My thoughts

MD and expert in Digital health

Empathy, ethics, kindness, imagination, closeness.

are values that we must bring to technology and Healthcare, be it in telemedicine, the Metaverse or some other mode of Digital Health.

The evolution of technology to help healthcare professionals is unstoppable and we must be a part of this change, we need to be on the multidisciplinary teams that are paving the way in order to ensure that the focus stays on the patients.

Are the new concepts in Digital Health really new?

A few months ago I was reading an article where they talked about the concept “Hospital without walls/Hospital sin paredes”. That was around 1980 in Costa Rica !!!

Promoted by Juan Guillermo Ortiz in the context of improving public health and Healthcare in Costa Rica. And they did it, Costa Rica is now an example in South America.

But I like the similarity with “Liquid Hospital” that sounds so modern and so inside Digital Health, but is it not practically the same ?

We have to review many “old” concepts that can help us with the future of Healthcare and our patients.

Any “old” concepts to bring to Digital Health nowadays?

Why aren't healthcare professionals on the board and in the decision-making process of every health tech company?

We have so much to offer :

Analytic vision: it's the way we work. From evidence-based medicine to Real World Evidence.
Ethics at work. We took the Hippocratic Oath, we apply it to our day to day while working with patients, and we will extend it to Ethics in Artificial Intelligence.
Perspective. Looking at the future, we try to help our patients with technology but keep the essentials of our work: taking care, empathy and doctors-patients comunications between patients and MD.
Collaboration skills. To achieve better results in Health we must work together as a team.

There are so many important reasons to include medical doctors in Tech Health companies, be it full time, part time or as consultants on specific projects. Either way you go, the future is multidisciplinary, and Healthcare professionals must be on the inside.

Let´s talk about some new concepts in Digital Health.

The 4Ps is an amazing concept but let’s take things further and consider new conversations, perspectives, and concepts.

Why not start with the 4Es in Medicine:

Empathetic

Efficient

Ethical

Equitable

Any ideas or others to add? Let’s keep moving forward in Digital Health !!!

Medical empathy in time of telemedicine

I believe that Digital Health is the future and telemedicine but the goal remains the same: Taking care of our patients!!

Sometimes they don’t need a brilliant diagnosis or a very effective treatment. Many times they need to talk, feel that you listen to them, receive some empatethic reaction…Can we do that through a screen ? or even through a telephone ( in this pandemic many consultations have been just a telephone call ) I believe we can and we do.

Are all medical doctors ready to do telemedicine ?

I think now more than ever we need to change medical education to include not just technology but improving the way we listen. The beneficts of comunications and understanding are essential, perhaps even more so when we are farther apart. The relationship between doctors and patients is primordial and we need to build trust.

Thats our goal.

I am a doctor and I firmly believe that Digital health is the future of healthcare and that doctors must be leaders in the digital transformation.

But I strongly believe in the importance of the doctor-patient relationship, listening, helping…

I think the two approaches are compatible. By combining humanity and technology we can make Medicine better.