The Changing Face of Healthcare

With the aging of the Baby Boomer generation accelerating, America’s population distribution is undergoing a period of radical change, and the way we think about delivering healthcare to this and other demographic groups is rapidly evolving as well. In contrast to previous generations, a large proportion of the country’s seniors now has the resources to stay in their home and age in place rather than move to long-term care facilities. This presents unique opportunities to healthcare providers in terms of how best to distribute healthcare effectively.

For some time now there has been a trend toward making the healthcare system revolve around the patient, rather than attempting to fit patients into a general healthcare apparatus. The need for distributed healthcare fits well within this trend, and it shows how healthcare providers, government agencies, tech companies, and even patients themselves can work together to adapt to a system that serves everyone more effectively.

The state of homecare now and in the near future

Distributing our healthcare services across multiple providers makes increasing sense to avoid a potential healthcare crisis in the United States in future years. This crisis could arise from several issues including lack of skilled personnel in the healthcare field (with a predicted shortage by 2030 of as many as 120,000 physicians) and healthcare costs that continue to rise (now causing 2 out of three bankruptcies).

Changing demographics as Americans age and approach more than 80 million aged 65 and older by 2040.

Distributed healthcare and the responsibilities of providers

Generally today, patients are taken to centralized providers of healthcare. And in some emergencies with specialized needs, this makes sense. For a large part of people’s health needs, however, more flexible arrangements can obtain better outcomes.

“Distributed” is the opposite of centralized. By allocating services through smaller and more local sub-units the distribution of healthcare can better match a patient’s needs. Increased freedom of choice and independence from the system mean that patients can choose what they want in terms of services, treatments and providers. Technology is helping to overcome the great challenge of making sure the patient health record is updated across all providers and events.

What is telemedicine and how will it impact care going forward?

Telemedicine will be among the important tools for healthcare providers to respond to the need for distributed healthcare. Telemedicine is applying communications technology so that healthcare providers can evaluate and treat patients who are not in the same physical location. The practice in some form has existed for decades, but with recent advancements in cloud technologies and the ubiquity of high-speed connections capable of delivering HD video, telemedicine has come to the forefront as a vital tool for treating an aging-at-home population. Telemedicine is simple to deploy, able to be used for a variety of treatment needs, and doesn’t depend on any single proprietary technology, making it perfect for a future of distributed healthcare.

Merging technological innovations with healthcare standards to rethink telehealth

To some extent, the practice of medicine has always relied on technological advances to drive the quality of care forward. The major difference with the current evolution of healthcare is that many of the newest technological tools being put to use in the profession are focused on how to deliver the same kind of high-quality care to people who are not centered in a specific environment such as a care facility.

So how can technology replace the in-person provider/patient interactions that have been cornerstone of the healthcare profession? To start, it’s important to remember that these in-person interactions aren’t disappearing for the situations where they are needed the most. Patients will still visit treatment centers for procedures and emergencies, and providers will be able to see patients in the home when necessary. The major advantage is that cloud-connected systems and telehealth software solutions give patients immediate access to provider evaluations, knowledge databases, and treatment options in a way that is not possible in a more centralized system.

Another important concern with distributed healthcare is patient privacy when it comes to the distributed patient health record. Here too, technology is proving to be more than able to meet the distinct challenges that come with increasing access while maintaining privacy and safety. One advancement in technology is blockchain encryption, which promises to help eliminate the conflict between privacy and access, by allowing only authorized – and recorded – personnel to view or edit the file.

Meeting the healthcare challenges for an increased aging-in-place population

The challenges that our society faces when it comes to distributing healthcare to address these demographic shifts are real, but there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic that our current systems are making the necessary changes to meet them. By melding innovative technology with state-of-the-art treatment practices, healthcare agencies will be poised to meet their patients’ needs wherever they need care, and provide them with more options to determine their own long-term health plans.