Digital Healthcare Trends in 2021
Telemedicine Platforms
"Nowadays, telemedicine offers great opportunities for both doctors and patients. That is why it has become one of the most promising areas in the development of the healthcare sector. Sibedge has participated in the development of a platform that allows remote patient visits by doctors and includes tools for monitoring their recovery. It improves access to quality health services by removing traditional barriers to health care, such as distance, lack of mobility, and time constraints. In situations where rural clinics do not have enough personnel or expensive equipment, telemedicine can save more than one life," says Vsevolod Morotsky, Sibedge CTO."Previously, people were reluctant to resort to telemedicine. Now many have realized that it is fast, convenient, and can ensure high quality. It was with the arrival of the pandemic that the full potential of this technology was revealed. It is useful not only for patients, but also for medical professionals. All major scientific conferences are now online. Such events used to be exclusively face-to-face, but there was a forced shift. I hope this trend will continue", says Alexey Moiseev, Ph.D. in Physics and Mathematics and head of the medical physics department.
Integration with Medical Equipment
Integration of telemedicine platforms with hardware is useful in several cases. For example, at the request of an American diagnostic company, we have produced a library that provides medical professionals with remote access to digital microscopes. The development of an API for remote access to devices that track patients' vital signs is always popular:
- electrocardiographs;
- pacemakers;
- automatic blood pressure monitors;
- blood sugar sensors, etc.
Real-time Video Communication
High resolution images are critical to ensure that the doctor does not miss any details during the remote examination of the patient. This is why our experts recommend using the following video compression standards for video communication:
- AV1 — a promising new-generation open standard;
- H.256/HEVC — better compression, but increased load on the hardware platform;
- H.264/AVC — acceptable compression and less load on the hardware platform.