Medical professionals don’t pursue careers in healthcare out of a love of data entry, but it’s an inescapable daily reality for most, taking time away from focused care and consultations with patients. While it’s undoubtedly vitally necessary to maintain accurate files and documented processes, having to do so manually is frustrating not only for doctors and nurses, but also for their patients.
Happily, technology can help healthcare facilities streamline processes, allocate resources and improve coordination, supporting an integrated, patient-centered approach to care. Below, members of Forbes Technology Council detail how technology is helping (or could help) medical facilities modernize and streamline processes, improving experiences and outcomes for healthcare providers and patients alike.
1. Enabling Interoperability Among Medical Devices
Technology can streamline workflows and patient care by enabling interoperability among medical devices and electronic medical records. Integrating real-time data from multiple sources helps clinicians make informed decisions faster, reducing manual tasks and improving efficiency across teams. Enhanced connectivity ensures seamless coordination, especially in acute care settings where timely interventions are critical. – Frank Chan, Medtronic
2. Performance-Testing Critical Systems
Automated performance testing streamlines workflows in hospitals and clinics by ensuring critical systems, like electronic health records and telehealth platforms, perform efficiently under high usage. It simulates real-world scenarios to identify bottlenecks, optimize performance and minimize delays so providers can focus on patient care, reduce disruptions and maintain regulatory compliance. – Rishi Rana, Cyara
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3. Centralizing Comprehensive Patient Data
A healthcare platform that provides centralized and comprehensive data for the family—similar to financial management apps like Mint or Copilot—would be ideal. I live in an area where finding a provider who meets your criteria and is available has been extremely challenging. I have to use multiple platforms and formats to schedule and access summaries of visits with comprehensive health data. – Shravanthi Kallem, S&P Global
4. Automating And Optimizing Appointment Scheduling Systems
Hospitals and clinics can improve patient care with predictive analytics and automated scheduling systems. These tools forecast patient flow, ensure adequate staffing and reduce delays. By analyzing past trends and real-time data, facilities can anticipate busy periods and streamline operations. Automated scheduling matches patients with providers based on availability, reducing wait times. – Nilesh Suresh Jain, Oracle America Inc.
5. Enabling Remote Patient Monitoring
Wearable devices offer a unique opportunity to improve workflows and reduce costs in the healthcare system. By allowing remote monitoring and at-home continuous monitoring, wearable devices are an ideal tool to shorten hospital stays, and they can even reduce the number of severe cases by predicting events thanks to the horizontal data collected. – Mattia Lucchini, Datwyler Switzerland Inc.
6. Capturing Essential Patient Data
Natural language processing is already proving to be very impactful for healthcare. Patient care involves the extensive use of both the written and spoken word. Reducing the time it takes to capture, validate and access this data is critical, as is ensuring the accuracy and completeness of patient records. When considering how care is delivered, NLP is essential for the future of healthcare. – David Pauli, Newton3
7. Refining Patient Diagnostic Processes
AI-powered diagnostic tools can enable better clinical outcomes by supporting the early detection of diseases and disorders, empowering personalized medicine and facilitating real-time decision-making. Integrating these tools reduces patient wait times for test results as well as clinic visits for follow-ups caused by trial-and-error treatments. Instead, patients can experience more efficient, precise and trusted healthcare services. – Chris Bowen, ClearDATA
8. Identifying Patterns In Patient Data
Doctors are drowning in data, including data generated by remote health monitoring devices. But this data is only useful if it is consumable, actionable and personal to the patient. Digital technology and AI can help by identifying patterns in troves of data, predicting potential concerns and alerting doctors as needed—fueling the transition of care from reactive to predictive and preventive. – Jodi Euerle Eddy, Boston Scientific
9. Bringing Evidence-Based Recommendations Into Clinical Workflows
I anticipate innovations in integrations that can bring evidence-based recommendations into the clinical workflow. This could reduce the manual input that’s currently needed and allow healthcare providers to improve documentation, provide patient education and receive clinical decision support. A few seconds can make all the difference; with each click saved, we can reduce burdens on providers and foster more meaningful patient interactions. – Yaw Fellin, Wolters Kluwer Health
10. Optimizing Staff Schedules And Patient Flow
AI-powered scheduling systems streamline hospital workflows by optimizing staff schedules and patient flow. These systems use predictive analytics to reduce bottlenecks, including minimizing wait times in emergency departments and improving operating room efficiency. Automating these processes enhances patient care, reduces staff burnout and improves overall operational efficiency. – Manjula Iyer, 98point6 Technologies
11. Confirming Insurance Coverage
Claims denials cost healthcare organizations billions and delay care access. Leveraging ML and AI for eligibility verification helps confirm coverage faster by comparing incomplete patient data with a primary source dataset. This ensures claims have the correct information from the start, eliminates the back-and-forth with payers on the backend, and, ultimately, keeps revenue on track. – Eron Kelly, Inovalon
12. Delivering Tailored Digital Experiences
Technology can streamline workflows and improve patient care by delivering digital experiences tailored to patients’ unique needs and preferences. A personalized, seamless experience that is free of confusing interfaces, dead ends or generic solutions ensures that patients feel understood and supported. Without this alignment, no advanced tool or innovation will truly make a difference. – Andrew Kucheriavy, Intechnic
13. Safely Sharing Patient Data Across Facilities
A combination of AI and distributed ledger technology can revolutionize patient care by enabling transparent and seamless data sharing across hospitals and clinics. AI analyzes patient data in real time to optimize workflows, while DLT ensures secure, tamper-proof records are accessible to authorized providers. This synergy enhances care coordination, reduces errors and accelerates decision-making. – Jo Debecker, Wipro
14. Enabling Robotic-Assisted Patient Care
With hospitals becoming so large, traversing them is a job in itself—one that could be given to robots. Using delivery robots to deliver medications and food or even assist with moving patients allows nurses and doctors to provide the empathetic final step of the process. No one cares how the food reaches the door, but the smile that brings it into the room is invaluable. – Luke Wallace, Bottle Rocket
15. Powering Telemedicine Platforms
Telemedicine platforms allow healthcare providers to diagnose, monitor and treat patients remotely, significantly improving access to care, especially in underserved or rural areas. By reducing the need for in-person visits, telemedicine minimizes wait times, reduces the burden on clinic staff and enables doctors to see more patients in less time. – Joydeb Mandal, Accenture
16. Enhancing EHRs
Evolved electronic health records with integrated decision support could streamline hospital workflows by automatically flagging factors like drug interactions, task assignment and evidence-based protocol generation. Further tech-based healthcare support includes automated documentation generation through natural language processing and real-time analytics to optimize resource allocation. – Adam Ennamli, General Bank of Canada
17. Automating Supply Chain Management
One technology that could help is the automation of supply chain management using Internet of Things devices. IoT-enabled smart inventory systems can monitor medical supplies in real time and automatically reorder items when stock levels are low. This technology prevents supply shortages and ensures that essential equipment and medications are always available, reducing workflow disruptions. – Cristian Randieri, Intellisystem Technologies
18. Accessing Real-Time Data For Triage
AI-enhanced patient triage systems can revolutionize care by integrating real-time historical data from smart IoT devices like wearables, connected beds, toilets and environmental systems in homes. These devices provide continuous health insights, enabling hospitals to prioritize cases, predict issues and tailor interventions—optimizing resource use and improving patient outcomes. – Mark Mahle, NetActuate, Inc.
19. Providing Immersive Training And Therapy Sessions
Implementing virtual reality for medical training and patient rehabilitation provides immersive simulations for medical professionals to safely practice surgical procedures and other medical techniques. Additionally, VR can enhance patient rehabilitation programs by offering engaging and interactive therapy sessions, leading to improved patient outcomes and adherence to treatment plans. – Pradeep Kumar Muthukamatchi, Microsoft
20. Tracking Patients And Essential Resources In Hospitals
A real-time location system streamlines workflows by tracking equipment, staff and patients within a hospital. An RTLS can optimize resource allocation, reduce time spent searching for devices and ensure timely patient transfers. With instant updates on patient flow and equipment usage, an RTLS enhances operational efficiency, minimizes delays and improves overall care delivery. – Madhava Rao Kunchala
