Digital Healthcare – What is happening and what can we expect in the future?

The pandemic has demonstrated that rapid digital transformation is possible – and necessary.

No matter which industry you are in, be it Legal, Healthcare, Manufacturing, or any other industry, you have now got the opportunity to reassess how you do things and implement digital aspects to innovate, automate and accelerate what you do. 

This was one interesting session of ‘The Digital Perspectives’, where we had Peter Flynn as a guest speaker, who is not just 40 under 40 Entrepreneur Award winner for his Allied Healthcare company – Physio Fit Adelaide, but also the co- founder of Telehealth platform for Allied Healthcare professionals. Prabin Gautam & Peter share their insights on how business can scale their influence and serve the community at the same time.

Peter’s initiatives are a great example of how digital transformation is here to stay in healthcare and its influence will only continue to rise.

The front-line Health care Initiative: 

Started when the Covid19 first hit Australia, The Frontline Healthcare initiative begin with an aim to ensure nurses and doctors working during the crisis are taking care of their well-being.

Peter recalls feeling despair, looking at the condition of health businesses and how it looked all out of control. The situation of uncertainty was heating up as almost 80% people were cancelling their appointments leaving health care workers with questions like; “What were we going to do? Are we just letting our patients go?”

He remembers, sitting at home and asking himself, “What can I do? What’s in my power to control this?” This led him to take control and create a meaningful way to give back and help people because he thought that was the point of being in the health care sector. Helping and doing something for the people, giving back to the community and that’s how this entire initiative began. 

Initially Frontline healthcare Initiative was Peter’s own business Physio Fit and at first, it was set to offer free online physiotherapy, podiatry, consultations via telehealth to doctors and nurses throughout the COVID pandemic. But, within a week or two it was a massive hit with more and more therapist across Australia wanting to get involved in this initiative. After this, there was no turning back the number kept increasing and with this capacity more supplier, software developers and owners were approached. 

Bringing together a bunch of health professionals who were helping doctors and nurses on the front line through COVID by providing them with free online consultations.

“People want to give back and feel as though they’re contributing in a meaningful way at this time. I think when you can’t do anything for yourself – because that’s kind of taken out of your control – it’s amazing to be able to do something for other people. This is how the initiative happened and it went for three months through the COVID period.” – shared Peter. 

Future of health care as it moves towards teleconsultation: Are we ready for it?

In the midst, of the coronavirus, however challenging now health care professional are ready for it, as the research shows that 90% of what we do can be done via telehealth. If we are focused, have a good setup and a decent network connection the future of health care is moving efficiently towards teleconsultation. 

What’s even more fascinating is, if the setup is right, the results and the experience we deliver through teleconsultation is even better & amazing. You can get patients to their goals. And from there, you build telehealth, an online consultation as a part of your business.

However, it’s very important to let patients know “What telehealth is?” Many patients don’t know what it is, and it may sound like a telemarketer to them, leaving them on the edge with no idea about it. This is something new for the patients as there has been a stereotype that, patients who see the physio physically must get touched to be examined. The patients to feel that way is also not something new as that’s how it had been going on for years. 

The gap between telehealth & patients is education. And the more that we educate people about that, and we take them on that journey, the more people we can serve, make them comfortable and help through telehealth.

Where is digital transformation heading & what we would expect in the healthcare industry, besides teleconsultation? 

Health care professionals are educators, who teach people about themselves. The idea is to guide people and gradually make them fix themselves on their own. This is the reframe practitioners and patients should keep in their mind. 

Looking at what’s digital transformation is going to do for the education of the patients is something interesting as now we see that increasing number of people are engaged in social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and even Tik Tok. Many of these social platforms have been surprisingly educating people about their body, resilience and their health. 

It’s important to educate people on what the research support. What works? What’s going to get people better? All health professional should keep in mind about the people we serve, and if we can genuinely change their life and educate them through digital media,

One great idea to build rapport with the patients could be making videos in topics patients are interested to learn about and connecting to them virtually. Giving out the best information, best programs and best exercises and helping people is one great way to build trust with the patients. 

Patients are going to trust and remember health professional who has provided them with valuable insight and educated them. As trust builds, they are going to choose to visit your clinic or practice. It’s best to keep in mind that we’re moving towards digital education and that scales our influence. Scales that we can put a video on Facebook and reach thousands of people. 

TOP 3 ADVICE to build a sustainable business in the post COVID world.

• Educating through videos, scaling your presence online. Education is a key but at the same time, we should be mindful and not use Vague medical terms. Understanding where the patients are from is very critical and understanding that and making them comfortable and easy is the key. 

• Working on the website; talk about the benefits that the person is going to receive, when they come in, what they are going to receive in return. Be sure to make your website focused on your patients. So, when patients are on it makes them have a great personal experience.  

• Looking at scaling your time and being able to use automation. Automate your emails when someone signs up to visit your clinic. As a health care professional, rather than just sending them the usual email. Adding up a welcome video from the practitioner they are going to receive treatment from could change the whole game. This will level up patient confidence and leave them assured they have chosen the right place. We want to make them feel comfortable to be coming to see us and we’re the right person to help guide them to achieve their goals

These little digitally improvised processes can be done step by step along the journey. This is going to scale up the customer experience. It’s that personal touchpoint that we want to. 

The Pandemic has given us new opportunity to reassess how we do things, how we want to move into the future and where we can implement that digital aspect to our business to automate to improve what we do, but also at the same time to educate and better serve our communities. 

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If you are looking to build your digital brand and monetise it, don’t forget to tune in to “The Digital Perspectives” LIVE every Thursday at 1:00 pm AEST.

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