While more than half (54%) of the survey respondents said they are “excited” to have qualified doctors conduct invasive surgery via remote robotics, only 36% were happy to interact with healthcare services providers digitally. The latest findings of the “VMware’s Digital Frontiers 3.0 Study” show the respondent’s reception of having digital-first experience in healthcare.

The “VMware Digital Frontiers 3.0 Study” is a global multi-country study conducted in November-December 2020 and looked into the behaviors, preferences, and attitudes toward digital services and experiences of 1,000 consumers in Southeast Asia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France.

The study found 66% of them said they prefer remote, video-call in lieu of face-to-face consultations with medical professionals paving the way for telemedicine to become a mainstream choice in the near future.

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“Emerging digital healthcare innovations such as robotics and telehealth will be pivotal in shaping the future of digital healthcare in Southeast Asia,” VMWare said in a media release.

The VMWare study also revealed that more than half (55%) of the respondents are comfortable and excited with receiving a diagnosis from a powerful computer that can learn to detect anomalies such as cancerous cells, rather than seeing a human doctor. With this, 61% also believe that digital healthcare services can provide more freedom to patients with chronic or long-term illnesses as they can live further away from a medical facility by depending on sensors and real-time data monitoring to predict when they will require medical assistance.

COVID-19

“New, immersive healthcare services such as remote medical consultations, wearable devices and supercomputers have redefined the way healthcare organizations and doctors interact with the patients and respond quickly to their needs – regardless of when and where they are,” said Walter So, country manager, Philippines, VMware.

So much is riding on the technology as more respondents expressed optimism on how it can help address health-related issues.

The study found 82% of the respondents believe that technology can help in arriving at a solution to reduce the spread of COVID-19, this is higher than other surveyed countries: United States (59%), France (60%), Germany (58%) and United Kingdom (58%). Eighty percent (80%) believe that technology can improve the quality of life for the elderly and disabled.

With mental health now at the forefront of healthcare issues, 76% believe that technology can help improve mental healthcare through virtual therapy sessions, for example.

In the Philippines, technology has presented itself as a vehicle of change in unlocking new possibilities in tackling geographical challenges to healthcare. With 71% of its population connected to the internet and the Department of Health’s (DOH) recent development of a framework for telemedicine services, this provides a strong trajectory for the archipelago to embrace future-looking healthcare services.

The report saw 46% of Filipinos are comfortable and excited with receiving a diagnosis from a powerful computer that can learn to detect anomalies such as cancerous cells, rather than seeing a human doctor. About 54% also believe that digital healthcare services can provide more freedom to patients with chronic or long-term illnesses as they can live further away from a medical facility by depending on sensors and real-time data monitoring to predict when they will require medical assistance.

To accelerate the transformation of digital healthcare services in Southeast Asia, VMware outlines key priorities to note:

• Empowering healthcare organizations to build a multi-cloud and app future: Unlocking a multi-cloud future with app-driven innovations in a consistent and more secure environment that enables continuous innovation in the next generation of healthcare
• Enabling innovation and productivity for a distributed workforce: Future-ready workforce solutions will enable a seamless and more secure digital employee experience, driving greater outcomes in the new world of work
• Intrinsic security for uninterrupted innovation: An intrinsic approach to enterprise security will provide an additional layer of robust protection for mission-critical infrastructures and patients’ personal data to build trust, fast-track healthcare innovation, and resilience
• Software-defined, high-performing network for real-time analytics and monitoring: Move high-fidelity, latency-sensitive data to the cloud and between edge locations to offer rapid, more securely deployed, and easily accessed virtual care solutions