Electronic health records promised digitised patient information, the elimination of paper charts, and more efficient healthcare. While EHR systems moved the industry in that direction, the transition is not complete. Every hospital still struggles with organising documentation, cross-department coordination, and data siloes.
That doesn’t mean EHR systems were unsuccessful. They started the transition to digital healthcare and streamlined many processes. However, the role of technology for organising healthcare records and data can go further. Digital health platforms represent the next step.
Beyond Documentation: Healthcare as a Connected Process
When a diabetic patient visits their endocrinologist, that encounter exists across multiple organisations. Their primary care physician’s observations, cardiologist’s recommendations, pharmacy’s medication history, and insurance coverage all play a role in the care they receive. Yet traditional EHR software treats each touchpoint as a separate entity. This forces care teams to manually piece together the patient’s story from fragments scattered across multiple systems.
Digital health platforms help solve this issue. Instead of focusing on episodic care with digitised records at a discrete facility like EHR software, digital health platforms take a longitudinal care approach. They track a patient’s Longitudinal Care Record (LCR) across organisations and vendors, which provides a comprehensive view of each patient’s health trajectory.
Three Layers of Healthcare Intelligence
Achieving the results of a digital health platform requires three layers of healthcare intelligence. These layers track a patient across facilities, adapt that data to the workflows of healthcare facilities, and provide usable intelligence based on the patient’s history, as follows:
- System of Records: Most EHR software specialises in systems of records. Digital health platforms offer similar solutions for digitising records. However, instead of keeping records in a silo, digital health platforms leverage standards like FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) to promote interoperability between different software and providers.
- System of Engagement: Going beyond the capabilities of EHR software, digital health platforms enable stakeholders across the care process to input data. From general clinicians and patients to specialised providers, all patient information gets input into a centralised system enhancing coordination between care facilities.
- System of Insight: With the data on a patient from all of their visits to care facilities, digital health platforms use advanced analytics and artificial intelligence to deliver timely insights. For instance, predictive analytics can identify patients at risk before crises occur. It also enables data-backed clinical decisions ensuring the most statistically beneficial route of care takes place.
Using AI for Practical Healthcare Applications
Current uses of AI in healthcare generally revolve around clinical documentation and scribing. There’s no denying that those are valuable applications as it can reduce clinician burnout, but it only scratches the surface of what’s possible with AI in healthcare. The next stage of AI for healthcare is care coordination integrated into digital health platforms like DC2Vue.
Let’s take a hospital’s operations as an example. Predictive models could optimise staff scheduling based on anticipated patient volumes and acuity levels. To further improve cash flows, machine learning algorithms could identify revenue cycle bottlenecks. As for improving care, natural language processing could automatically extract quality metrics from unstructured clinical notes, eliminating hours of manual chart review.
Embedding these tools directly into digital health platforms allows healthcare staff to seamlessly use them in their existing workflows. This ensures staff are provided insights in the moments they need them most. Those predictive models could provide suggestions as the staffing manager creates the weekly schedule. Similarly, relevant clinical notes can be highlighted to help care specialists make diagnosis.
Connecting Digital Health Platforms with Standards, Interoperability, and Open Platforms
For digital health platforms to reach their full potential, they require interoperability. Otherwise, they won’t be able to track a full patient journey across facilities. Open standards like FHIR enable collaboration regardless of the specific software any individual facility uses. They can still transfer data for a comprehensive patient file and unprecedented continuity of care. Here are a few specific examples of how interoperability can enhance healthcare:
- A patient’s complete health story follows them regardless of where they receive treatment.
- Specialists access primary care notes without requesting records transfers.
- Emergency departments view medication histories instantly, preventing dangerous drug interactions.
- Public health agencies aggregate population data in real-time, identifying disease outbreaks before they spread.
These uses deliver both financial and operational benefits. Automated workflows can speed up approvals by orders of magnitude and generate quality reports with minimal manual intervention. Interoperability can also empower population health initiatives with accurate and real-world data to inform advocacy.
What is Success with a Digital Health Platform?
Every stakeholder sees success with a digital health platform in a different way.
- For patients, it means never having to repeat their medical history, never falling through the cracks between providers, and always having access to their complete health information. Their care team knows them as individuals, not just as collections of symptoms. Preventive care happens automatically, guided by personalised risk profiles and preferences. The healthcare system works for them rather than forcing them to navigate its complexities.
- For healthcare professionals, success means spending more time with patients and less time with computers. Clinical decision support provides relevant information without information overload. Care coordination happens seamlessly in the background, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks. Administrative burdens that contribute to burnout disappear, replaced by intelligent automation that handles routine tasks.
- Healthcare organisations see success through improved quality metrics, better financial performance, and enhanced operational efficiency. Readmission rates drop as care coordination improves. Revenue cycles accelerate as prior authorisations and claims processing become automated. Staff satisfaction increases as workflows become more intuitive and less frustrating.
Choosing the right EHR software is an important decision that influences how your organisation operates and how effectively you support patient care. It’s helpful to evaluate factors such as your organisation’s size, budget, required features, and integration needs before selecting a system. Whether you work in inpatient services, outpatient services, or community health services, choosing an EHR that fits your workflows and goals can make the transition easier and support long-term success.
If you’d like guidance tailored to your healthcare setting, you can reach us and we’ll help you determine the best option for your organisation.
