“The future is digital,” said CEO of India’s Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs Bandar Al Knawy while speaking about the downstream effects of the coronavirus pandemic. After attending the HIMSS 2021 conference, it is clear that digital health will play a crucial role in the future of healthcare and eliminate some of its biggest obstacles. Thanks to the pandemic, there is an ongoing digital health revolution that is enabling patients to take control of their own health and interact with their care team all from the safety of their own home. However, with this revolution comes a new challenge: digital literacy among healthcare professionals.
It is crucial to improve the digital literacy of clinicians during a time of rapid digital health technology deployment. Hospitals, health systems, and academic centers will need invest in educating their providers and students on how to effectively utilize these new apps and online care tools. Mountasser Kadrie, Director of the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, said, “Healthcare providers are going to need to have strong digital competency skills in the future, and I am confident academic institutions wills align their programs to meet this demand.”
The responsibility doesn’t just fall on clinicians, though. For digital health to work as efficiently and effectively as we all hope, health technology companies need to invest in designing their solutions to be as intuitive as possible. For this reason, the Groove Health platform was designed by clinicians, for clinicians. A digital health platform is not effective if it is not easy to use. Can you think of a healthcare professional that wants more complexity or added steps in their workflow? Neither can we. With Groove Health, clinicians get the information they need in just a few clicks, enabling them to spend more time caring for what matters: the patient.
