Digitalization and its Future Possibilities in Healthcare
Digitalization has significantly impacted the healthcare industry by improving efficiency, patient safety, and the overall quality of care. As a nurse in a private healthcare clinic, I have witnessed the development of digital tools firsthand.
So far, the biggest digital advancement, in my opinion, has been the development of digital patient records. These records ensure that patient health information is structured and easily accessible to all healthcare professionals. The system is still evolving and some challenges remain, especially when patient transitions between public healthcare and private clinics. Digitalization has greatly improved the effectiveness and readability of patient data by keeping it well-organized and accesible. For example essential information such as lab results, vaccination records, and allergy data is now easy to find.
Another major benefit of digitalization in nursing is the use of digital tools that help visualize patient data. These tools can generate charts and graphs to illustrate trends in a patient’s sleep studies, blood glucose levels or asthma test results for example. This visual representation allows doctors and nurses to detect critical changes more quickly and reliably.
Nurses are usually in control for various quality control duties, including ensuring that work instructions are up to date, medical devices receive annual maintenance and potential medical risks are assessed and minimized. Without digitalization, managing these tasks would be difficult as the nurse would have to manually track and verify each quality category. Now, we can rely on digital tools to remind us to check the different categories that needs our attention. Thanks to digitalization, maintaining high-quality care has become more efficient and reliable.
As mentioned earlier, some routine tasks have already been semi-automated, allowing healthcare professionals to spend more time on patient care. However, the increasing workload related to quality control, safety measures and statistical reporting has raised questions like “does digitalization truly free up more time for patient care or does it simply shift the workload to other areas?” For my opinion, the background work remains essential as it enables us to learn from past mistakes and continuously improve the quality and safety of patient care.
In the future digitalization is expected to play an even greater role in diagnostics and treatment planning, leading to more accurate decisions and more effective care plans. Further automation of currently semi-automated tasks could significantly enhance efficiency. With the help of AI and other digital tools, healthcare can become more patient-centered resulting in better long-term health outcomes. These advancements will not only benefit patients but also help manage the workload of healthcare professionals and reduce national healthcare costs.
Open Digital Society and the Impact of GDPR
An open digital society offers benefits, such as easier communication between healthcare professionals and improved access to healthcare services. It also presents risks concering patient data and privacy. Protecting patient data is crucial, because any misuse of patient’s health information can lead to severe consequences.
The General Data Protection Regulation (DGPR) establishes clear principles on how to correctly use, process and ducument personal data. These principles strenghtens patients’ rights by giving them greater control over their personal information, like the right to access, correct and request the deletion of their health data for example. This regulation also improves the quality of data management by requiring healthcare professionals to handle patient information lawfully, trasparently and with a purpose. When documenting, healthcare workers must write accurate information and record only the necessary data about the patient to ensure compliance with GDPR guidelines.
The GDPR requires protocols in healthcare for obtaining patients’ concent about data usage and regular education for professionals on data protection and security. This requires additional administrative tasks and documentation which can increase the workload for healthcare professionals. However, the positive benefits of these measures make healthcare services more transparent, reliable and improve data security.
The Role of AI
I asked ChatGPT some specific questions about patient care, such as how to determine which vaccines to administer to a patient traveling to different countries and describing different symptoms and asking for a diagnosis. ChatGPT provided a comprehensive list of things to consider when planning a vaccination schedule and identifying usually a few different possible causes for the described symptoms. The issue that I encountered with ChatGPT’s responses was that the answers were often quite broad and somewhat general.
What impressed me, was that the AI provided correct references to official websites like THL and WHO, guiding me to those sources for further information or suggesting that I contact a nurse or a doctor for a real diagnosis. I think that it’s extremely important when using AI to ask about symptoms or health concerns, that the AI sources information from reliable websites. It should always encourage users to consult healthcare professionals before making any diagnosis. People are individuals and usually a proper diagnosis requires a real, in-person examination.
I believe that the benefits of AI for healthcare professionals are in its potential to offer a second opinion and to help validate treatment plans. AI could also be very useful for analyzing patients’ vitalsigns and medical images like X-rays to predict potential health issues. For patients, AI can serve as a easy, first step in healthcare by answering questions and helping to determine whether they should contact a doctor or nurse or by giving some home care instructions.
Self-Evaluation
This assignment gave me the opportunity to reflect on how much I already use digital tools in my work and how I could potentionally use AI more as well. At the moment, I don’t use AI in patient care because I’m not yet educated on how to use it correctly while ensuring that patient data remains secure. I believe this is a common conern and I’m excited about the potential of receiving more education on how I can use AI to assist me in providing better patient care.
Cybersecuriy and data protection are highly relevant and important aspects of developing healthcare industry so it was essetial to deepen my understanding of GDPR.
This assignment increased my interest in the possibilites of digitalization and the TED Talks on the topic were particularly thought-provoking.
My Comments
Feel free to read my comments on the two blogs mentioned below, where digitalization in healthcare is discussed from interesting perspectives.
Digi Society – Wonderful Digitalized World by Katja Kankkunen
Hi Saaga and thank you for your interesting article on the digi society! As a healthcare professional myself, I can share your experience of how much the healthcare sector has evolved with digital tools, even in a relatively short period of time. In particular, the digital patient records you mentioned have brought security and clarity to the processing of patient data. In addition, patients themselves can easily monitor their data and results online.
The shift in workload from patient care to quality control and safety measures is something I had not thought about before, and this was an interesting perspective on the impact of digitalisation in healthcare. However, I believe in the end digitalisation will make work easier and faster in all areas of healthcare.
I myself don’t use AI in patient care for exactly the same reasons as you. I don’t feel I know how to use it properly yet. I think that the healthcare sector could be trained in the use of AI, as I believe it has a huge potential for it.
Hi Saaga,
Your text was easy to follow and nice to read. It was interesting to see how digital tools are used in your work and how they help with patient information. I have thought about the same question you wrote about: Does digitalisation really save time in patient care or just move the work to other tasks. Your part about GDPR was clear and easy to understand. I also liked your thoughts about using AI in healthcare and where its limits are. Overall, your writing was interesting and well done.
Was interesting to read thoughts about this topic from person working on a field I have basically no knowledge at all. Thank you! After reading this, next time when I’m having some health troubles, I think I still stick to real professionals rather than AI.