Effective communication among healthcare staff plays a decisive role in the quality of patient care and the early detection of pathologies. The choice of internal communication tools is therefore a strategic issue for hospitals, which must both facilitate the circulation of information and ensure the security of healthcare data. 

What are the best tools for optimal communication?

New internal communication channels for hospitals

For a long time, email was the main digital channel used to exchange medical information within hospitals.

Over the past few years, new methods of internal communication have become increasingly popular. This is the case for collaborative communication applications published by major American players such as Slack, Workplace by Facebook and Google Workspace, which enable the creation of virtual workspaces.

Videoconferencing solutions such as Zoom, Teams or Google Meet are frequently used in medical facilities, as are instant messaging applications like Whatsapp.

Other project management solutions, such as Trello and Asana, are also used in the medical field to assign tasks, track progress and work more effectively as a team. 

In addition to professional solutions dedicated to the general public, there are also a multitude of applications specially designed for the medical sector: videoconferencing, instant messaging, e-mail, internal social networking, document sharing and more. 

What pitfalls should be avoided when choosing internal communication tools?

Many collaborative tools suffer from the same shortcomings: 

• • Insufficient security: medical data must be protected from cyberthreats by robust security measures. Data encryption, multi-factor authentication, etc.; many collaborative solutions do not guarantee a sufficient level of security for the medical field.
    
    
  • Lack of regulatory compliance: since medical data is extremely sensitive, it is subject to stringent legislation. A hospital that adopts non-compliant communication tools exposes itself to significant legal and financial penalties, as well as cybersecurity risks.
    
    
• Lack of interoperability with medical solutions: to be truly effective and facilitate the circulation of information, internal communication solutions must be interoperable with the various medical solutions in the healthcare establishment: electronic medical records, PACS, etc. Otherwise, a lack of interoperability is detrimental to the coordination of caregivers and the operational efficiency of the establishment.
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• The impossibility of archiving communications: many collaborative tools only save exchanges for a defined period. The information exchanged is then deleted. In the medical field, every communication must be archived. Specialists may need them years later, for example when a disease relapses after a long period of remission.
  

Which internal communication tool should you choose for your healthcare staff?

Ideally, you should opt for a multi-purpose solution, combining all the functions essential for collaboration among healthcare staff: messaging, videoconferencing, file sharing, etc. 

Of course, no compromises can be made on the security and compliance of the chosen solution. The tool’s interoperability with medical diagnostic solutions is another essential aspect. In the field of medical imaging, the automatic analysis of an image via a scanner or MRI is now capable of sending an alert to the doctors concerned on the channel(s) of their choice, so that this emergency can be dealt with as quickly as possible. 

This interoperability speeds up the patient care process, can also facilitate triage of cases according to severity and urgency, and strengthens coordination between different services. 

Olea Medical’s solutions are part of this collaborative approach to efficiency, following the example of ͣ ͧ ͭ ͦNeurovascular®, an automated neurovascular emergency solution that facilitates the diagnosis of these pathologies.