Tech, Medicine Come Together

Creating a health environment that suits both patients and providers is challenging, yet essential for a correct outcome. Entrepreneurs are offering an integral environment for numerous aspects medical care through tech, revolutionizing care provision.

Healthtech, the application of organized knowledge and skills through devices, procedures, systems, medicines and vaccines, can solve numerous health problems and improve quality of lives. Healthtech “effectively spans the full spectrum of well-being, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and maintenance. It has become a key pillar in the future of healthcare but also applies to everyday gadgets and apps we use at home,” John Benjamin, Ambassador of the UK in Mexico, told MBN. This technology has derived on a completely new healthcare ecosystem that integrates startups, organizations, academia, medical professionals and patients to drive increased access to healthcare across the diverse markets.

Healthtech has taken the form of telemedicine consultations, home delivery of medicines or supplies, electronic clinical records, digital prescriptions, robots and AI-based devices, among others. These all serve one same purpose, to make health provision and reception easier. However, there are barriers to join that environment.

Telemedicine has become one of the most engaging and beneficial method for physicians and patients, said Heidi Padilla, Customer Engagement Director, GSK México. But its adoption faces a significant hurdle, as medical professionals are often reluctant to use telemedicine. This “is one of the biggest barriers, we need to get into the digital world and be able to provide better care for patients”

Patients also face barriers while using telemedicine, “on regular telemedicine apps, they are provided with several doctor’s contact information and there is a rarely a follow up on their medicines, studies or further attention from a specialist, among other things,” explains Francisca Vargas, Founder of Galena Medical.

Technology apps can bridge the gap between patients and doctors and eliminate their reluctance to adopt technology. For example, Galena, a digital platform hosting almost 5,000 medical professionals for medical consultations, selects the appropriate doctor for a specific patient “based on budget, location, gender, face-to-face or virtual availability and even expertise,” explains Vargas.

Galena also turns doctors into a complete business. “We provide marketing, management solutions and payment recommendations for their meetings,” says Vargas. Additionally, Galena has allied with different providers such as insurance companies, laboratories, drug providers and hospitals to offer a complete attention for the patient. “For instance, if that patient needs laboratory testing, we channel their information to their closest lab, but we can also do it to specialist or hospitals, depending on the situation,” explains Vargas.

Helping patients engage in their own medical treatment empowers them, argues Vargas. “Every day, more patients are interested in taking control of their health and in experimenting with new types of healthy lifestyles without depending fully on medications.”