Personalized Healthcare – The Opportunity for Hospitals

Each one of us wishes to be healthy – physically and mentally. Being healthy is the key to a happy life. Physical well being involves pursuing a healthy lifestyle to decrease the risk of diseases. Mental health is equally important as physical health for an active lifestyle. Proper healthcare helps maintain the balance between physical and mental health.

Personalized healthcare helps the patients get the right treatment and cure. Proper diagnosis of the patient needs to be done and this information could be used to deliver the most perfect and personalized care to them. This type of treatment is beneficial to the patients for fast and easy cure. Not only does personalized treatment provide tailor treatments but also gives the opportunity to be preemptive. 

Benefits of Personalized Healthcare

When it comes to healthcare, customizations are very useful. The disease may be same but the intensity, subtype, etc. differs person to person. Some of the benefits are:

• Quality Healthcare: Many a times, medicines prescribed are general according to the symptoms of the patient. However, not everyone responds to a drug the same way. Some might have limited effect or serious side effects from the same medicines. Personalized healthcare helps predict the right therapy reducing the side effects of the treatment as much as possible. This improves the quality and the effect of the treatment.
• Involvement of Patients: Studies show that only a percentage of patients take the complete medications prescribed to them. There are various reasons behind this like concerns regarding medications, side effects, and the growing culture of mistrust on the medical system. It is seen that when the patients are educated about their medication and therapy they finish the complete course.
• Save Money: Times come when the patient has been given certain medication but has not been cured. In such cases, the patient has to keep taking treatment. However, personalized healthcare gives better therapy leading to reduced cost. It helps the diseased save money and time during their treatments. The cure is effective and fast helping patients recover comfortably. 

Opportunity for Hospitals

Personalized healthcare has opened new doors for hospitals. Patients crave for personalized services that helps find the right solutions. With the boom of new technology and digitalization, offering personalized healthcare is easier now.

• Better Treatment: Personalized healthcare provides the best possible treatment to the patient. This improves goodwill and name of the hospital. The quality of treatment is what matters to patients these days. The people choose the hospitals where they can be treated fast and without any discomfort. Such care can be offered through personalized healthcare.
• Telemedicine: Telemedicine care is a service that provides live video visits to doctors. In this system the doctors assess the symptoms, diagnose and write medications. It saves the time and money of the patients. Online therapy is the next generation of healthcare. The service is good for the patient and the doctors. Staying at home, the doctors can diagnose and the patients can get therapy. Even on the days of hospital holidays, they can help patients through these types of services.
• Increased Revenue: The high wave of competition makes the hospitals look for ways to increase their revenues. Personalized care is one of the ways to do that. When the treatment quality increases, the patient traffic increases in the particular hospital automatically. It is like a chain of events. The quality of care, number of patients, etc. are factors increasing the hospital revenue.
• Infrastructure and Information Management: Personalization of healthcare means large amounts of data. The database needs to be managed correctly according to each patient, disease, cure, etc. The hospitals need to improve their infrastructure to maintain information properly. Some hospital face difficulty in infrastructure, but personalized healthcare makes it vital for them to improve their facilities. 

The science of medicine has made incredible advancements in diagnosing and treating diseases. This revolution has created lucrative opportunities for the hospitals. Personalized healthcare not only develops targeted medicines, but also helps optimised use of existing drugs. Adapting to this approach of diagnosis and treatment will lead to increased participation of the patient during and after the treatment. The hospitals can develop them as their USP which, in turn, will help them beat the heatwave of competition.

– Varshita Gupta