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How data-driven solutions can empower remote healthcare NGOs

Non-governmental organisations (NGO) are mostly associated with social or humanitarian work, including a range of worldwide groups focused on the health and wellbeing of populations on the fringe of national health services. All of these charitable groups, health NGO or not, face tough conditions, and rely on trained voluntary workers and monetary support as just two factors to carry out their respective causes. Add in healthcare’s notoriously tricky, cumbersome systems and advanced medical specialisms, and the job for these remarkable organisations is made evermore difficult.

Alongside the goodwill of generous donations, technological advancements are making exponential differences to ways in which healthcare NGOs can treat underserved patients, even in the globe’s more remote regions. When medical and resources are tight, operational innovation becomes key. But healthtech has even greater knock-on effects in transforming the ways volunteers, medical professionals and patients interact with each other throughout their clinical paths.

The unique problems for remote healthcare

Even the most trusted health systems in developed countries struggle with the pressures of growing populations and modern ailments. If you transfer these troubles to regions without skilled doctors, or even a hospital or small surgery, and healthcare NGOs’ importance is obvious. Like many NGOs, there’s a high level of cultural and social understanding they share with local communities, some of which may be less trusting in doctors, or feel there’s bias against those that can afford their treatment and those that can not. 

A healthcare system should, in a perfect world, give equal quality of care to every patient and prioritise those most in need. Not all providers can achieve this in less economical places, however. NGOs in the space do excellent work in providing as much special care as they can and educate local staff that can build rapport with patients. But unlike non-health-related NGOs, there’s a problem in being able to provide regular health check-ups with the same doctors and nurses, and to cross-reference health records (if any) with existing systems. Despite providing a bridge between patients and access to healthcare materials, NGOs can face difficult relationships with these healthcare facilities already in place.

This is why grassroots health NGOs, with enough economic backing and government agency support at their areas of work, must aim to put training procedures in place to improve preventative healthcare solutions for patients until public or private providers can better serve their needs.

From access to tracked pathways

Accessibility is the first hurdle to anyone seeking healthcare, which NGOs strive to provide at the basic level. But their continued success relies on sustaining projects (even with the rising cost of training, delivery, and infrastructure). There’s no immediate magic wand to provide everyone with more stable and regular healthcare, yet through partnerships with research institutions and technological partners, a focused grouped effort goes some way in optimising the clinical paths that work best – without wasting medical resources or the valuable time of voluntary staff. 

For one, technology is an outstanding educational tool. Through sharing audio and video training, it’s quicker to raise awareness about ailments, or to onboard local professionals or staff members that can learn the ins-and-outs of their specific roles for efficient procedural workflows at regional or pop-up surgeries. The same applies to support video calls between doctors and patients, where mobile or tablet is applicable, reducing queues of in-person appointments. WhatsApp is becoming an increasingly popular tool for reaching patients in remote areas, who are able to stay updated with doctors that can monitor their condition from wherever they are based.

When documentation is captured digitally, there’s consistency across care teams to track patient pathways – something we’ve experienced working with NGO Faith In Practice in Guatemala. This is why data is becoming such a key asset for remote health work; going beyond areas where paperwork is the only log for any health records, collecting real-time data on appointments or procedural notes is paramount to provide feedback, referrals, and to help each patient understand the next steps required. Ironing out these operations makes it more affordable to allocate fees to host clinics in remote areas, and helps account for only the materials needed with far less repeated manual labour, too.

A brighter future

Beyond this, data has the power to change healthcare systems outside of their individual surgeries. Collecting patient data builds up a reliable picture of the work of health NGOs’ in giving primary care, providing ample kudos to these services when they search for potential funding to better their healthcare programmes, a region’s infrastructure, or even to influence policymakers.

Maintaining health records provides better trust and communication between surgeries and patients for any pathway, no matter where they are in the world. Healthtech is certainly a cost-effective and vital lifeline to do just this, strengthening the great work health NGOs complete every hour, every day.

Personalised Patient Pathways: going beyond operational healthcare challenges

Healthcare systems worldwide are under increasing pressure to deliver improved patient outcomes while under strictly managed budgets. It takes innovative steps to maintain this balance, but emerging solutions are making the necessary leaps to move the industry forward.

PRO-MAPP stands out in this regard as a software platform specifically designed to change the game for patient care delivery. From personalising individual care plans, to driving efficiency and lowering costs for clinicians, here are five compelling reasons for why PRO-MAPP is revolutionising the healthcare sector through smart technology.

1. Addressing healthcare challenges

The hurdles faced by healthcare providers are escalating. Under the stress of rising costs, patients have high expectations in regards to their duty of care, and managing new systems to solve operational problems (including streamlining workflows and improving patient outcomes) can be convoluted. Traditional approaches to care delivery often lack the flexibility and precision needed to address the diverse needs of patients effectively.

Instead, PRO-MAPP offers a complete solution that enables healthcare professionals to design and implement bespoke patient pathways that are tailored to individual clinical needs, maintaining a consistently high level of detail for every case.

2. Data-centric decisions

All patient pathways are different and healthcare providers must juggle various clinical scenarios, ranging from routine procedures to complex treatments. There’s only so much oversight and multi-tasking a human can handle in a fast-paced environment.

But by leveraging advanced algorithms and data analytics, PRO-MAPP generates customised care plans that take into account patient demographics, medical history, and their healthcare preferences. With a personalised approach, each patient is ensured that their specific requirements are met through their care path and increasing satisfaction.

3. Enhancing clinical efficiencies

Healthcare providers are tasked with a range of operational considerations that can affect the efficiency of end-to-end clinical workflows. These can include care coordination, task assignment, and resource allocation across whole clinical teams, where collaboration is key to ensuring a streamline care journey for every patient.

Automating these administrative tasks allows healthcare teams to focus on what matters – improving the patient experience – by reducing unnecessary delays, distributing resources accordingly and increasing productivity overall. Going a step beyond, real-time tracking and monitoring features also allow clinicians to monitor patient progress and identify potential bottlenecks for them to proactively intervene when necessary.

4. Measurable cost reductions

In addition to improving patient outcomes and clinical efficiencies, healthcare organisations are under scrutiny to deliver tangible cost savings in the current financial landscape. Optimising many of the care delivery processes above helps to reduce any unnecessary variations in practice and utilises care givers and materials more effectively. This has a direct knock-on effect to lowering costs.

Studies have shown that institutions using PRO-MAPP experience measurable reductions in operational expenses, including shorter lengths of stay, fewer readmissions, and lower medication errors. Each of these cost savings translate into significant financial benefits for healthcare providers and contribute to long-term sustainability and profitability.

5. Embracing advanced IT systems

The healthcare industry has a history of investing billions in monolithic IT systems with limited returns on investment which cannot adhere to the needs of personalised care options easily. Traditional IT implementations require lengthy customisation and integration processes, ultimately delaying the all-important provision of healthcare.

A departure from this trend looks to offer a solution that is both cost-effective and a value-driver from day one. These new-look platforms, including PRO-MAPP, can not only be rapidly deployed, but scaled to meet the evolving needs of healthcare organisations over time. An intuitive interface and user-friendly design also minimises the need for extensive training, ensuring adoption is rapidly accepted among clinical staff.

All healthcare providers should seek to enhance patient care, streamline clinical operations, and achieve cost efficiencies, especially as it’s becoming evermore possible using technological breakthroughs specifically designed for the industry. By enabling personalised patient pathways, enhancing clinical efficiencies, and delivering measurable cost reductions, PRO-MAPP emerges as a transformative solution for modern healthcare delivery – not only a strategic decision to improve patient outcomes – but also as a significant step to provide long-term success and sustainability for healthcare organisations.

To find out more about PRO-MAPP’s solution for personalised patient pathways, get in touch with our team today.

Success by degrees: how to overhaul inefficient healthcare with Small IT

In the tricky pursuit for next-generation healthcare technology, the NHS has often found itself entangled in the complexities of ‘Big IT’ programs. For decades, these large-scale nationwide programs, often championed by consulting giants, promised transformation but delivered little more than frustration and inefficiency. The time has come to pivot towards a new, and arguably better, notion: Small IT.

The allure of Big IT solutions, with their expansive scope and proposals of comprehensive integration, once held sway over healthcare decision makers. But bloated budgets, delayed timelines, and systems plagued by interoperability issues have become all too familiar hallmarks of these grand endeavours.

For the NHS, another fundamental flaw of Big IT initiatives lies in their top-down approach. These monolithic projects often attempt to impose standardised solutions across a diverse landscape of healthcare providers, disregarding the bespoke challenges and workflows of individual institutions. This ‘one size fits all’ mentality inevitably leads to adaptation struggles and, ultimately, suboptimal outcomes.

Adjusting to a nimbler evidence-based approach and building from proven localised successes allows for innovators to partner with the so-called integration giants in subsequent phases of rollout. The tail stops wagging the dog. Innovators lead, partnering with scale-out enablers at the right time and only after ROI proof-points have been demonstrated. This is where Small IT comes in.

The ethos of Small IT centres on leveraging modern technology stacks to empower innovators to tailor solutions to the specific needs of healthcare providers and patients alike. It marks a tactical pivot towards agile solutions delivered by passionate teams with a focus on both service and profitability.
Small IT also thrives on collaboration and customisation. By working closely with healthcare stakeholders, operations heads can gain a deep understanding of their needs and pain points, crafting solutions that seamlessly integrate into existing workflows while addressing specific challenges head on. This bottom-up approach fosters a sense of ownership and engagement among end users, driving adoption and ensuring that technology truly enhances, rather than hinders, the delivery of care.

The agility inherent in Small IT allows for rapid iterations according to evolving healthcare requirements and emerging technologies. Rather than being shackled to outdated systems and cumbersome bureaucracies, healthcare organisations can embrace change as an opportunity for growth and improvement. Dynamic responsiveness is crucial in an industry that changes as rapidly as healthcare, where the ability to swiftly respond to new challenges (spikes in patient admissions and evolving ailments, for example) can mark the difference between success and stagnation.

Critics of the Small IT approach may argue that it lacks the scale and robustness of Big IT solutions. But the goal is not to build massive systems that attempt to solve every problem under the sun, rather to create flexible, modular solutions that can be easily modified and scaled as needed. Small IT embraces the concept that solutions can’t do it all, yet are pragmatic, cost-effective, and, most importantly, deliver tangible value to end-users.

Plus the rise of modern tech stacks – cloud computing, microservices architecture, and open-source software – has democratised access to powerful tools and platforms for all Small IT users who can rapidly prototype and deploy solutions with minimal upfront investment. It levels the playing field and empowers a new age of healthcare entrepreneurs.

The era of Big IT dominance in healthcare is coming to an end. Decades of failed initiatives and wasted resources have demonstrated the limitations of top-down, holistic approaches. Software development efficiencies only add to the case. It is time to embrace Small IT’s agility, collaboration and customisation to revolutionise the delivery of care throughout the NHS.

By harnessing the creativity and passion of smaller IT teams, we can finally realise the promise of technology to improve patient outcomes, enhance clinician satisfaction, and drive efficiency throughout the healthcare system: a fundamental change meaningful to us all.