The Dominican health system needs to adopt new technologies for a comprehensive transformation

• AI capabilities in a telemedicine setting help reduce the burden on clinical staff.

Santo Domingo-. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionised healthcare and medical practice. Global investment in AI in this sector alone is estimated to approach US$36 billion by 2025, a 50% increase on 2018.

Combined with telemedicine, AI can play an important role in improving and expanding people’s access to the health system, since one of the main problems worldwide is lack of access to healthcare, says Fedor Vidal, CEO of Arium Salud Digital.

Likewise, Vidal explains that the use of AI, as well as automating tasks, helps with patient planning, diagnosis and prognosis, making healthcare more efficient, as it not only reduces costs but also allows results to be analysed remotely.

This helps distribute healthcare services better. Telemedicine also lets patients contact healthcare providers virtually and offers an alternative to in-person visits.

For the technologist, using AI capabilities in a telemedicine setting helps reduce the burden on clinical staff, which has a major impact in allowing greater dedication to patient care.

From his experience, he notes that in the Dominican Republic one of the critical factors for success in digitalising healthcare using AI and telemedicine is having adequate infrastructure, for which initial investments are essential and should preferably be made together with specialist partners who can guarantee compatibility across all systems.

“It is impossible to talk about artificial intelligence without clear, robust foundations that allow the country to adopt this transformational technology. A common data infrastructure could help facilitate training and implementation,” stressed Vidal.

It is critical for the country to hold meetings where all stakeholders can openly discuss the use and adoption of new technologies to drive the comprehensive transformation of the Dominican health system; to address issues such as the spread of certified electronic records, semantic interoperability standards, minimum required clinical data, and clinical coding standards such as ICD-10/11, SNOMED-CT and DRG, to name a few; the roles of the sectors involved; public-private partnerships; and major changes to current legislation.

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Arium Salud Digital

It is a company that provides digital services and tools with the aim of transforming how existing processes are managed in the health sector through interconnected systems, while facilitating interaction between the different players in the market and providing technology solutions to make them effective. The mission of Arium Salud Digital is to provide a digital health ecosystem that connects all the key players in the sector, with the aim of improving people’s quality of life through efficient and secure solutions based on state-of-the-art technology.

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