI). Today, this digital transformation has become more important than ever before. The coronavirus pandemic was an opportunity to accelerate the pace of digital transformation when other sectors such as economy and education entered this field and succeeded in it. Studies indicate that telemedicine is one of the most cost-effective medical technologies in the global healthcare sector. Healthcare applications, video chats with doctors, and electronic database are examples of some of the innovations that patients can apply. It has also become clear that the COVID-19 outbreak has contributed to accelerating digital innovation at an unprecedented pace, with the aim of improving the healthcare level, as digital health, in addition to AI techniques, depend on the use of mobile computing and wearable devices to improve healthcare efficiency and quality. According to the World Health Organization, the implementation of appropriate digital health technologies is a key component of a


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