AWS Physician Expert Talks New Use Cases For Telehealth, Machine Learning, Cloud

Over the last almost two years, healthcare has seen organizations rely on technology and the cloud to get accurate, trusted information to patients and direct them to the appropriate resources and care at scale. From chatbots and remote patient monitoring to telehealth, the industry worked quickly to adapt and find new ways to care for patients. Healthcare must look at how access to the right patient data, paired with advanced analytics and machine learning, can enhance medical and scientific insights tied to patient outcomes in an accurate, scalable, secure and timely manner, says Dr. Rowland Illing, director, international public sector health, at Amazon Web Services. By eliminating barriers and providing greater visibility into a patient's medical history and then providing bespoke recommendations or materials to support their care, interoperability and tech stand to provide a better patient experience anywhere as well as empower patients to take greater control over their healthcare journey, he said. Q. What examples have you seen of telehealth, remote patient monitoring and chatbots in the cloud, and what has been the impact on patients? A. Telehealth and remote patient monitoring have the potential to revolutionize the delivery of healthcare by improving patient access to care and driving better outcomes, fewer hospital readmissions, greater patient and caregiver satisfaction, and reduced costs. When patients are unable to come to a hospital or clinic, telehealth solutions that provide secure, two-way audio, video and text communications provide an effective way to meet patients where they are. For example, telehealth can allow physicians to provide remote care to patients in the moments after a stroke or a heart attack until paramedics arrive.