Over the years, we have been fortunate to work on and shape the strategy of digital design and tech development projects in the healthcare and biometrics arenas – and in one particularly exciting instance, where the two intersect. That said, COVID-19-fueled world events in recent months have thrust this intersection front and center in some of our internal discussions and certainly has played a big role in our product development research and strategy. In the process of conducting our usual research program, we have come across some great papers and articles; have had some interesting debates; and, mostly just tried to identify what biometrics-driven innovations have emerged in the healthcare space (some of which have been accelerated by the pandemic).
For quite some time, we have felt fairly confident that biometrics applications offer tremendous potential across nearly all industries and verticals, but we also felt some would benefit in more ways, or at least more meaningful ones, initially. And in our opinion, one of the leading candidates in this context is the healthcare industry – and this is true now more than ever. The need to have a more accurate and contactless patient experience will evolve from being an efficiency tool (telemedicine) or accuracy enhancement (medical records) into being a public health requirement (no more sharing one tethered office pen to sign in all patients).
As we unpack the patient journey from booking the first appointment to picking up prescriptions and everything in between, we see a lot of points along the way that may benefit from the application of biometric technology in the healthcare experience in this new pandemic reality. As we continue to design and develop in the biometrics arena, we will research and examine every part of the healthcare workflow to identify opportunities to make the inevitable shift to a more accurate and contactless experience (while also trying to understand ethical and accessibility implications of this experience since we all need to develop solutions, not compound problems).
So our research continues, but through a new “pandemic reality” lense. But as we continue to research this topic and build solutions, we will be sure to share observations and perspectives, when we can, so please be sure to check back in or follow us on twitter!
Thank you and please stay safe!