Digital Health: What You Need To Know | Part i
This article is part of Care Code Digital Health Literacy Campaign For Africa
When you hear the term “digital health” what comes to your mind? Let me guess; computers, smartphones, the internet, micro-chips, wearable medical gadgets?
The term digital health, which actually is a very broad description used to describe or define the process of utilizing information communication technology to propagate or enhance health care delivery.
Data Is Life
I like to believe that DATA runs the world, from our DNA’s [which are molecules that carry billions of codes] to our SUPER COMPUTERS [that are made up of wonderful networks of super-micro chips], it’s all about data.
Everything around us is controlled and runs on the power of data – information. Where ever you go, data stares straight at you – length, breadth, height, width, volume, time, numbers are a major element of our daily lives.
We are ‘DATA’. My neural network works on the principles of organic data, my memory is data, my biochemistry is also data, even my anatomy, everything is DATA!
The Concept of Digital Health
Digital health is a technological concept that looks for different ways the power of information communication technology can be used to enhance health care delivery, from wearable devices, simple electronic medical records, robotics, electronic pharmacological therapies, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Just to mention a very few of the applications of digital health.
Cultural changes seem to have a profound effect on the utilization of health care services, as more people begin to understand the importance of remote health care monitoring and light-speed interventions in the care of the aged and the extremely ill population. And one major event that has been able to shape our perspective of digital health is the ongoing pandemic.
The pandemic has cause several permanent cultural changes across a lot of sectors, if not all social sectors/strata, and health care is not left behind. The health care sector has also learnt a lot from the fight with the pandemic, and the idea of digital health is beginning to be a more pleasant one, as stakeholders in the health care industries are beginning to see the importance of the technology of digital health.
How did the pandemic affect the way we understand digital health? To know more, why not wait for the next part of this article, I will take my time to let you know how the pandemic has shaped the world of digital health, and what we must all must know, especially those of us in Africa.
There’s a whole lot of positive changes the disruptive idea of digital health is bringing into the health care sector. Though we may not completely understand or comprehend or even accept it now, it is a force that we must give attention to because it can not be stopped.
Advanced economies are already tapping into the strength of digital health. They are understanding the economic importance and at the same time understanding the way digital health can help the overall health of the population.
Digital Health Literacy
One aspect of digital health that we must also begin to look into, is the aspect of educating health care professionals on the importance and substance of digital health. Creating a community that strives to infuse health care professionals all over the world and in places where the idea of digital health is still a little bit alien with the knowledge of digital, at all levels, from very basic to advanced concepts. And this is what Care Code, Care City’s Digital Literacy Academy strives to do with her webinars, boot camps, and online virtual activities, though with a strong focus on Africa’s health care industry.
Though the concept of medical devices has been available for some time now, the utilization of the data that these devices can extract from care is the area that has not been given enough consideration, and this is one aspect that digital health also seeks to explore.
Companies that produce medical devices are now beginning to give more attention to the aspect of digital health, and it is interesting to note that they are in the best position to cause more changes because they have been in the business of health technology, which digital health happens to be a major branch of.
Tech giants like Google are already busy building digital health empires in the background, and in no time, we would be surprised at how much innovations they will be bringing onto the stage of health care technology.
In the next part of this article, I will take us all on a ride, to explore what these tech giants, ranging from Google, Apple and Amazon and other medical device companies, and digital health start-ups are doing in the world of digital health care technology.
You will be amazed at the way these communities are thinking. The disruptions that they are bringing into the world of health care, which is one industry that has for a very long time been resistant to the concept of the internet, and the internet is the bedrock of information communication technology.
My interest happens to be in bringing this information to the health care professionals in Nigeria and Africa, and that is why we are building Care Code, Care City’s Digital Literacy Academy.
Care Code is dedicated to exposing health care professionals like I always mention, we have a stronger focus on Africa, to the realities of digital health, so that when we begin embracing the idea of digital health, there will be professionals who are prepared to receive its good tidings.
To know more about Care Code, follow me here!
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Care Code is Care City’s Digital Literacy Academy designed for health care professionals in Nigeria & Africa. To know more about Care Code, follow the “About Care Code button”, to be a part of our upcoming virtual activities, follow the “our activities” button below. To partner with Care Code, talk directly with the CEO of Care City, follow the “Partner” button.
