Digital healthcare is usually used to denote one of the most prevalent healthcare approaches today. It applies information and communication technologies (ICT) to the care and management of patient’s health and is also known as e-health.
Why invest in digital healthcare?
Digital health services still need to improve to polish and correct the imperfections they currently present. Apart from these, they are usually developed to increase the efficiency or agility of some healthcare-related processes, especially in chronic or relatively mild problems in which face-to-face contact between the patient and the healthcare professional could be reduced.
This reduces economic costs, avoids unnecessary travel at some or all stages of the patient’s process, and relieves the pressure that face-to-face contact can place on health services in certain circumstances.
Beyond videoconferencing
Digital healthcare has been closely related to medicine since its emergence, but it has a very relevant impact on psychological well-being. This goes far beyond the so-called “videoconferencing sessions”, which have been going on for years and are increasingly accepted by both patients and therapists.
Digital healthcare, therefore, encompasses comprehensive emotional well-being services that can be easily integrated, for example, into the corporate wellness strategy of large organizations. This has a very positive effect on employees and works very well to increase their commitment to the company: few things unite as much as perceiving that the other (in this case, the company) cares about making my life easier and taking care of my health.
Apps designed to take care of psychological well-being
We often think of digital healthcare as people who do not physically go to a doctor’s or psychologist’s practice but communicate with them through some IT-related format, for example, an email or a videoconference.
Apart from videoconferencing and chats that allow agile and comfortable communication with the healthcare professional, these also include health education resources and monitoring certain factors related to the problem to be treated. This makes it possible to collect and organize information, facilitating the process. In addition, digital health also involves the development of apps.
Four aspects of care that improve with digital healthcare
1. Efficiency
Provided that it is applied when necessary or useful and not by the system, digital healthcare increases resource savings (money but also time, personal energy, and transportation…) aimed at improving comfort without decreasing efficiency.
2. Autonomy
The aim is to provide the patient with resources so that they can actively participate in the care of their well-being without having to resort unnecessarily to a type of care that requires the direct participation of a professional.
3. Accessibility
Thanks to digital health services and in a relatively simple and quick way, through devices that they already use in their daily lives to manage other types of services, transactions, or formalities, people can also access tools that can improve their lives, for example through the psychological well-being care strategy of the company they work for.
4. Reach
One of the objectives of digital healthcare, as we understand it at ifeel, is to reach more people to improve their health, specifically their psychological well-being, through our collaboration with the organizations where they work. Information and communication technologies provide great versatility solutions to our needs, so why not take advantage of them to multiply their effect on health care?
A commitment to emotional well-being in organizations
At ifeel, we believe that employee health care should be governed by professionalism and thoroughness but also by accessibility and efficiency.
To help them achieve this and establish good communication habits within the organization’s processes, our team of psychologists, experts in well-being at work, has created an emotional well-being service for companies that supports the entire team of a company, including those responsible for Human Resources.
These managers must ensure that the company’s final results are close to the objectives set. This is why it is essential to support them in guiding the relationship between the company and the employee and to ensure that it is as beneficial as possible for both.
That’s why, through our service, you can receive personalized, data-driven advice on improving your teams’ psychological well-being. Are you part of your organization’s Human Resources department? Try our program now and find out how it could help you.
In addition, this program offers all employees a complete mental health care service that they can access in different ways depending on their needs. Those who wish can access an online therapy service with one of our psychologists, specialized in cases like theirs, or interact with one of our professionals to receive emotional support in a more specific circumstance that concerns them.
Of course, in our Resources section, you can find different materials, such as podcasts, HR Guides on various topics (e.g., employee experience or how to design a good HR strategy), or interviews with important HR positions. In addition, we have a Psychosocial Risk Factors Template, which you can use to comply with the requirements of the Labor Inspectorate.
We hope you found this post on implementing digital healthcare interesting. If you would like more information about our emotional well-being program for companies, just ask us, and we will contact your team as soon as possible.
