Healthcare Disaster Preparedness: Importance of Technology

When it comes to the recent pandemic, it’s exposed a lot of gaps in preparedness. And while everyone is still figuring out how to move forward, it’s clear that technology will play a huge role in our new world. From telehealth appointments to contact tracing, it’s easy to see how technology will restructure social situations.

When it comes to your health, though, technology preparedness can prove a lifesaver. That starts with telehealth appointments. If you’re not familiar with them, it’s an easy way for your doctor to connect with you from your living room. If you need a quick consultation and an opportunity to chat with your doctor, these are a great solution.

One of the biggest caveats of going to a doctor’s office, unfortunately, is that it’s a great place to get sick. You might leave worse than when you came in! Telehealth appointments help avoid this. Using video chat platforms is becoming more popular, and it’s very helpful if you have trouble with transportation to and from appointments. Of course, some appointments won’t work over video chat. But if you’re familiar with video conferencing platforms, you’ll be a step ahead of the game for your first telehealth appointment.

Prescription drug shortages can also be targeted with proactive preparation. Remember when there was a run on hydroxychloroquine? Even there was no real use for it, people still tried to stock up in the hopes of combating coronavirus. However, hydroxychloroquine is used by people with lupus or rheumatoid arthritis. If these types of super-spreader pandemics are the way of the future, it’s important to be prepared.

You can place an order online and get it shipped directly to you. If it’ll take you some time to make it down to the pharmacy, this trick can help secure your place in line. And even if you never need to stock up on medicine to prepare for a shortage, using your tech for this purpose is still important. You can schedule prescription refills so you never run out or struggle with picking it up again. Automating prescription shipping is a great way to take another crucial item off your to-do list.

When coming up with emergency plans on an individual or a national level, it’s impossible to predict what the future will look like. With technology, though, there are a lot of possibilities to explore. For instance, think about how physicians will be trained in the future. If it’s dangerous to hold in-person classes, how will they ever learn their prospective profession? Becoming a doctor is impossible to do through virtual classes. That might not be true, though! Think about virtual reality. With the right approach, virtual reality could be a wild new training ground for future doctors.

With virtual reality and all other technology, it is evolving rapidly to meet new needs. That might make it feel like keeping up with technology for your everyday life, much less emergency management, is too much. But that’s not true! Once you get the basics down, you’ll be equipped to use anything else that comes your way.