5 Digital Health Tools That Are Changing Healthcare 

It’s true — for many years, the healthcare industry trailed behind others in adopting digital technology. In fact, a recent survey showed that only 7% of healthcare and pharmaceutical companies had gone digital compared to 15% of companies in other industries.  

But the tides are turning, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital health tools are now a major disruptor of the healthcare industry, providing innovative advancements designed to streamline clinicians work, reduce human error, optimize outdated systems, improve outcomes, and significantly lower costs through web and mobile experiences.

What Does Going Digital Mean to Therapy?

For the healthcare industry, adopting digital technologies can best be exemplified through data collection and artificial intelligence (AI) that inform both clinicians and their patients, to telehealth that optimizes the way clinics and patients interact.

Digital health has reshaped the way we interact with health professionals and even the ways in which we interact with our own health (i.e., tracking our fitness through wearable technology, utilizing apps to meditate and journal). Even more so through tools such as online patient portals that provide medical test results, diagnoses, and explanations of illnesses, patients are now active participants in their well-being. 

The use of technology has also demonstrated how our data can be utilized to provide the best treatment plans and health outcomes. 

In celebration of the milestone that is digital health, we’ve rounded up the top five digital innovations in healthcare:

Top Tools in Digital Healthcare

1. Telehealth

Whether through video call, text, or even chatbot, access to telehealth through mobile devices has allowed patients the ability to access more on-demand healthcare than ever before. And with almost 97% of Americans owning a smartphone, the switch to telehealth just makes sense. Telehealth helps us to virtually reimagine the medical house call without any traveling involved. 

This technology improves patient engagement through remote monitoring (patients can input their own metrics into apps), expand access to care, improve workflow and increase efficiency, and reduce costs for both patient and practice. According to a report released from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, they save $86 for every in-person visit that becomes an online one. After all, not every instance that requires medical attention requires an in-person visit. Why not reduce the trip when possible?

2. Wearable Technology

Wearable technology is another way that digital tools are transforming healthcare by putting care in the hands — or on the wrists — of patients. This technology provides round-the-clock personalized medical data that can not only help patients stay on top of their fitness but also create data that can then inform that patient’s doctor or clinician. One great example of wearable health technology is the Apple Heart Study app that was launched in 2017. It monitors heart rhythms and can alert users experiencing atrial fibrillation.  

3. Artificial Intelligence

AI is having major impacts on the health industry by improving efficiency, cutting costs, providing information management and clinical decision support. Leaders in the healthcare industry are taking note which is why the industry is expected to hit $150 billion by 2026. The applications for AI in healthcare are vast from nurse aides that check stock to analyzation capabilities that can help provide better treatment and earlier diagnoses. 

4. Data

Data is a tool in and of itself that keeps the healthcare machine turning, through its nature of collecting and storing large amounts of information and it is with this collection of data, that clinicians can make diagnoses, improve treatment plans and stay better involved in their patient’s health. 

Digital epidemiology is a great example of utilizing big data, as it describes the use of data to understand the patterns of disease and health dynamics in a population. It wasn’t until the wide expansion of the internet that scientists were able to utilize this technology for the greater good in things like tracking influenza-like illnesses through search queries and flight data. 

And with tools like iSTRYM, MINDCURE is working to harvest these digital tools into one digital therapeutics application that can optimize your mental wellness journey.

5. Digital Therapeutics‍

According to the Digital Therapeutics Alliance, digital therapeutics (DTx) platforms use artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze user data and provide therapeutic interventions to prevent, manage, or treat a medical disorder or disease. 

With treatment and therapy finally taking advantage of digital resources, more and more patients are able to access mental wellness from the comfort of their own phones. 

iSTRYM shares the digital health goals of the modern century by digitizing patients’ biometric data throughout a psychedelic-assisted therapeutic experience. . Clients are directly connected to clinicians when using the patient app, which collects data through its AI platform and provides updates on status. The AI technology built into the app allows the patient to input data based on their experiences, essentially becoming the wingman for both client and clinician. The app also features powerful integrations with platforms like LUCID, SOMA, and Speak Ai, which respectively provide music therapy, breathwork practice, and sentiment processing to make for a more immersive, engaging, and accurate healing experience. 

Psychedelic therapy is not a quick fix solution, which is why the iSTRYM platform works so well from preparation to integration by allowing clients to track their day-to-day moods, thoughts, and location factors.

To find out more about this digital breakthrough in psychedelic therapy, check out our website at iSTRYM.com.