Digital health is more precise, more human and more individual | Digitization | Technology

Digitization has accelerated in recent years in all areas, but the health sector has undergone a much faster transformation after the emergency situation caused by the pandemic. The incorporation of new technologies as a result of innovation offers, today, a more accurate, more humane and more personalized medicine.

An example of this change is Sanitas, dedicated since 2016 to digital transformation and a leader in telemedicine. The company has made video consultation assistance a reality with the launch of Blua, an insurance that has marked a milestone in the health sector.

Sanitas was clear that the future of the sector would be digital. When the pandemic broke out on the world scene, the company was already prepared to extend video consultations to all its clients and continue to provide this service despite the confinement. Thanks to this prior preparation, remote assistance was multiplied by 15 in 2020.

From the constant search for new models that bring medicine closer to the person, BluaUthe digital hospital with the most agile responses and with greater precision in diagnosis and treatment.

Telemedicine, the internet of things and artificial intelligence make all this possible. Sanitas, for example, uses TOI (Transdermal Optical Imaging) facial scanning technology to obtain the blood flow of the patient’s face, which generates a series of specific and reliable data on her health. Next, the doctor evaluates you remotely and without displacement.

“Digitalization has meant a before and after in customer service,” says Ine Snater, Director of Transformation and Strategy at Sanitas and Bupa Europe and Latin America.

The use of new technologies, especially big dataartificial intelligence and the use of wearables in health monitoring has highlighted its enormous potential for much more personalized assistance, where the patient is the center and can manage their own health”.

The patient, active part

with the app MiSanitas, for example, patients, thanks to the use of wearables and devices such as digital scales, thermometers or pulse oximeters, they are in contact with their doctor and monitor their constants at any time. This allows them to become an active part in their health care and disease prevention.

Sanitas has also launched BluaU Smarta modular insurance with all the advantages of the existing programs, to which is added the flexibility and autonomy to choose between 10 micro-coverages, which can be adapted according to the needs of each stage of life.

Digital medicine is an alternative to bring health closer to people and Sanitas is committed to a hybrid system that combines, at the patient’s and the medical professional’s discretion, the advantages of digital tools and the traditional doctor-patient relationship.

New technologies have highlighted their enormous potential for more personalized care, in which the patient is the center and can manage their own health

Ine Snater, Director of Transformation and Strategy at Sanitas and Bupa Europe and Latin America

During the 2020 home confinement, the company gave all its clients access to the video consultation service. Today, one in three company queries is made via mobile and with services such as the measurement of vital signs through facial image. These technologies make it easy to obtain results such as heart and respiratory rates or remote monitoring through wearables.

In the field of the elderly, Sanitas has reinforced actions aimed at residents by extending medical coverage through video consultation. Elderly people have access to 15 medical specialties: geriatrics, dermatology, neurology, rheumatology, psychology, psychiatry, cardiology, traumatology, internal medicine, otorhinolaryngology, urology, allergology and immunology, ophthalmology, and the digestive system. Technological solutions for the elderly also include anti-fall floors, wandering control sensors for the care of the most dependent people or robot pets.

Dental health and hospitals

Digitization has also reached oral health, a sector to which Sanitas has incorporated innovative treatments, new techniques and workflows. At this time, the implementation of various state-of-the-art dental technologies, such as carving parts with CAD-CAM or robotic surgery, allow very precise treatments and minimize possible errors. This also optimizes the patient’s time in the clinic and the number of visits.

Another example of the possibilities offered by technology can be found in the services, diagnoses and treatments of the Sanitas La Moraleja University Hospital. Its hybrid operating room incorporates the fusion of diagnostic images and 3D modeling in the planning of interventions. As a consequence, there is greater precision and guarantee of clinical safety throughout the process and the patient saves travel for complementary examinations.