It is impossible to think about the future of healthcare without digital transformation: the coronavirus pandemic is a turning point. When the healthcare system was under extreme pressure - hospitalization levels, research for treatments and vaccines, overwhelmed professionals, and limited resources - a mental barrier was broken that associated "medical care" with "in-person care." Amid mobility restrictions, telemedicine consolidated its position as the primary care option for patients.
To give just two examples, the situation in Colombia and Argentina were very similar. Virtual medical services were available in both countries, although their use before COVID-19 was more than moderate. According to the Colombian Ministry of Health, there was an increase from 1,194,931 medical care services in March 2020 to 10,632,159 in January 2021, a figure that exceeds 101.2 million if we include prenatal check-ups, drug prescriptions, laboratory services, and other services. Similarly, Argentina doubled the number of care providers on its platform (4.788 in 2020), receiving 1,404,504 teleconsultations in 2021.
This first big step has been taken out of necessity: doctors and patients have overcome the historical resistance while the healthcare sector has been forced to accelerate the digital transformation beyond the administrative and back-office areas. Public and private providers, from hospitals to drugstores, had to incorporate technological tools to make them ready to perform the different practices. In many cases, only partial processes were handled, such as sending prescriptions by WhatsApp or making a consultation by video call with no patient follow-up.
The next great challenge, at this point, will be to move forward on this digitalization with a strategic view and understanding that this new paradigm of "digital health" is not a distinct or subordinate alternative to "health" but an unstoppable evolution.
In Tune and Symphony
In this context, NTT DATA developed Syntphony Health: a suite of services and assets designed to help healthcare organizations face challenges such as the omnichannel connection with users, remote monitoring of medical devices, and a single view of patients to improve the efficiency of care throughout the system, including their visits to different professionals, whether in person or virtually, the studies performed, the treatments and medicines prescribed, to optimize the service quality, the diagnostic effectiveness and personalized medicine guidelines.
Syntphony Health accelerates projects to reduce adoption time in organizations. It is the key to providing a holistic patient experience while allowing organizations to get a real-time 360º view of patients and resources to facilitate and streamline data-driven decision-making. It also provides for professionals to deliver patient-centered care and add value along the continuum of care.
Syntphony Health combines business knowledge with digital solutions to solve healthcare challenges. Our capabilities as a global-scale technology partner guarantee expertise, advanced experience, innovation, and critical industry data standards to support healthcare institutions on their journey into the future of medicine.
"Nothing is more important than health." This sentence speaks for itself no matter how often it is said and repeated, particularly since March 2020, a memorable date for society. Syntphony Health promotes innovation and optimization of resources to improve healthcare, gain effectiveness, focus on the patient and, above all, ensure that the healthcare system can finally begin to write its future. Which, there is no question about it, is digital.