Throughout the past few weeks, our team has been conducting in-depth research to learn more about the ways we could improve DEVITA. As part of our research, we started conducting interviews with healthcare professionals, because we believe that their opinions and feedback are invaluable to our efforts towards making DEVITA the best possible healthcare service that the decentralized future we envision needs.
This week on Opinions around the world, we talked about DEVITA and the platform’s possible positive impacts on the global healthcare industry with Dr. L., a pediatrician from Germany, with 7 years of professional experience in the field of pediatrics and adolescent medicine. After interviewing two renowned healthcare industry veterans, talking about our work with someone closer to our age has given us a bunch of new, more technology-oriented, and thus, incredibly useful insights that we’ll be sharing with everyone in this article.
Q. Your field, just like many other medical fields, must have changed a lot throughout the past few years due to the pandemic. What was it like adapting to these changes?
Dr. L.: When the pandemic started, I realized that I’ve really underestimated what being busy actually means. First, it was mostly the parents of the children I’ve been treating for a while already. Suddenly, everyone became cautious about every little thing they deemed abnormal, and I was constantly on the phone answering questions, sometimes even in the middle of the night. And then, the next thing I remember is that all of a sudden, it felt like I’m treating every single child in the whole country on my own. I’m not going to lie, the beginning was really stressful, until the point where I simply just couldn’t find anything to enjoy in work, which has never happened before. Thankfully, that’s not the case anymore. I’m still adapting in many ways, but I think I’m doing alright now.
Q. Would you say that parents are handling the overall situation better now?
Dr. L.: Parents will always be worried about their children, and that’s fully understandable. Who wouldn’t be? I think that just like everyone else, they got used to the pandemic enough to worry a little less. I feel that way mostly about parents with older children, especially since schools have reopened in the country, and vaccinations for children began. On the other hand, new parents are still full of concerns, which is also completely understandable. When I first heard the term “COVID babies”, I gave it very little thought, but as time went by and I met more and more young parents, I understood that the pandemic affects these children and their families in a much more negative way. Becoming a parent has always been one of the world’s most challenging things, and a global pandemic isn’t making it any easier.
Q. In what ways do you think new parents are different from people with older children when it comes to healthcare, and working with you?
Dr. L.: They have a lot of questions, and they tend to worry about even the smallest things — which is, again, completely understandable. But ever since the pandemic started, it’s not as easy to just rush to the nearest pediatrician whenever you notice something strange about your child. Visiting hospitals and scheduling appointments has become a lot more complicated, and heavily dependent on how the city is currently doing against the virus. When I say my phone has been constantly ringing these past few months, I mean it — worried parents call me day and night, and as much as I’m happy to help them whenever I just can, oftentimes it’s hard determining whether there’s a serious problem or not if I can’t actually see the child. I’ve considered setting up a professional phone for the sole purpose of using texting apps like WhatsApp or Messenger with the parents, so that they can send me pictures or videos if necessary, but I’m worried that sensitive information about children might end up being used by third parties, so I’m still looking into possible solutions for this. Well, at least while I’m waiting for DEVITA to launch anyway!
Q. What are your thoughts on the DEVITA platform, and how do you think it could assist you in your work?
Dr. L.: I really like the idea of being able to exchange messages, media, and video calls with the parents through a safely encrypted system, where I don’t ever have to worry about potential information leaks and confidentiality issues. My life would be made so much easier, especially because I could see everything I need to know in order to diagnose and treat the child in one place, whether I’m at my office or not. I think it’d also make it easier for parents to submit required documents without having to personally visit the clinic, and risk exposure to the virus that they’d bring home to their children. This is actually one of the biggest fears of many parents, infecting their own family and children. Parents who have no choice but to return to commuting and office work are constantly worried, and parents who can still work from home try to leave the house as rarely as possible to reduce the risk — and in my opinion, both of these things result in rapidly declining mental health for them. I believe that DEVITA could make the parents’ lives easier as well, because it’d reduce the time and preparation needed for appointments. It’d also make it much easier for them to get in touch with me, and unexpected emergency calls would go much smoother and more effective thanks to the video call function. Of course, video calls could be very helpful for smaller, regular consultations as well. Even though we have plenty of decorations and toys lying around, so that children can keep themselves occupied while I’m consulting their parents, they sometimes feel very uncomfortable in my office, which then makes treatment complicated. I think many of them would feel more safe if they met me through a screen first. For example, if I could use some fun and colorful filters in the video call that’d make me look like I’m a cartoon character, I think some children wouldn’t even realize they’re talking to a doctor. That could be incredibly helpful in cases where I have to treat children who are scared of hospitals and doctors in general.
Q. We know that you already spend a lot of time working outside of your actual working hours and environment. Do you think DEVITA could be the solution for you to basically work from wherever you just want to?
Dr. L.: It could most certainly help me have more flexibility when it comes to consultations and quick routine check-ups with the parents. However, I don’t think it could ever fully replace face to face meetings, at least not until modern technology catches up with sci-fi movies. Consultations are a big part of my job, but they’re not the only part of it — and even though parents with young children are pretty well equipped for basic medical procedures at home, they can’t be expected to know how to treat more serious illnesses or injuries. That’s where I come in, and it’s something I can’t do unless I’m physically present. Nevertheless, I have no doubts that DEVITA will be incredibly helpful in the communication and documentation aspects of my work.
We value the feedback and input of our users above all, and we’ll continue to improve DEVITA in order to be able to cater to the needs of both our user groups. Follow DEVITA’s Medium for more interviews in our ongoing series of articles, Opinions around the world. Please stay tuned to our Telegram channels and Twitter for an exciting series of updates to be announced within the next couple of months.
DEVITA is a decentralized healthcare platform applying the latest digital technologies to solve classic problems in healthcare access, data, and infrastructure.
Website | Telegram (Global) | Discord | Reddit | Twitter
DEVITA is not an investment product. DEVITA is not intended in its design or distribution to be utilized as a form of investment, speculation, or as a financial product. No information herein constitutes financial advice. PLEASE do your OWN research before participating in the DEVITA Platform. Neither the DEVITA team nor any representative affiliate of the DEVITA team will ever solicit investments.