- May 25, 2017
The healthcare industry is always experiencing some digital transformations at all times. We can say some last long while some fade away. This pandemic has although accelerated a lot of digital innovations in the healthcare sector and seems to create a solid shape in the future of the healthcare industry. We can already see new marketing models coming out to relax the need to make healthcare services more cost-effective, easily accessible, and adaptable. All of this revolves around technology and digital health trends that are setting the industry right. Some of the highlights which are worth the watch are:
- Digitalized health services as they take the market to greater heights.
- Emergence of AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning as it becomes a must-have for healthcare professionals.
- Prevention from cyberattacks and better cybersecurity.
Let us look into the four fabulous digital health trends that are shaping the future of the healthcare industry.
#1. The emerging trend of Telemedicine
COVID-19 has changed the way normal life worked for all of us. It has also changed the way healthcare centers worked. In a good way, it has accelerated the speed and quality of services for the betterment of the customer base. As per reports, in April 2020, about 43.5 percent of medical services were utilized by telemedicine or telehealth method, and people avoided in-person visits to the hospitals. There are major advantages of telemedicine trend setting in, such as:
- Budget-friendly approach
- Time saving method
- Less crowding in the hospitals
- Real-time customer experience
- Productive and attentive medical services
The list of benefits may exceed the expectations, and as we may say, the fashion of telehealth is likely to grow deeper after the pandemic comes to an end. To our surprise, about 71 percent of the patient population in the U.S. used telemedicine at the beginning of the pandemic, and about 50 percent of more are still using virtual appointments. It is anticipated and can be said that by 2026, telemedicine will cross the revenue of $185.6 billion easily.
The healthcare industry has high hopes for this emerging trend for two prime reasons.
- For the convenience of the patient population: Telemedicine helps patients sit at home and yet visit the doctor virtually. It has a clear and strong aid to people living in remote locations as traveling may not be feasible for them for regular health check-ups.
- For the productivity of healthcare professionals: The trend of telehealth has increased the motivation, focus, and productivity of the healthcare professionals as now, they do not have to arrange the paperwork and waste their precious time. All they have to do is to serve the remote patients better with the support of virtual assistants.
Image Source: SoftwareAdvice
There are different methods that are used to offer telemedicine conveniently. Some of them are:
- Screen sharing
- IVR, i.e., Interactive Voice Response
- Video conferencing
- Audio calls
- File transfer
- And more
By managing online appointments on the basis of location, time, visit history, etc., the telemedicine trend is sure to shoot up and bring quality services at your disposal.
#2. The growing trend of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial intelligence has played a major role in easing the battle against COVID-19 by pandemic anticipation, thermal screening, analyzing CT scans, vaccine development, facial recognition, and more.
- Pandemic Anticipation: An application named as BlueDot, by a venture from Canada, was among the first to give warning signs by identifying pandemic, COVID-19. It was the first to publish a paper anticipating COVID-19 spreading worldwide. To predict the harm it can bring, the following was widely analyzed.
- Global climate conditions
- Inspect the animal population
- Airways data and itineraries globally
- Potential of health systems
- Vaccine development
On the basis of the approach of Brookings Institution, while the vaccine is developing, the main aim is to include robust immunogenic viral elements that have a response to the immune systems of the human body. With the help of machine learning, this can be enabled in immunology. Here comes the role of AI as it can aid in finding the viral fragments that will help in fulfilling our goals and making humans immune against COVID-19.
- Thermal screening: As per FDA (Food and Drug Association of the U.S.), AI can easily parse through the bodies of many people simultaneously to detect their body temperatures especially, if too high or low. This has helped in finding out the symptomatic individuals.
- Analyzing CT scans:AI can detect human errors which do not come in CT scan analysis. It can find pneumonia, which is caused due to COVID-19 in chest scan analysis. This type of scan is done through machine learning.
- Face recognition along with a mask: AI has brought accuracy that facial recognition technologycan recognize a face with a mask by up to 95 percent. Other than AI benefits in times of COVID-19, there are plenty of healthcare-centric benefits too.
Some of them are as follows:
- Better services to patients
- Streamlined workflows
- Budget-friendly services
- Lesser workload for healthcare professionals
- Better quality of treatment
- Evolved protection against cybercrimes
The image given below shows some more perks and skills that AI adds to the healthcare sectorโs efficiency.
Image Source: https://www.resourcifi.com/blog/ai-in-healthcare/
#3. Setting the trend of Privacy issues
Privacy is vital for healthcare technologies and advancements as the patient data, drug details, and other private information is at the toss. With concerns to HIPAA compliance in 2020, it has become even more essential for healthcare ventures to maintain strict privacy policies. Although the concept of cloud computing already makes it easy for ventures to protect their data and store it with full security under Protected Health Information (ePHI), we can still say that artificial intelligence helps in a great way to enforce security and protect the big data against any cybercrimes.
Image Source: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/12/2796/htm
AI detects any harms that are present in existing systems and changed the policies as and so required to safeguard the program from sharing the data with a third party.
#4. The trend of IoMT (Internet of Medical Things)
Many mobile applications have acted upon tracking and prevention of chronic illness for the patient population as well as healthcare professionals. By using IoT advancements with telemedicine technologies, and evolved IoMT, i.e., the Internet of Medical Things can be formed.
This concept has clubbed many smart wearables that can be well-synced with mobile phones, ECG, and EKG monitors. As per predictions, it can be said that by 2025 the IoT industry will be approximately worth $6.2 trillion.
Wrap Up!
With all these technological advancements at hand, the healthcare sector is bound to make quick and consistent progress. These digital trends have distributed attention to improving the prevailing condition of the patient population as well as the healthcare professionals who must offer nothing but the best. By improving the patient experience and add lost productivity back to the doctors, these trends are aiming to make a permanent place for themselves. We are certain of a brighter, smarter, and much-evolved ecosystem of the healthcare industry in years to come.
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