Shara Dunne

With patients wary of going into primary care doctor  offices or the hospital in fear of exposure to the virus, retail pharmacies and pharmacists quickly became patients’ primary source of healthcare and education. Now, with vaccines sent to about 6,500 retail pharmacies across the country, and soon to be up to 40,000 retail pharmacies, pharmacists are on the forefront, leading the charge of vaccine immunization efforts. With the Johnson & Johnson vaccine recently being approved as a one-time vaccine, there are fewer patient visits; however, each pharmacy still has an abundant amount of administration data that it needs to track and record according to vaccine protocol. Additionally, with technology in the mix, the reallocated time can give an advantage to these pharmacies, allowing pharmacists to focus their attention on clinical initiatives, outside training, disease state reviews, medication management, and more value-added services, giving them a much-needed competitive edge.

If you’ve got your eyes on a certain role within a certain country, finding out this information could be important. Most countries are very accepting of immigrants with healthcare experience/qualifications, however there may still be complications when getting approval such as if you want to bring family or if you’ve got a criminal record. Taking a short course beforehand or downloading a language-learning app could help you to master the basics – which may be all you need in many countries. A different country could come with different laws and customs.

While the healing business uses a lot of highly specialized tech, medical professionals often find themselves as lost and confused as anyone else when it comes to everyday computing. What doctors could do is provide patients a safe way to be seen by a medical professional and safely continue routine treatment. Medical professionals not only have to be proficient with these technical details, they have to be proficient in teaching their less technically inclined clients how to utilize these tools. But they mean nothing for your practice if you are not welcoming clients who want more options, utilizing the best teleconferencing technology to enable your clients to see you even when they can’t leave the house, and making data security the top of your tech priorities.

Personal health tech is on the rise, and doctors are getting on board Over the past several months, wearables and direct-to-consumer (DTC) tools have surged in popularity, given the rise of telehealth and remote care as a means to continue healthcare checks amid the global health crisis. A new report found that primary care physicians (PCPs) are becoming significantly more comfortable with DTC Genetic testing information, with 80% of PCPs open to or likely to recommend DTC genetic testing for health if asked about it by their patients. Armed with these insights – and with data from wearable devices and health apps that can track diet, sleep and exercise – patients and physicians can become partners in the future of a patient’s health. This is the future of patient-centric healthcare, marked by a paradigm in which our health decisions can be made in consultation with physicians, leveraging insights and data pulled from an array of wearables and testing services available at our fingertips.