Intelligent handling of post-pandemic stress disorders are in. Initiating new hygiene habits is the flavour of the day. Efficient shifts in points-of-care management are happening. Suitable healthcare plans are being offered. Thanks to the pandemic, healthcare is transforming. Hospitals are getting upgraded and this will make them equipped with better men and machines, strengthened by sinewy systems. Hospitals of tomorrow will be beefed-up operations capable of handling complex pathological conditions.
The Traffic Light System
Handling emergency breakout situations will be the new focus of hospitals. Ensuring safer healthcare environment for patients will be their new priority. Overhauling intensive care systems will be their new emphasis. Meanwhile, a few countries have proposed the detection of antibodies to the Corona virus SARS-CoV-2 could form the basis for what is called a pandemic passport.
A risk-free certificate is supposed to enable ex-virus patients to travel, restart their usual routine and work in offices. These release certificates will be issued as smartphone Quick Response codes to those who are Covid-19 free. Governments in Germany, Italy and Chile are among those issuing immunity passports. Other countries including United Kingdom will use permanently what is called the traffic light system to determine degrees of control on the basis of colour codes assigned to cities, districts and regions.
Leveraging Algorithms
These may be in the realm of conjectures in a few regions. As questions of data protection, privacy violations, discriminatory practices and perverse incentives remain unanswered, hospitals are not yet clear about where they stand on these issues. However, answers or no answers, hospitals will be required tomorrow to do more than clinical treatment of infected people.
Yet, healthcare awareness programs of nations across the globe will place greater stress permanently on personal and public hygiene practices. Social distancing measures and facemask-wearing practices will be in place permanently. Tapping artificial intelligence algorithms in healthcare may soon become a major healthcare imperative.
These algorithms will be leveraged both for sending early warnings of outbreaks and for testing Covid-19 suspects. Hospitals will use artificial intelligence to manage their strained resources optimally, accelerate the pace of research on contagion controls and get prepared better for the next healthcare crisis.
Value-Based Primary Care
Digital health solutions will move centre stage in the fight against Corona. Telemedicine and digital health technologies will be the new healthcare paradigms. Digital stethoscopes, otoscopes and electrocardiogram monitors will move within common man’s reach, to be used at home and anywhere, shifting the point-of-care to the patient. The results will be shared with doctors online. So, expect doctor-patient visits happening when they are absolutely unavoidable and necessary.
In a post-pandemic world, telehealth options will expand beyond anybody’s imagination. Fee-for-Service healthcare models will transform into value-based primary care. Increased use of technology will help slash high costs and inefficiencies in healthcare.
The Spotify Moment in Healthcare
The traditional healthcare model of paying for every visit, paying after every consultation and paying for every hospital admission will be displaced gradually by monthly and yearly healthcare packages. This hot-cross bun healthcare, where you pay for every unit of the product, will bow out to let in healthcare packages sold as mobile packages are hawked on basic, regular, standard and premium plans. Truly, it will be a Spotify moment or Amazon Prime moment in healthcare. Healthcare being sold as phone call-data packages, will push out the fee-based healthcare business model to be replaced by a subscription-based model. This will create reliable healthcare infrastructure.
Pandemic-Fighting Dashboards
In a trustworthy healthcare scenario, patient-care entities and organisations will develop a “co-operative healthcare info bank”, wherein patient data will be stored and shared, for discussions and analysis. These banks will equip hospitals to handle pandemic situations better. Plus, this info-bank concept will usher in a cohesively unique healthcare ecosystem rising up to any challenge.
Clues about the changing face of healthcare post-pandemic are already available in how the National Health Service is transforming. This publicly funded healthcare system in the United Kingdom, the largest single-payer healthcare system in the world, is collaborating with US technology companies, including Google of Alphabet Inc, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Microsoft and Amazon, to create computer dashboards and front-end data platforms to fight pandemic outbreaks.
In Conclusion
Public-private partnerships will become the healthcare norm in many countries leading to the internationalistion of healthcare. Which will make possible global sharing of resources, expertise and information. Meanwhile, the clinical staff of National Health Service is working in unrelated departments. Why, eye-nose-throat surgeons are said to be working in intensive care units and trauma care centres. These developments will become the norm worldwide and will bring about enduring shifts in the generalist-specialist equation. Surely, it will be the new healthcare paradigm of tomorrow.
