Healthcare Technology Buyer's Guide

Healthcare Technology: What is it and how it is used?

We’ve seen the numerous ways the evolution of technology has impacted everything from our classrooms, conference rooms to our courtrooms, large venues and the healthcare industry is no exception. Healthcare is one of the fastest growing markets for AV technology. There have been ongoing AV trends transforming in the medicine to enhance the overall experience of healthcare professionals, staffs, and patients.

For instance, the areas where technology has made an impact in healthcare industry includes:

• Access to Data for medical information: This is the greatest benefit for Healthcare Professionals to retrieve patient data, to share medical information rapidly from anywhere resulting in more quick and efficient patient care.
• Having improved lines of communication: This has become easier for healthcare providers and patients communicate effectively through email, smartphones, text messaging. Medical professionals can make their webinars, videos, online platforms, and social media to communicate with other professionals.
• Access to Electronic Health records: Rather than tedious task of moving paper files across the department, and to find the patient medical records, Electronic Health records stored in a centralized location has helped to retrieve patient data faster for improved care.
• Online education: Availability of online education specially in healthcare related degrees gave the students benefit to complete their healthcare degrees online.
• Telemedicine apps: Helpful to open the lines of communication and support, reducing the waiting for in-person appointment
• Medical Devices:  Pacemakers, health trackers, workout tracker, various apps etc. making it easy to track patients’ personal health.

Challenges in Healthcare AV technology

Outdated Technology: Though Hospitals and outpatient clinics are equipped with the good amount of medical equipment available, some of the healthcare facilities aren’t updated with their audio-visual equipment in decades. For example, you have a chronically ill patients needing 24/7 monitoring and access to specialists, and you are providing virtual home care service, caregiver would need good quality audio, video and patient monitoring data sourced from connected devices. Outdated equipment can make routine tasks like video conferencing and medical education difficult for health care staffs and patients as well. For launching real time communication solutions, high application with quality of service is required.

Lack of Competitive Advantage: To attract patients and visitors, delivering high quality care is the priority for which technology factor plays a role. Electronic health records, Mobile apps, Interactive patient portals etc. boosts the competitive Advantage. And not to miss out most important factors – Telehealth and Telemedicine as well.

Both AV and IT combined can overcome these challenges and potentially expand in the world of medicine.

Useful healthcare AV technology you need to know

Just like how cellphone companies are offering unlimited plans to satisfy customer appetite for audio and video streaming in our digital world, similarly in our physical world especially in healthcare – designing of our computing devices, classrooms, meetings room, huddle rooms need to meet and exceed expectations of video conferencing integrations, Digital Displays, HD quality cameras, high quality microphones and multiple displays to wireless share content.

Display technology in healthcare facility - Interactive displays and digital signage

Be it for quality entertainment for patients, interactive education for students, video wall to engage visitors, or digital signage for engaging experience, using TV display plays a key role in the progress of Healthcare Industry.
There is Interactive Flat Panel displays that can be used in healthcare, education, advertisements, and lots more. Not only for display of educational information, but also for data representation, conference, meeting, and classroom training as well. Displays are also useful for video walls in health facility lobbies for more engaging atmosphere with the patients.  
For realistic medical simulation in healthcare education, choose Interactive flat panel display in teaching hospitals and professionals training programs.

What is digital signage and how does it work for the healthcare industry?

Digital signage is a digital enhanced display using LCD, LED screens for advertising, marketing, and communication.

Placed near entrances and walkways, waiting rooms, consulting rooms, employee workstations to cafeteria, Digital signage can be placed throughout to help doctors and management to communicate with their patients/staff and visitors by providing the relevant and timely information from any remote location in real time.

Ways to use TV Displays/Digital Signage in Healthcare Industry

• Navigating the way within hospital (Wayfinding): For patients who are in hurry to reach their respective departments, interactive wayfinding kiosks would help visitors and patients to reach their desired location quickly. Display important information such as timings, doctor’s location, leave, etc. can be used in the entrance of hospitals as well as various departments.
• Enhanced patient waiting room: Who doesn’t like to wait for a long period of time? Digital signage screens help to engage them for their wait times, display educational information related to health and wellness. Along with ads of various over the counter plus some form of entertainment content to help them be more at ease.
• Get patient testimonials: Use your digital signage to point visitors to an online review site, and capture their experiences in real time, enhance your web presence leading to better word-of-mouth advertising.
• Emergency messaging: Display your alerts, urgent messages, and safety instructions in the facility about blood requirements, severe weather conditions or warning. Etc.
• Coordination among employees: Display about new treatments, hospital goals, gratitude messages from patients, case studies, awards etc. to boost morale
• Hospital cafeteria: Display new food items, day’s special, nutrition, diets on a digital board where you can easily update instead of menu boards or prints to engage customers and staff in Hospital Cafeteria
• Break areas in Hospital: For any changes in schedule/practices/protocol, use the digital signage in staff areas and break room to manage the workface.
• Cost effective: Healthcare organization can boost revenue by showing ads on the digital boards of certain products and services to promote them and sell advertising space to third parties

Projectors for healthcare industry

Not only TV Displays, but projectors are also considered a useful projection for visual information exchange between staffs, visitors, and patients. Whether in a classroom, boardroom, meeting room, or seminar room, students and educators can reap the benefits of projector that makes them more interactive setting.

Healthcare technology: about Telehealth

While the future implications of Covid is still uncertain, telehealth adoption will continue to grow. It has become more popular during and post pandemic. Because of reasons like the fear of spreading and catching virus, ability to provide care to people with mobility limitations, or those in rural areas with no access to local doctor/clinic, telehealth adoption has risen significantly. Nearly 76% of the hospitals in US with doctors and patients connecting remotely. Except for the diagnoses/test that require hands-on approach, most of the conditions can be managed effectively and remotely.

There may be existing meetings rooms without video capability making it difficult for everyone to connect. To deliver consistent virtual consultations, a seamless technology which is easy to use with high-definition video and audio would be needed.

Video conferencing solutions for Telehealth and Telemedicine

The areas where Video conferencing is required in healthcare are:

• For healthcare providers and staff: enhance your training and education using this video-based approach.
• For administrative staff – For more efficient meetings and effective collaboration among clinical and administrative staff
• For Patients: In some cases, a patient might have a telemedicine station set-up in their own home for convenient and easy access care.
• Conference rooms: Small meeting spaces, boardroom or MDT(Multi-disciplinary team room), video-enabled meeting spaces help to share critical expertise regarding individual patient’s care
• Remote work: The administrative staff can work remotely from anywhere so that they can continue to support the clinical teams thereby reducing the need for travel, improve the collaboration and increase connectivity for its remote sites – which might not be possible without the video conferencing settings.

Some useful picks of AV equipment for Telehealth

Other medical devices for telemedicine: Other medical devices like smartwatches, ECG devices, thermometers, etc. are now small and inexpensive for participants to bring it to home. Along with it, online portal is provided to monitor patient health information remotely.

Using these video collaborative solutions, you are providing personalized healthcare in outpatient/inpatient settings and nursing home facilities, enhancing patient experiences, and improving outcomes.

Temperature-Check Tablet

As Covid-19 placed huge amount of pressure on every sector, having an extra layer of protection to your healthcare facility helps to protect you by using Temperature-check tablet. Using this, you can ensure that visitors entering the premises are not running a high temperature. This gives you the ability to monitor the health and safety of both employees and visitors in real time, giving the added confidence of safeness required to return to your establishment. It has a feature of sensor/detector that alerts when a person is on high temperature within 1 second. It’s more hygienic with non-touch infrared technology.