Clinicians call for timely diagnosis and patient comfort during radiology interventions

Bengaluru, March 31, 2022:

Clinicians are insisting for timely diagnosis and patient comfort during radiology interventions. This is because the best clinical outcome for a patient rests upon an accurate and appropriate diagnosis.

According to Chhitiz Kumar, business leader, Connected Care and Precision Diagnosis, Philips Indian Subcontinent, the current healthcare environment is a pressure cooker of competing challenges for the radiology department which can create enormous stress for healthcare providers, physicians and the patient.

Therefore clinicians are asking radiology department to deliver timely and confident diagnosis keeping patient comfort in mind, while eliminating expenses and reducing the burden on clinical staff, he added.

There are four areas to address the causes of stress in radiology imaging today. One is enhanced patient and staff experience which are the cornerstone of modern healthcare. Even as patients and payors are the participants in the care process, healthcare providers have recognized imaging plays a central role in shaping patient experience and deciding the clinical pathways. Hence there is a need to streamline workflow and increase patient throughput going by the growing rate of staff burnout. It is here, Philips is prioritizing innovation to improve patient comfort and staff safety by providing intuitive, clinically relevant support to help technologists deliver quality images with confidence. The company’s Compressed Sense, leverages artificial intelligence (AI) in an MRI by decreasing the time by almost 50%, thereby increasing patient comfort and increasing throughput, Kumar told Pharmabiz.

Second is simplify data and insight gathering across electronic medical records to picture archiving and communications systems (PACS), and from clinical databases to billing systems where vital healthcare data is often distributed and sequestered across multiple departments and applications. This creates difficulty in compiling a comprehensive, longitudinal view of patients and populations. By merging data with clinical expertise at the modality level, Philips is innovating the development of real, actionable solutions in low-acuity as well as emergency situations, he said.
 
Third area of to be addresses is to drive accurate and timely diagnosis. Healthcare providers need to make decisions to ensure the right modality, at the right dose, for the right patient, at the right time. Philips is developing intuitive solutions from patient centered imaging and radiation dose management tools to machine learning applications that help inform appropriate imaging practices.

Fourth is to reduce healthcare costs and eliminate waste. The demand for better, efficient, affordable healthcare is a consistent need, especially in developing countries. Prioritizing equipment that is accurate, reliable and easy to use can speed up diagnosis and create workflow efficiencies. All of these according to Kumar are crucial to allow long-term saving, he stated.
 
In the wake of Covid-19, remote monitoring transformed healthcare delivery at home. An estimated 60% Covid patients treated at home. It is reported that Indian Home Healthcare is US$ 5.4 billion and is expected to grow to US$ 19.9 billion by 2025.

According to Kumar, technology-powered, integrated home care is emerging as a reliable, outcome measurable, and scale-ready solution to bring high-quality medical attention. Going forward, homecare will evolve from basic care to skilled nursing to complex critical care at home, defining a new era of advanced acute care delivery in the Indian healthcare ecosystem. Pharmabiz