Welcoming Health Care to the 2020s

the national academy of medicine

released a report in 1999 titled

to air is human the goal of the report

was to highlight the thousands of deaths

that occur each year

due to errors in the healthcare field

and while the national academy of

medicine may be right

making errors could just be part of the

human condition there are certain times

when errors shouldn’t happen

in the health care field when someone’s

life is quite literally on the table is

one of those times

now i don’t want to scare you or mislead

anyone so let me be clear that

errors in the healthcare field don’t

always lead to death

more often than not they lead to short

and long-term consequences

that decrease a person’s quality of life

these deaths and quality of life years

lost along with a couple other factors

have placed the u.s health care system

at 37th in the world

but public health professionals are

looking at ways to address this

and i believe it starts with technology

technology has been evolving rapidly

with new and exciting upgrades each year

while the u.s healthcare system has

stayed the same and even gotten worse in

some aspects

it’s time for the technology we use

every day to become integrated with the

healthcare system

move the us up in the ranks and save

thousands of lives in the process

it’s time to welcome health care to 2021

let’s start with something we can’t seem

to live without the pew research center

estimates that over 95 percent of

americans

own a cell phone and like me some

americans are so attached to their cell

phones

that they even feel vibrations for

notifications that never happened

i could have just shared wonderful news

with some of you and made you realize

you’re not alone in feeling what

scientists call phantom vibrations

but i say we actually use this

attachment to cell phones

to our advantage in the healthcare field

a study by jose mira and his team

found that when a patient uses a mobile

app that provides reminders and tracks

meditation intake

they increase their adherence by up to

40 percent

that’s huge making apps with similar

abilities more widely available

and educating both patients and

healthcare providers about their

benefits

could greatly reduce the amount of

patient-related errors in the healthcare

field

and all it takes is a cell phone and a

few more notifications

another reason that the us ranks so low

in healthcare is a long wait time to see

a doctor

and the lack of doctors in rural

communities can further exacerbate the

weight

but recently we’ve seen a way that cell

phones can fix this too

there’s been a rise in telehealth during

the coronavirus pandemic

and i hope that we can use this momentum

to jump start telehealth in the united

states even more

telehealth reduces the wait time to see

a doctor allows doctors to see more

patients each day

and it brings doctors to the rural

communities that are often forgotten

telehealth also frees up hospital beds

as patients can be triaged at home

and told whether or not they need to

come in for further attention which in

turn

decreases the wait time in hospitals

even more

cell phones are the perfect example of

how we don’t need to spend millions of

dollars in research and development

for a new piece of technology in many

cases we just need to better utilize

what we already have

another part to bringing the united

states healthcare system up to date

is implementing a national electronic

health record system

we have national systems for research

missing persons court cases

but we don’t have one for health records

yet according to the department of

health and human services

over 85 percent of hospitals and doctors

offices

have already transitioned away from the

stacks upon stacks upon stacks of paper

health records

but there’s still a severe lack of

interoperability and connectivity

between health records at different

locations this is why you have to fill

out the same form in every hospital and

doctor’s office you go to

which as we know leads to unnecessary

stress and time associated

with each visit even worse you could

forget to put something on a form

or you could just get lazy and not want

to fill the form out all the way

and a location could have an incomplete

health record on you possibly leading to

avoidable errors in the future

national electronic health record

systems like those found in the uk and

australia

can help fix some of these issues

national systems have been shown to

decrease adverse drug events

by 52 decreased errors tied to

handwriting legibility

by 60 decrease in medical costs

and they made telehealth that we talked

about earlier more practical

as both patient and healthcare provider

have access to a full health record

national electronic health record

systems paired with the better use of

cell phones for reminders in telehealth

could provide the united states with a

crucial backbone it needs

to improve its healthcare system and the

final piece to improving the u.s

healthcare system that i want to touch

on

is increasing access to resources in my

mind

the most exciting use of technology

comes from the african country of rwanda

now what many people don’t realize about

rwanda one of the countries with one of

the lowest gdps in the world

is that it actually has a higher

vaccination rate higher hiv treatment

adherence

and a greater reach of health care

services than the united states

they’ve been able to achieve all of this

through the use of drones

i attended a global health conference in

2019 and had the privilege of listening

to rwanda’s minister of health

speak about how the country uses drones

to deliver vaccinations meditations and

treatments

directly to the homes of its citizens

throughout the country

she spoke about how the use of drones

has pretty much eliminated the barriers

of travel and distance to health care

and i believe that the rural communities

here in the dakotas and appalachia

would greatly benefit from a similar use

of drones

flooded roads rough terrain bridges

being out

or even the lack of roads in general

would no longer impede someone from

getting the meditation that they need

as a drone could simply fly above it all

we’re currently testing the use of

drones to deliver our packages from

online shopping

so why not test their use to deliver

medications

if we pair telehealth to see a doctor

with drones to deliver the medications

that they prescribe

the united states could provide reliable

health care to

thousands of people currently without it

in summary cell phones national

electronic health records and drones are

just a few examples of how the united

states

could greatly benefit from the better

use of technology

and the more technology that we connect

the better the outcome will be

public health has recently taken the

global spotlight but the shortcomings of

the us healthcare system have shared

that spotlight

further emphasized by personal anecdotes

i’ve seen on social media

i believe people are ready to tackle

these shortcomings and are looking for

ways to do so

public health professionals are looking

for ways to do this and i hope that

people can listen to them

and truly trust them and save lives in

the process

after all that’s what health care is all

about

it’s clear that our country’s lack of

innovation and resourcefulness

has caused unnecessary suffering so when

will we say

enough is enough and start applying the

solutions we see

right in front of us well we’re two

months into 2021

and i don’t think we have any more time

to waste it’s time to reimagine what is

possible

and reignite the integration of

technology in healthcare

thank you

you