Digital healthcare refers to the use of technology to improve and support healthcare delivery. This can include electronic health records (EHRs), telemedicine, mobile health apps, and other digital tools used for diagnosing, treating, and managing patient health. These technologies can improve access to care, increase efficiency, and reduce costs.
The traditional insurance policies that are currently available in the market were designed for an older healthcare model, where companies fit into specific categories such as product providers or care providers. However, these policies are often inflexible and out-of-date, leaving many companies with inadequate coverage. In the rapidly evolving digital healthcare sector, businesses need insurance that is both tailored to their specific needs and comprehensive in coverage.
Digital healthcare insurance provides coverage that addresses the complex and interrelated needs of the healthcare industry. In the past, digital healthcare companies had to purchase multiple policies to cover medical malpractice, cyber liability, professional liability, product liability, and public liability. But now, with specific digital healthcare insurance products available, all of these elements can be included in one comprehensive policy.
An individual who was enrolled in an online healthcare platform and frequently scheduled appointments with doctors, utilized a new AI chatbot feature that was introduced by the platform. The feature was intended to provide quick and efficient treatment for patients. However, due to a misdiagnosis made by the AI chatbot, the patient had to undergo an expensive and prolonged follow-up process, which resulted in additional costs and inconvenience for both the patient and the online healthcare platform. It is important to note that the accuracy of AI is dependent on the quality of input provided by humans. When AI developers lack medical expertise or training, there is a higher risk for errors such as false positives and false negatives to occur.
A physician attempted to retrieve a patient’s medical records through a third-party healthcare information exchange (HIE) but was unable to do so as the HIE had been affected by a ransomware attack and was offline. The physician then resorted to administering a health questionnaire via telemedicine and prescribed antibiotics to the patient. However, it was later discovered that the patient had provided false information about being allergic to a certain prescription drug, which ultimately led to their death.
In another incident, a medical imaging company had developed a mobile app used by teleradiologists, but due to a delay in image availability caused by the app, a patient experienced trauma and passed away.