How technology is transforming healthcare accessibility and delivery

Last month, collaboration platform provider Zoom held its annual Asia Pacific (APAC) Healthcare Summit. This year, they explored the exciting scope and possibilities of the hyper-digitalisation of healthcare in the region.

The future of digital or remote healthcare is a debated and polarising topic amongst health and aged care stakeholders, but Zoom has developed a system to streamline the remote healthcare process and provide more support to workers.

This is not an isolated matter to Australia, as populations around the world seek to handle an ageing population.

Just last month, the Singapore Government announced that one in four Singaporeans will be aged 65 and above by 2030, up from one in six today.

Acknowledging these challenges, the APAC summit touched on the need for flexibility and unique approaches in order to sustain our health and aged care systems.

The event featured a keynote by Zoom’s Head of Asia Pacific, Ricky Kapur, who noted that the system was forced to acknowledge and consider the role of virtual healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic and many frontline workers saw the benefits this type of care can Provide.

“Beyond time and cost savings for patients, virtual consultations make care delivery more productive for providers,” Mr Kapur wrote in The Edge.

“Digitalising essential administrative functions like patient data collection and filing, billing, vendor meetings and employee relations can make these tasks easier and less time-consuming.

“Clinicians can not only see more patients but also prioritise in-person consultations for those requiring more critical care.”

What is Zoom Contact Center?

Almost 40% of people prefer to use telehealth services over attending appointments in person and Zoom Contact Center is a digital service that enables face-to-face personalised care for healthcare providers and their patients.

This system gives patients the freedom to interact with healthcare professionals over video, voice, web chat, and SMS. It also empowers healthcare teams to provide prompt, accurate, and highly personalised customer service.

Australian healthcare professionals, particularly in rural and remote settings, have already considered using this technology to help with simple tasks like non-intrusive vitals measurement, delivery of medicine and even follow-up consultations which can be automated using telerobotics supervised by human professionals.

Designed for hospital and medical providers, the Zoom Contact Center can be used in a variety of settings, including:

• Urgent care settings
• Aged care facilities
• Hospitals
• Home care, including hospitals at home
• Localised services

Patients can now be matched with qualified staff quickly and efficiently to receive the right care, the first time, no matter where they are.

“People want healthcare to come to them, not the other way around,” said Head of Healthcare at Zoom, Heidi West.

“As we look at access to care and supporting patients, it’s important to look at how you can expand connectivity.”

Zoom Contact Center supports both patients and providers as a secure solution by safeguarding sensitive data, while intuitive meeting controls and advanced settings add additional privacy.

Personalised support from a virtual agent

Digital or virtual healthcare requires a high level of personalised, easy-to-use and timely care solutions, which is where Zoom Virtual Agent can play a valuable role.

Zoom acquired conversational AI and chatbot platform Solvvy in 2022 and recently launched the next generation of this technology as Zoom Virtual Agent.

Zoom Virtual Agent can be used to intelligently share information with a patient or answer questions. In addition, it can guide the patient through a series of questions designed to assess the situation, helping to shorten wait times and ensure the patient is routed more accurately to the correct person to help.

Zoom Virtual Agent works together with Zoom Contact Center for a seamless experience. Zoom uses their own AI chatbot for millions of customer conversations each month and has been getting incredible results.

For more information, visit the Zoom website and watch this year’s Zoom APAC Healthcare Summit here.