From the January/February 2022 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Reducing provider strain and burnout
To say that the healthcare industry has been put under a tremendous amount of stress over the last two years would be a dramatic understatement. This stress has also resulted in record levels of burnout among healthcare professionals. Fifty-five percent of frontline healthcare workers reported feelings of burnout in Q1 2021. As the pandemic has continued, the number has likely increased since. This simply isn’t sustainable under the best conditions, let alone when the world is trying to rein in a public health crisis. Fortunately, healthcare organizations have begun to take steps towards alleviating some of this strain and stress by leveraging technology – including AI and other sophisticated data science – to help streamline processes and eliminate some of the manual legwork that has been bogging down its workforce. Simply put, healthcare organizations need to lean into technology as much as possible in order to relieve their workforces, otherwise we could see a mass exodus of professionals leaving this space just when we need them the most.
Renewed focus on prevention
If the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us one thing, it is the importance of preventative medicine and early detection. For decades, healthcare professionals have preached the benefits of a proactive and collaborative global approach to public healthcare. However, without the proper tools available, building these partnerships have proven to be fragmented at best. However, with the growth of AI, IoT and other sophisticated tools, there is no longer any excuse for why global health collaboration is not feasible. With these tools, it is now possible to track real-time developments around case numbers, run simulations and forecasts and more. This has raised the level of what is achievable immensely, so look for countries to continue striking new public health partnerships, information sharing agreements and response plans as 2022 unfolds.
The last two years have been an incredibly challenging period for the healthcare industry and for public health as a whole. However, if healthcare organizations can successfully continue their digital transformation efforts and uncover new areas of innovation, 2022 might finally be the year where tangible optimism returns to the healthcare space.
About the author: Prashant Warier is the CEO and co-founder of Qure.aiBack to HCB News
