By Art Papier for Healthcare Business Today (JUNE 8, 2020)
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to place incredible pressure on healthcare professionals to deliver quality care. Our frontline healthcare staff, nurses, doctors, and emergency providers face long hours, a shortage of PPE, and personal health risks as they rush to save lives and reduce harm. Meanwhile, clinicians who are not on the COVID-19 frontlines have suddenly shifted to telemedicine delivery systems while navigating patient anxiety, fear, and doubt along the way.
When patient anxiety and fear combines with limited access to clinicians, the result is delayed delivery of high-quality care. It is more critical now than ever before that we equip all healthcare workers with the right technology and tools. Tens of thousands of doctors are now using telemedicine for the first time. In this new setting, they must maintain their exacting standards of diagnostic and therapeutic accuracy as they evaluate and educate patients from afar.
As a physician and as a CEO of a medical informatics company, I’ve been advocating for widespread adoption of clinical decision support tools at the point of care for 20 years and I’ve seen first-hand the impact they can have on public health preparedness.
Read the full story of Dr. Papier’s encounters with global health crises and how clinical decision support helps the healthcare world navigate the unknown.