The pandemic has created a huge challenge for companies in almost every industry and public administration. The medical sector is no different, with the direct burden of fighting COVID-19, but also working under completely new rules – based on e-counseling, e-prescriptions, e-referrals. Such widespread digitization comes with many risks.
The accelerated digitization process in the medical industry involves not only facilitation – which seems to be an obvious benefit – for patients, but also a greater risk of losing data: pesel number, place of residence, email address, phone number or those on medical conditions.
Advantages of telemedicine
According to Joanna Szyman, CEO of NEO Hospital, telemedicine was appreciated during the pandemic: its safe form and the speed of performing the right procedures and access to specialists. Also important is the breaking down of geographical barriers and thus the ability to provide care to patients regardless of where they live or temporarily reside. We are therefore seeing a huge shift in attitudes toward telemedicine. A survey conducted by the consulting firm Upper Finance, between June and August 2020, shows that as many as 87 percent of respondents positively assessed the opportunities offered by telemedicine. Telemedicine solutions include not only diagnostics, patient health monitoring, consultations or rehabilitation, but also modern surgery based on telemanipulators, i.e. robotic systems that allow for remote operations.
COVID protection, but what about the data?
Patients’ personal information and medical history should be very well protected. This is a major challenge for the medical sector, especially when most visits are made by phone or online. That’s why the NHF is working on legal and technical regulations to secure the data. These include the Principles of Good Clinical Practice, which specifies the obligation to secure the continuity of operation of systems and applications in which data is processed.
With cloud solutions, medical professionals can collaborate across departments and have access to the information they need to innovate. That’s why we are seeing increasing interest from pharmaceutical companies in cloud solutions.
Proven cloud service provider
Medical companies, clinics, doctors who do not have the right technical background and level of expertise should already be looking for the right partners to help them through this digital transformation. A well-chosen partner can ensure full data security, taking this burden off the shoulders of clinic owners, data administrators and doctors. As a result, patients will gain a full guarantee of data security, and medics will – without unnecessary stress – be able to deal with issues of protecting the health and lives of patients – points out the Polcom representative.