Digital health technologies transforming traditional family doctor-patient relationship

In India, chronic diseases are on the rise due to changing lifestyles, putting a heavy burden on specialty doctors. According to the LASI report, high cholesterol, diabetes, and physical inactivity were key risk factors for rising incidents of cardio-vascular diseases. Further, India is becoming the diabetes capital of the world and the associated comorbidities diseases pose a major threat. Medical cases, especially in rural Bharat are reported at a very late stage of the disease, leaving doctors very little room to help patients. A proactive approach to prevention, early diagnosis and screening is becoming increasingly important. However, there is very little coverage of specialists across the country. In this scenario, the role of traditional Family Doctors is seeing renewed interest. The concept of family doctors or physicians has been around for long, but their prominence in the healthcare space had seen a decline. Generally, family doctors know a patient’s entire medical history as well as life events that may influence his or her health. But traditionally this has been managed in an offline manner. Living in a complex world of diseases, doctors today need the power of digital tools to drive better health outcomes and enhance their relationships with their patients. A well-informed doctor can better manage a family’s health if they have access to updated health information and working relations with specialty doctors. In many cases, doctors need to rely on tech innovations to be able to find answers to complex treatment situations and drive better health outcomes. An Electronic Medical Record system (EMR) is one such example. EMRs are essentially electronic versions of patient health information collected over time. They can be used across diverse healthcare settings and across all specialties of doctors. Technological capabilities coupled with the longitudinal view of patient health information made available through EMR can enable the family doctor to set a strong foundation for prevention and early detection of diseases in their patients. EMRs also enable the doctors with Insights dashboard, prescription summaries, and pre-defined templates that help in the effective structuring of patient information. This digital approach trumps the traditional hand-written prescriptions and equips the family doctors today to handle a complex health crisis while reducing incidents of misdiagnosis / medical errors. When it comes to doctor-patient relationships, EMR enables doctors to communicate effectively and regularly with their patients in the language that they are most familiar with. Studies have shown that this two-way approach to managing one’s health has led patients to be more involved in their care. Some industry reports also suggest that EMRs have improved the work lives of family doctors, by making quality health systems and sources of information readily available, anywhere, and anytime. Increased productivity, operational efficiencies, and turn-around-time (TAT) to come up with analytics based on historical information are indicators of the transformational role an EMR plays in doctors’ life. Compared to western countries, India was at a nascent stage in adopting EMR. Thanks to healthcare programs like Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission (ABDM) by Govt of India, the scenario is changing rapidly. From large hospitals to individual single doctor clinics, the adoption of technology in general and EMR in specific is growing in India and is playing an important role in transforming doctor patient relationships. The author is the head – of sales (Doctor Growth) HealthPlix Technologies. Views are personal.  Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.