In recent times, healthcare has been revolutionized by technology. Modern healthcare relies heavily on a number of electronic gadgets. These gadgets can take the blood count of a patient to keeping them alive through heart-lung machines. Telemedicine has now come into its own. The delivery of healthcare and exchange of data across vast distances through the transfer of basic patient information such as CT scans, MRI pictures, ultrasound studies and pathology reports have become acceptable everywhere. Marketing professionals in the healthcare sectors adopt novel ways of reaching out to patients by using technology.
Internet marketing is also popular, as websites enable patients to locate physicians or sign up for health screening. Another development relates to condition-specific information made available through the Internet. This includes ailments such as arthritis, diabetes and asthma. Marketing strategies in healthcare take different dimensions. Sustained efforts at quality improvement are vital in healthcare sector. Information systems help by providing doctors with laboratory values and by calculating weight-based doses of medicine.
Using such tools can reduce possible diagnostic and treatment errors in many clinical settings. Electronic medical records serve to promote internal, external, and interactive marketing efforts by healthcare organizations. Considering innovation, the first indigenous heart valve developed by an institute of national importance based in Trivandrum (Kerala) deserves notice. Ultimately, the aim must be to make medical care affordable to the common man and cost-effective for the healthcare organization.
Total Quality Management (TQM) has now assumed importance and this is evident from the efforts made by hospitals to get accredited by reputed agencies. As a result of the technological innovations leading to quality enhancement in the healthcare sector, healthcare marketing has also undergone changes. A close look at the medical scene reveals an array of electronic gadgets and equipment being pressed into service in hospitals in diverse situations. All these instruments are designed to assist physicians and surgeons in their duties, and thus in the alleviation of human suffering.
There can be no doubt that electronics plays a crucial role in the design and operation of these equipments. Over the past few decades, the collaboration of engineers and technologists with biologists and medical personnel has been producing an astonishing variety of medical instruments. One of the earliest and widely known is the pacemaker, “a tiny, transistorized, battery powered radio oscillator, permanently implanted in the abdominal walls of patients suffering from heart block and connected by two fine electrodes directly into the heart muscle to keep it beating regularly. Another ingenious device is the radio pill, which, after being swallowed by the patient, transmits a running account of conditions within the gastrointestinal tract to an outside receiver.
Biomedical Equipments A host of instruments are considered indispensable in hospitals, whether large, medium or small. These include diagnostic devices such as equipments for taking x-ray, CT scan, ultrasound scan, magnetic resonance computer profile, Echocardiogram (ECG), etc. Equipments which aid surgical procedures, endoscope, laparoscope, laser devices, blood transfusion, and oxygen supply units also figure in this category.
In addition, the following play a vital role in the treatment and care of patients: * Equipments used in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) such as the ventilator, nebulizer, heartbeat, pulse rate, and blood pressure monitors; and * Devices that offer cure or of therapeutic value such as dialysis machines for patients suffering from renal failure and linear accelerator/radio therapy unit for the cancer patients. The above-mentioned is only a sample since there are scores of such biomedical equipments being pressed into service by corporate hospitals.
Many of these are very costly but these have improved the confidence of patients in medical treatment offered by the hospitals. This is primarily because of the avoidance of human errors in diagnosis and treatment. Computer and Computer-Aided Devices Computers have already become ubiquitous in all business houses and industrial establishments. Hospitals and Healthcare Organizations (HCOs) are no exception. In fact, HCOs have been a sort of trigger for innovative technology directed towards improving the comfort level and safety of patients.
In addition, the widespread use of computers has also resulted in getting proper feedback on performance. There has been increasing sophistication of software applications in hospitals and thus Information Technology (IT) is fueling several innovations in medical instrumentation; this is happening in many areas of healthcare including cardiology and radiology. Laboratory investigations such as measurement of cretin, urea and uric acid, lipid profile, cholesterol, liver function test, hematology, lung investigation (pulmonary functions test) are all nowadays done efficiently by computer-aided devices Mobile Phones
Mobile or cellular phones may be considered as part of a technological marvel in telecommunications, becoming popular during the last ten years or so. These instruments help in establishing quick contact between people, whatever their geographical separation maybe. They help in the process of collaboration and coordination among physicians, surgeons, and anesthetists. These devices have improved process control and customer satisfaction in hospitals. Getting the help of medical experts in an emergency situation became a smooth process after the advent of mobile phones. Internet Marketing
The World Wide Web and the Internet has made it possible for healthcare providers to publicize their offerings through this technological route. A number of posers were raised during a round table discussion among healthcare marketing experts about online healthcare marketing efforts. These questions covered issues such as the reason behind the slow adoption of Internet marketing by HCOs, the factors that led to the acceptance of Internet marketing among HCOs, the approaches to Internet marketing that seem to be the most effective, and possible developments in healthcare online marketing.
In his article `Healthcare Warms up to the Web’, Richard K Thomas (2003) succinctly presents the scenario. Some surprising insights came to light in the course of the discussion by experts. Healthcare organizations were slow to jump onto the Internet bandwagon but recently there has been a surge of interest. However, the fact remains that progress in this area has remained uneven in many organizations. As in other aspects of marketing, websites oriented towards healthcare marketing are frequently targeted for cutbacks when budgets are tight.
Telemedicine What Arthur Clarke prophesized (“Men will cease to commute, they will communicate”) has come true in modern healthcare practice as evidenced by the advent of telemedicine. Nowhere in the field of healthcare can one find a dramatic development like telemedicine. Derived from Greek and Latin roots, telemedicine brings together `distance’ and `healing’. Consultation with expert physicians and surgeons who examine the scan images of patients living thousands of miles away has been made possible through this development.
TIME magazine referred to telemedicine as “healing by wire. ” The concept may sound futuristic but is fast becoming a reality. Telehealth has assumed importance as a subject area and practice of medicine (Srinivasan, 2002). The key component is to place the appropriate tools and techniques of IT in the hands of doctors and patients. Telehealth enables quality healthcare at reduced cost to the patient by delivering medical care in association with the doctors of local primary or secondary healthcare centers or the large number of clinics in the smaller towns.
Indigenous Medical Technology It has successfully developed and marketed medical instruments benefitting thousands of patients across the country. An institution of national importance, it has made products, which the medical fraternity could use on the clinical side for innovative solutions. In the view of Dr. M. S. Valiathan, the founder director, there is no point in research and development if it cannot deliver products that patients would directly benefit from. Sleep Therapy Devices
A research survey by the National Institute of Health in the US has revealed that nearly 20 million Americans suffer from sleep apnea; yet 80 to 90 percent of patients afflicted remain undiagnosed. Also, the prevalence of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), the most common form of sleep apnea, reveals that of asthma and diabetes. The OSA has serious health consequences and can even be fatal, point out centers for disease control in the US. In fact, this problem is widely present in almost all countries but not much talked about since people tend to attach not much importance to sleep or lack of it.
Innovation and technology in healthcare have in recent years tried to grapple with the problem of sleep disorder effectively. A simple tool for sleep disorder screening known as Epworth Sleepiness Scale has been designed with a validated questionnaire that identifies excessive daytime sleepiness, a common symptom of OSA. CQI and TQM Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) by hospitals is of vital importance in the healthcare sector. Technology has helped here. Information systems assist physicians and surgeons by providing various inputs such as provision of laboratory values and calculation of weight based doses of medications.
More sophisticated tools such as computerized algorithms and neural networks confer long-term benefits when they get integrated with provision of healthcare. Possible diagnostic and treatment errors in numerous clinical settings including assessment of abdominal pain, chest pain, and interpretation of radiological images and tissue specimens can be reduced with the help of such tools. It may sound farfetched but all these innovations including storage of information about patients in computers (electronic medical records) serve to promote internal, external, and interactive marketing efforts by healthcare organizations.
Historically, healthcare quality has been equated with clinical or professional quality, which bore little or no association with management activities. But, today, the importance of combining the two approaches is rated high on the agenda of all healthcare institutions (Kay Ennis and Denis Harrington, 1999). The range and diversity of equipment used in diagnosis and treatment in the medical field is indeed mind-boggling. Recent developments include the application of laser technology in a variety of situations such as retinal surgery for the eyes and laparoscopy for gall bladder operations.
Devices such as the ventilator, nebulizer, and heart beat, pulse rate and blood pressure monitors are essential for the ICUs of hospitals, and dialysis machines for patients suffering from renal failure have become common. Information Technology (IT) has served to reduce the rate of errors even when an adverse event occurs. Computerized order entry by physicians is also now being practiced in hospitals. The task of monitoring the patients’ condition is rendered easier by `Smart’ monitors, which highlight signals that a human observer fails to detect.