New episode of the Hospital da Luz Podcast about digital transformation in Health and about how this new reality influences the relationship of patients with their doctors and health services, in a conversation between the cardiologist and director of Hospital da Luz Digital Clinical Center, Daniel Ferreira , and the director of Luz Saúde's Client Service Department, Nelson Brito . The Hospital da Luz Podcast is the title of a series of podcasts in which professionals from the Hospital da Luz network discuss the most current topics in their areas, being available on streaming audio platforms (Spotify, Itunes, Google Podcast, etc.) and also on Youtube. Listen to Hospital da Luz Podcast on the topic: “Saúde na era digital” Google | iTunes | Spotify When it comes to digital transformation, we invariably know that we are talking about a world where what is today, tomorrow has already been overcome. This is therefore a path of constant challenges and learning. In recent years, the Luz Saúde Group has taken significant steps in this area, especially with the development of tools that provide Hospital da Luz patients and customers with a digital experience that has proven to be very safe, simple and intuitive, such as the MY LUZ platform and Hospital da Luz Digital Clinical Center . Nelson Brito: We are promoting and encouraging behavioral change, in the sense of widespread use of all the tools that the Luz Saúde Group has created (MY LUZ, LUZ 24, Messenger and WhatsApp on the Hospital da Luz websites, etc.) to access digitally the our services, our hospitals and our doctors. These tools are based on rigor and security and guarantee confidentiality, convenience, and speed in responding to our clients. We are talking about health. And that is our responsibility: any gateway, any access that we create at this digital level must be done very rigorously and safely. We cannot facilitate, we cannot jeopardize the safety of those who have long trusted our professionals and our hospitals. We have also been working to help all those who are still out of the digital world - and who are, today in Portugal, about 900 thousand people between 45 and 64 years old. Everything we do also considers all these people, to help them access our services with equal ease and security. Because, of course, there is no digitalization without changing behavior. And there is no digitization just for those who are already 'digitized'. We cannot, therefore, lose sight of that great fringe of population that remains info excluded. Fortunately, we had the digital platforms set up when the pandemic started. We were already working with all these tools: our video consultations, for example, were not born with the need generated by COVID. They had been working for 3 years, taking the right, correct steps, in due time and making the necessary improvements. The Group was very well prepared for what happened. We were able to respond quickly to our patients and their needs, because we already had MY LUZ, Luz 24, the Digital Clinical Center with over 40 specialties doing video consultations… What happened was that we had to move forward in 6 months that we were looking forward to doing in 5 years. We were here and are still here, every day, for our patients. Daniel Ferreira: Telemedicine has been done in Portugal for over 20 years. But until recently, the objective was to solve institutional problems: if a pediatric cardiologist is needed who is not in the hospital, but is in another one thousands of kilometers away, we put the child's assistant doctor in contact with the specialist through telemedicine. Now, the project of our Digital Clinical Center was born with another objective: not to solve our problem, but to provide our patients with a more comfortable and simple way to access our consultations. Our videoconsultations have rigorous assumptions: for example, they are made only with our patients that we already know, with stabilized and controlled chronic diseases, and for whom some of the consultations can be done at a distance - hence the entire careful admission and verification procedure. patient, access to video consultation, and confidentiality while it takes place. And they meet eligibility criteria made by doctors in each specialty, because not all pathologies can be monitored from a distance. Besides, this is a consultation exactly like the others, with the same clinical quality and legitimacy. It differs only in two things from the face-to-face consultation: in the videoconsultation we do not do a physical examination and the patient is on a screen, not even in front of the doctor. Videoconsultation does not affect the relationship of trust between doctor and patient. On the contrary, it even reinforces it. An Azorean patient might come to my face-to-face consultation only once a year. Through videoconsultation, I see him more often, I control the medication, I monitor his illness… I am much closer to him, I contact him more often, he will feel more confident and confident that I will answer him with speed. When it comes to older people or those who have more difficulty dealing with these digital tools, in fact the same thing happens when they come to the hospital: they bring a companion to help. In videoconsultations, it is the same thing: if the patient does not know how to use the computer or tablet, he asks someone in the family for help. Video consultations are a value proposition for the patient, they are not imposed on anyone. Fortunately, we were prepared when the pandemic broke out. We have been working on these tools for a long time, we just needed to speed up and do a lot more in less time. And everything grew very fast: we had 2 assistants and we became 20; we had a few dozen doctors doing video consultations and we now have 800 doctors throughout the Hospital da Luz network; we had 2 video consultations, now we have 15 only at Hospital da Luz Lisboa (… and now there are only a few!), in addition to having to arrange video consultations in all our units; and we've grown from half a dozen specialties to more than 40 that now offer video consultations. Our video consultations grew more than 3000%! The future is digital also in health. We are well prepared. We know where we want to go. We must work hard and, to maintain leadership, we have to be able to anticipate needs, trends.
