Information technology (IT) supports a number of core and peripheral operations in the healthcare industry. Starting from maintaining patient’s data to carefully monitoring patient’s health to researching optimal therapies, IT is ubiquitous in the healthcare industry in the worldwide. It is becoming a very vital part in the medical and healthcare industry.

With the day by day global proliferation of the healthcare industry, there is a huge demand of shared databases and records of medical histories of patients. And this increasing demand can only be addressed with the implementation of IT- and other telecom-centric solutions. There are a number of technologies such as cloud computing and other software solutions which are developed specifically for the healthcare industry are addressed as an integral part of this trend. They are the bridge through which medical records, databases and other applications can be effectively connected between different healthcare facilities.

Now, there are numerous benefits of utilization of telecom industry in medicals and healthcare industry. Some of them are as follows-

Few benefits to the patient: 

• People who live in rural areas, or other such areas who do not have any access to specialist care services are able to consult a healthcare provider without any need of travelling to a long distance
• With the help of the collaboration of telecom and healthcare industry, those people who are facing chronic conditions and need regular monitoring of their vital statistics are able to send their reports and statistics to their physicians without visiting them
• One of the biggest benefit of the use of telecom industry in medicals and healthcare is for people who are recovering from effects of stroke, a severe accident or heart attack. Such individuals who are homebound or are advised bed rest need not to travel to see their physician
• The online access to laboratory test results reduces the need for patients to visit their physician
• The increased level of telecom and healthcare industry collaboration leads to patient-empowerment, which results in more patient-centric care provision.

Apart from just patients, this collaboration is also beneficial to healthcare providers. Some of them are as follows-

Few benefits to the healthcare provider:

• With fewer patients having to physically visit the doctor, clinics will observe shorter lines, leading to improved capacity to serve more patients
• Greater collaboration between healthcare providers can result to cost-savings
• The greater collaboration of healthcare and telecom solutions will result in increased ability regularly monitor a patient’s condition which will enable physicians to provide better attention and care to the patient’s needs
• Increased collaboration can lead to patients being released earlier, freeing up beds for other patients

On a closing note, the collaboration of IT and telecom solutions in healthcare industry have several advantages.  The recent advancements in the telecommunications and IT industry have together made it possible to monitor patients remotely and also to use some more accurate methodologies in diagnosing and treating their medical health conditions. As technology continues to evolve, various new ways of medical collaborations are becoming highly relevant and vital, which is drastically increasing the effectiveness of communication between a patient and his doctor. As a result, the quality of medical and healthcare services available to patients in the developing world is poised to greatly improve. The round-the-clock monitoring has only been made possible with the usage of intelligent IT and telecom solutions in the healthcare industry. Telemedicine is an area that has immense potential, and medical establishments are looking at opportunities for investment here. Although the traditional telecom solutions have achieved some strong penetration in medical and healthcare industry, with more sophisticated solutions this collaboration has yet a long way to go for enabling a new-age healthcare system. Lastly, it is predicted that the demand for IT and telecommunications solutions and products in the healthcare sector will continue to see an upward rise in the coming future years.