Connected Care: The Digital Revolution for More Accessible and Efficient Healthcare
Digital health has rapidly grown, driven by technological advancements, demand for efficient healthcare, and the need for better resource management amid global healthcare pressures. Digitalization can revolutionize patient-provider interactions, fostering personalized, rapid, and convenient care. Solutions like telemedicine, electronic health records (EHR), and health monitoring apps enhance chronic disease management, preventive care access, and coordination among professionals. Gruppo San Donato (GSD), Italy’s leading private hospital group with 63 locations and about 5 million patients annually, launched the Connected Care program. This project aims to position GSD as a leader in digital healthcare, enhancing patient experience and optimizing care pathways through technological innovation.
Goals, Challenges, and Product Streams
Connected Care aims to enhance patient experience by streamlining document exchange, reducing booking and report times, and creating personalized, efficient care pathways. It integrates physical and digital interactions in a “Phygital” model, promoting sustainability through reduced environmental impact and secure document exchange.
Connected Care includes four integrated technological products, enriching the GSD App, which reached one million registered users in June 2024:
1.PHR (Patient Health Record): Facilitates personalized care pathways by providing a single access point for sharing patient documents and enabling integrated communication between doctors and patients.
2.Telemedicine: Integrates telemedicine schedules into the GSD App, allowing patients to receive consultations from any location, enhancing care accessibility.
3.Symptom Checker: A machine learning-based pre- triage service, guiding patients to the appropriate clinical specialty.
4.PRM (Patient Relationship Management): A platform aimed at engaging and retaining patients,
improving interactions and enabling tailored care and prevention strategies.
Expected benefits include increased adoption of digital services, with enhanced functionalities in the GSD App centralizing bookings, digital payments, and symptom self- assessment; reduced physical visits, as administrative tasks move to digital platforms; and improved communication, facilitating rapid and secure exchanges of information between doctors and patients.
Results and Future Developments
Initial results show a 70% increase in telemedicine bookings and engagement of 700 doctors. The Symptom Checker has been used by approximately 4,000 unique users, with 65% satisfaction. Continuous monitoring prioritizes future developments based on user feedback. Upcoming phases include remote reporting via PHR, expanded telemedicine services, and the launch of the GSD App in English for international patients in September 2024.
