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