Transforming care through telehealth and virtual collaboration

Transforming care through telehealth and virtual collaboration

Connected healthcare and digital technology are fast transforming the way healthcare providers can deliver care. Innovations such as telehealth and healthcare virtualisation are helping bring specialist care to patients across the region, breaking down geographical barriers, and linking patients to experts regardless of their location. It also connects physicians and other specialists from across sites enabling them to collaborate more easily and make clinical decisions faster. Telehealth “” which can include the remote diagnosis and treatment of patients, as well as the remote care of patients through a centralised surveillance centre “” has the potential to overcome shortages of healthcare professionals, such as intensivists, by increasing remote access to specialist doctors in centres of excellence, medical centres, hospitals and academic institutions. Telehealth ensures that specialists can access vital patient data and can collaborate with each other regardless of location. Philips partnered with the Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia to provide a first-of-its-kind project - Taji - connecting cardiac care facilities throughout the kingdom. This programme makes a patient's medical information across the connected hospitals accessible to specialists in a centralised location who are then able to remotely support the physicians on the ground. Project Taji marked a significant step