When COVID-19 spread around the world in March of last year, New Zealand reacted quickly. In fact, their shutdown was very effective that they could have a much shorter quarantine period than most other countries. They quickly mobilised technology to assist in pivoting and shifting toward virtual appointments, utilising telehealth to assist in patient management.
During this time, telehealth is increasingly being used for multidisciplinary meetings, with pathology and radiology images being streamed, allowing clinicians who could not previously attend to participate and reducing travel times.
However, according to New Zealand Telehealth Resource Centre telehealth advisor mobile health, improved interoperability between video conferencing service providers has made it easier for people using a variety of platforms to connect.
To address this, New Zealand’s innovative data technology provider, dedicated to assisting customers in resolving the most critical scalability, interoperability, and speed issues, has announced the release of the latest version of its electronic medical record system.
During the pandemic, the system was released on time, thanks to the data technology provider’s commitment to delivering solutions that address the rapidly changing needs of healthcare organisations. The timing of the release enabled the data company was able to incorporate COVID functionality into the new version, which was supported by the knowledge and expertise gained from learning from the challenges and requirements of its customers around the world.
The COVID requirements have highlighted the importance of rapid deployment, and the most recent version of the system has added functionality to enable organisations to be more agile. Throughout the pandemic, testing of large populations increased the need to accelerate and streamline the approval process of lab results. In response, the data tech provider has added pre-configurations and new analyser interfaces to the system, enabling lab clinicians to focus on the smaller percentage of testing that requires human intervention.
Some of the system’s new capabilities include improved medication controls as well as data and identity management. Furthermore, the company claims to have developed a new and more agile approach to software updates that will benefit both healthcare professionals and patients when using the most up-to-date functionalities.
The most recent version of the system includes a slew of new features inspired by the quick response of healthcare organisations around the world to COVID-19 challenges. By integrating with a cross-EMR patient portal feature, the system update responds to rising telehealth and virtual care demand.
This integration allows for the addition of new features such as outpatient bookings and the synchronisation of third-party app data integrated into patient records. The tool is customisable, which encourages further innovation in remote monitoring and patient engagement for users all over the world.
“Patients can now book appointments and see their care provider from their own homes,” says data tech provider, director of product management. “And clinicians can use any conferencing apps of their choice, while still using their routine consultation workflows and maintaining access to clinical records. He then added.
Technology is at the core of telehealth because it allows patients to communicate with medical professionals from the safety and comfort of their own homes. Texting devices and applications, internet chatting, screen sharing, phone calls, and video conferencing are examples of technology that can be used. While the ideal method varies depending on the nature of the consultation, a video call comes the closest to capturing a more traditional doctor-patient interaction.
Nonetheless, interconnectivity is becoming increasingly important to health, and as a result, patients have more control over their health decisions than ever before. Telehealth essentially places a patient’s wellness into the palms of their hands.
The pandemic has boosted the acceptance of telemedicine services for both patients and healthcare providers. The health tech provider believes that enabling better healthcare through technology has become more critical than ever.
