The year 2020 has been all about healthcare care, as the world fights back against the crippling impacts of the Covid-19 pandemics. The healthcare workers including doctors and paramedics have been the frontline soldiers battling out to save as many lives as possible. However, behind the scenes, there is another unnoticed hero that’s silently making a big impact in the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic. That silent hero is digital healthcare technology.

For long, digital healthcare technologies have been making inroads into the industry. The primary role of technology in the healthcare industry has been greatly restricted to simplifying the overall access to healthcare by designing and implementing intelligent systems that automate various tasks and responsibilities of the practice. However, beyond the obvious, digital healthcare technology is also battling out to improve the quality of healthcare services and extend the reach of the practice to more and more patients.

Among the digital technologies guiding the healthcare industry, the digital healthcare apps have to play a central role in expanding the reach and scope of the digital healthcare industry, making it easier for patients and healthcare practitioners to interact with each other. And if we keep in view the fact that almost 75% of the adults in the United States own a smartphone, the potential of healthcare apps is truly exceptional and we may expect to see a continuous increase in the use of healthcare apps by patients.

Below, we have come up with some of the best healthcare apps that have been successful in redefining their concerned e-health space:

1. Insight Optics

Insight Optics is a highly successful healthcare app that has been able to redefine eye care amongst patients. According to one statistic, merely 50% of the patients suffering from preventable vision loss disease go for the diagnosis and treatment of the disease by an eye specialist. This simply translates into millions of people in the United States losing their eyesight each year, just because they don’t get to visit an ophthalmologist.

The idea behind the development of Insight Optics was to create an alternative for eye care to minimize the loss of eyesight to preventable diseases. This was accomplished by creating a way for Primary Care Physicians (PCPs), to offer basic eye check during the annual checkups. To be able to achieve this, the Primary Care Physicians (PCPs) are to carry an ophthalmoscope synchronized with the smartphone cameras of PCPs. This, in turn, enables the PCPs to take high-resolution images of patients’ eyes using their smartphone camera and sharing them with a qualified ophthalmologist for review. This ensures that patients get their eyes checked by a qualified ophthalmologist at least once a year, and minimize the loss of eyesight to preventable diseases.

2. Medici

Medici is the best translation of telemedicine technology that aims to connect healthcare practitioners with the patients. With the Medici, patients can get in touch with qualified doctors through text, as a mean to increase the accessibility of qualified healthcare services. The Medici comes with two versions of their healthcare app, one for the healthcare practitioners and the other for the patients. The app enables registered users to get connected to qualified doctors in the Medici network instantly and at a fraction of the cost as compared to visiting a doctor physically.

Once the patients are connected with doctors/physicians, they can easily communicate any illness or they may be experiencing. The app also lets patients send any relevant images they might want the doctors to review, for better diagnosis and treatment. The ultimate objective of the Medici healthcare app is to reduce the time and cost involved with typical doctor’s trip, as well as, increase the reach of patients to qualified healthcare practitioners though HIPPA complaint online space.

3. Digital Pharmacist

Qualified pharmacists are always sought after by patients to get relevant information for medications. However, not all patients have access to qualified pharmacists at all times and that’s where the Digital Pharmacist healthcare app comes to rescue.

The ultimate aim of the digital pharmacist is to bring in to the knowledge of patients everything they want to know about any medicine. The app enables pharmacists to easily communicate and interact with customers and guide them through working or any other information they may want to learn about the medicines. The app comes with a cloud storage feature for pharmacies where they can keep relevant information and other resources for patients’ guidance.

4. Talkspace

It is hard and costly to get in touch with professional therapists and Talkspace intends to make the process easier and more affordable. The healthcare app lets users get in touch with professional therapists from their smartphones through text messages. The users can choose a weekly subscription package to get access to licensed therapists in the Talkspace network. The weekly subscription fee is considerably lower than what it cost to visit a therapist in-person.

The future of digital health technology

The global health crisis of 2020 has only led to cement the importance of digital health technologies in managing global healthcare challenges. Thanks to some of the amazing healthcare apps and advanced AI-based healthcare systems, today it’s not only the tech professionals or doctors who are looking forward to the development of digital health technologies but also the politicians and government authorities have also realized the importance to invest in this high impact sector as a mean to manage the next global health challenges.