How Digital Transformation Enables a Systematic Response to the Coronavirus Outbreak

For many years now, we’ve all been talking about a worldwide digital transformation in healthcare.  One of the key motivations for healthcare’s digital transformation has been to enable the shift from labor-intensive, manual, in-person encounters in healthcare facilities and replace them with encounters that are instead digital, possibly automated, and which can take place wherever the patient happens to beAcross industries, we talk about revolutionizing the customer experience. In healthcare, this revolution has focused on experiences for each patient, every health plan member, every healthcare provider, and all healthcare employees. And when it comes to providing the best care for people who are already ill, we also know that hospitals and medical offices are dangerous places. After all, those who are sick can infect those that are healthy—and this includes our healthcare providers. The more we can provide appropriate assessments, diagnose, and treat patients in the comfort of their own homes—and keep their infections out of hospitals and other medical facilities—the better it is for everyone. It’s the old mantra of the right care, in the right setting, at the right time.