Three digital tools for healthcare professionals

April
30, 2021

4 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Much has been said about the impending digital transformation that has taken place since the start of the pandemic. Although it has only been a year since the health emergency began, we have witnessed an unprecedented evolution towards the use of digital tools. During 2020, six out of ten Mexican SMEs sold online. This represented an increase of more than 96% compared to 2019.

Despite the progress we have seen in the adoption of digital tools, we are still far from seeing the end of this trend. Due to the need to have remote activities, some sectors have had to transform drastically and rapidly; It is precisely these same sectors that today dictate the pace and mark the trends of digitization.

A clear example is the health services sector, which has grown steadily in Mexico since the last ten years. In 2019, the GDP of this sector practically reached 1.4 trillion pesos. In the same year, more than 126 thousand telemedicine consultations were registered in the country. During 2020, some of the telemedicine platforms offering services in Mexico exceeded that number of online consultation requests in a single month.

Most of the tools that have made the transformation of this sector possible are simple to implement and are at the hand of all health professionals who wish to digitize their practice.

Here I share the most relevant ones:

1. Teleconsultation system: not all medical practices or specialties allow online consultation. However, for health professionals who do have this possibility, videoconferencing systems have made the possibility of consulting the patient from a distance a reality. Implementing the use of these tools is simple, and there are several options that can be adapted to the needs of each person. There are even free versions of these systems that can help you minimize the costs of digitization, benefiting the growth of your business.

2. Diversification of remote payment methods: the need to pay remotely has also increased as a result of the pandemic, both due to hygiene measures and social distancing. There are various payment methods available to healthcare professionals: one of the most common is paying by credit or debit card. In addition to being an extremely popular payment method, it offers the possibility of implementing interest-free month-long promotions for your patients or clients.

Your patients can also pay in cash at the more than 19,000 OXXO points of sale in the country. In addition, you can receive remote payments through bank transfers through SPEI.

Offering a variety of payment methods allows you to increase the universe of patients or clients that you can serve, facilitating their user and payment experience.

3. Text messages: instant messaging applications are already part of our lives: we use them every day to communicate in a personal and professional way. There are technologies, such as the payment link, that will allow your patients to choose the payment method they want to use (card, cash or transfer) and make their payment through a link that can be sent by WhatsApp, SMS or email. Implementing this solution involves very few steps that anyone can take, regardless of their knowledge or technology skills.