One of the most complicated and frustrating obstacles to better health is a lack of access to medicines. Lacks in infrastructure, finances, and healthcare systems frequently impede the supply of medicines to millions of people. Access is based on affordability, but many other factors also play a role in whether people receive the medicines they require. This is especially true for households and health budgets.
Despite the fact that the plan for further developing access is especially expansive and admittance to meds has turned into a focal concentration for wellbeing specialists and the drug business, the errand is definitely not a simple one. Throughout its 70-year history, the World Health Organization (WHO) has, to a right extent, worked to increase medication accessibility. Without access to medicine and treatment, health cannot exist. The availability of sufficient quantities of affordable, quality-assured health technologies with the assistance of effective healthcare systems is necessary for universal health coverage.
Advertisement In today’s healthcare environment, hospitals and processes dominate. Problems have been made worse by the alarming rise in the number of chronic diseases among an aging and growing global population. More action is required to manage patients who require prolonged or chronic treatment, despite the necessity of modernizing health facilities. The majority of patients receive treatment outside of the hospital. As a result, there is an urgent need to bridge the gap between the evolving requirements of patients and current healthcare systems.
Improved treatment and diagnosis service adherence necessitates addressing gaps in the healthcare system and the patient treatment journey outside of clinical settings. Patients, particularly those who require medications for the rest of their lives, will have easier and more equitable access to healthcare as a result.
We must devise a system that provides patients with innovative and more individualized support for adherence and disease management through sustainable access solutions to help them overcome barriers outside of the healthcare facility. This can be accomplished by retracing the patient’s path to obtaining health-seeking behavior data and enhancing the learning curve, which improves adaptability to patient requirements.
Advertisement Numerous studies have already demonstrated that patients’ health-seeking behavior is influenced positively by increased accessibility. Even though diagnosis can be made in the hospital, it can take weeks or months for symptoms to be noticed, a diagnosis to be made, and treatment to start. A patient is most likely lost in the system here, unsure of how to deal with the disease and treatment or unable to do so. As a result, patients should be sought out both outside of the hospital and throughout their treatment process.
After receiving treatment for a chronic disease that lasts a lifetime, patients frequently stop taking their medications for a variety of reasons, including affordability, accessibility, and health-related social and psychological issues. Adherence to treatment is especially crucial when it is administered outside of the hospital, which is another reason why care should not stop at the hospital. In order to achieve equitable access to healthcare, patients ought to be connected through adherence solutions that are both practical and financially viable.
Covid-19 demonstrated to us that our healthcare systems were unable to reach and protect the most vulnerable chronically ill patients because many of them lost access to healthcare during the pandemic. These are the same patients who require connections outside of the hospital setting to ensure that they adhere to their treatment. Patients’ access to hospitals and medications was reduced as a result of nationwide lockdowns and overcrowded hospitals, which had a significant impact on the morbidity and mortality of patients with chronic diseases.
Healthcare systems are still archaic today, despite advances in digital technology. Digital advancements are lacking throughout the patient journey outside of the hospital and in reaching them when they are needed. The world is connected, but healthcare systems are not. Modern technology is only used in the hospital. Connecting patients to healthcare systems that extend beyond healthcare facilities through digital health will assist in overcoming financial obstacles and the shortage of health professionals and specialists. A digital health ecosystem that is cohesive will result from access programs, accurate patient tracking, real-world insights, and feedback systems.
Why should healthcare suffer as the digital revolution sweeps through our lives? Digital health has the potential to revolutionize access to healthcare for patients both inside and outside of healthcare facilities, enhancing our ability to deal with future global health threats as a single global community.
