Composed of essential products and services to improve the population’s quality of life , the health sector faces a series of barriers in Brazil.
If, on the one hand, the country has a system that inspires other nations due to universal access and coverage, on the other hand, it receives frequent criticism due to inequalities.
Available units and beds, service, and infrastructure are some of the items that differ according to the region, state, and city observed.
When demand exceeds the resources offered, environments such as hospitals register frequent overcrowding, leading to chaos between patients and caregivers, delays in care and even the provision of help in corridors.
To get an idea of the seriousness of the situation, a survey of the National Confederation of Municipalities (CNM) revealed that Brazil lost 40,000 beds between 2009 and 2019, with 23,091 belonging to the public network.
This situation, together with aggravating factors such as the aging of the population, alerts to the need for changes in the way health has been managed.
It is necessary to work not only on optimizing the resources provided but also on new solutions that increase the empowerment of patients, such as self-care and prevention tools.
Focused on innovation, healthtechs lead this movement towards health transformations.
Its digital platforms bring together protecting and expanding access to patient data, sharing health protection measures, and facilitating contact between patients and industry professionals.
In addition, its technologies allow the creation of wearables to monitor health conditions, remote consultations, and even the development of personalized prostheses.
Healthtechs and their disruptive technologies: what health bottlenecks are being exploited?
Disruptive technologies can be defined as those that break with established standards in an industry.
While they cause a number of effective changes, they do not require the application of entirely new inputs or techniques.
They may include, for example, a different way of running a doctor’s office or clinic.
Below, we comment on the main problems solved by the innovative proposals of healthtechs.
Shortage in primary care
According to an estimate by the Ministry of Health, primary care, provided in basic units, could solve 85% of patients’ demands .
However, it is not always easy to find a health center in the region of residence or business, causing many people to go to the emergency room of reference hospitals, even if they have mild complaints.
With an eye on this bottleneck, startups like Cuidas provide health monitoring for employees and companies, without having to sign expensive agreements.
The service is available through a platform that connects employees to a team of doctors and nurses, who assess cases involving mild symptoms such as back pain, coughing and allergies.
Lawsuit for self-care
Above, we mentioned the aging of the Brazilian population , which requires greater attention to issues such as self-care.
After all, this phenomenon causes an increase in the number of patients with chronic diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension, which cannot be cured but can be treated.
However, it is not always easy for the elderly to remember the times and doses of medication they should take to continue the treatment.
Realizing this gap in the market, companies such as CUCO Health dedicated themselves to designing applications that facilitate self-care.
Employing machine learning and artificial intelligence, the startup delivers reminders about medications, daily health habits and professional advice.
Low scanning of health documents
Experts estimate that 70% of documents such as medical records, prescriptions and referrals are still available only in printed format .
This data contradicts the logic of the current era, in which the world and markets are increasingly digitized, and still makes life difficult for patients and healthcare professionals.
Without an online version, professionals waste time organizing and searching for paper documents, while patients have to upload their medical history to different health facilities.
Based on these observations, several healthtechs are investing in the digitalization of medical records and other papers, avoiding problems such as loss or misunderstanding of the doctor’s handwriting on a prescription.
One of them is Dr. Controle, who created a software with the potential to generate and store files through a completely digital process.
Inefficiency in management
Managers of offices, clinics, and hospitals need to be trained in various topics, from administration to technical matters related to medical equipment.
Operating in a competitive market, they need support to streamline and support their decision-making – and technology can help in this task.
There are startups that offer integrated platforms to manage different departments and activities, such as scheduling, scheduling, and confirming appointments and exams.
This is the case of Applied, software designed to simplify the routine of managers, including control of patient records and monitoring of their history, together with telemedicine options, an area on the rise in the new coronavirus pandemic.
