“Digital Transformation in Healthcare” is the new trend changing the healthcare landscape while reshaping the future of healthcare systems. This transformation helps reduce health care costs, changes patient perceptions towards health amenities, reduces complex health issues, and much more.
The healthcare industry is rapidly changing, as we can find a new technology evolving every year and being used to better human lives, whether it is about developing new vaccines and medicines, smart wearables, remote healthcare, telemedicine, and whatnot. These tech trends are truly changing our world and how our daily lives function.
As per recent statistics, the U.S. healthcare industry is valued at an estimated $808 billion. And on a global scale , it’s expected to exceed $10 trillion this year.
Healthcare institutions leverage the power of top-notch technologies like Cloud Computing, 5G networks, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) to help streamline healthcare services with swiftly changing consumer preferences.
The new advancements in the digital healthcare industry have the immense potential to reshape its landscape while delivering more accessible, scalable, and equitable care.
Key healthcare industry trends to keep an eye on
In this section, we have listed the top 5 digital healthcare trends that healthcare app developers can implement while building scalable mobile applications and platforms in 2022.
1. Internet of medical things
The IoT in healthcare trend has changed the healthcare industry from telehealth to smart wearables. It is a significant component in developing wearable products and devices that need minimal human interaction to identify chronic illness among patients via devices and mobile apps while providing the best remote healthcare services at their doorstep.
The evolution of the Internet Of Medical Things (IoMT) results from integrating IoT with telemedicine and telehealth technologies.
Connected medical devices, equipment, applications, and infrastructure help patients and medical professionals with smart diagnosis, remote patient monitoring, retrieving massive medical records, and many more.
IoMT is usually used for connecting healthcare devices with the Internet and applications.
With over 100 million active Apple Watch users, this also gave Apple access to incredible medical data.
Cognitive IoMT (CIoMT) is the latest subtrend incorporating sensory information, automatic processing, and communication through networks for real-time diagnosis, monitoring, tracking, and disease control.
2. Remote healthcare and telemedicine
Personalized Healthcare (PHC) is about customizing medical treatment for an individual patient’s needs.
You will be surprised to know that Telemedicine is a $16.6 billion industry in the United States and is growing faster than ever before. The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of telemedicine by many organizations, healthcare systems, medical professionals, and patients. Even in Australia, the tech industry has changed a lot during the pandemic and is seeing active implementation of such solutions.
Telehealth and telemedicine are becoming a more significant part of digital transformation in the healthcare industry every year. It transforms the current paradigm of the healthcare industry while providing improved health outcomes most efficiently and profitably.
The telehealth applications provide easy access to personalized information using digital solutions and connected devices.
Online searches say that “telehealth” has increased 254% over the past five years, offering a more efficient and hygienic treatment mode that helps patients live healthier lives.
With this, you can track patients’ health from time to time, check pulse oximeters, blood glucose meters, blood pressure monitors, and heart monitors.
We have listed some benefits that you can leverage with telehealth and telemedicine.
- Less to minimal hospital visits, no more appointments required
- Fast doctor consultation anywhere and anytime you want
- Easy accessibility to patients at remote locations
- Personalized care
3. Big data analytics
In healthcare, digitization is all about accessing massive medical data, data security, diagnostic techniques, surgical workflows, remote patient monitoring, and teleconsultations. Health-related enterprises leverage big data analytics to analyze unstructured and vast volumes of medical data.
Also, it enhances patient health services, generating new insights into disease mechanisms, monitoring the quality of processes at healthcare centers, and enabling efficient and effective treatment methods.
Big Data Analytics provides specific solutions, including:
- Predictive analytics: to ensure patient safety and quality healthcare that too remotely. It facilitates medical professionals to have detailed information about the patient’s medical histories and helps predict future results.
- Many healthcare institutions have shifted their interest toward Electronic Health Records(EHRs) that are used to retrieve massive patient records, including laboratory test results, medical reports, doctor prescriptions, and lists of medicines faster.
- Healthcare centers offer improved treatments to their patients by constantly monitoring their health in real-time using wearable devices to help track patients’ health trends that doctors can monitor. Also, track blood pressure and other illnesses right at your home.
4. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial Intelligence is the most advanced and modern technology that helps synthesizes medical information required for clinical trials and shortens the drug development process. AI in healthcare provides fast, remotely accessible, real-time solutions for diagnosis, treatment, and disease prevention.
The technology processes information and provides decision-making data as a human does. It helps understand the nature of the disease, generates data models, executes pre-clinical experiments, and analyzes real-world insights. Artificial intelligence applications in healthcare include clinical workflow management, advanced surgery assistance, and medical diagnostics.
With the rising trends of AI in healthcare, we now have innovative and real-time tools to automate crucial medical tasks to relieve the burden on imaging technologists so they can free up to focus on patient care. In critical medical processes like CT and MR, AI-enabled technology can make it easier for medical scientists to plan and execute routine exams, helping them get images first-right with enhanced confidence and precision.
Not only these, but AI in healthcare also helps the medical industry manage massive medical records and unstructured data for analysis.
5. Smart wearable devices
Wearable devices play a bigger role in patient healthcare. From smart wearables and health-tracking apps to devices used for pre-surgery health coaching and patient-reported outcomes, healthcare innovations urge people to engage better with healthcare providers and get an inevitable experience and a smooth healthcare journey.
In addition, new generation smart wearables are equipped with heart rate, stress, and blood oxygen detectors, enabling healthcare professionals to monitor vital signs in real-time accurately. VR headsets train doctors and surgeons, allowing them to improve work efficiency without putting patients at risk.
Most widely used and popular smart wearables like smartwatches and fitness trackers have spread health awareness and provided fitness mantras to health seekers and patients. They generate an immense amount of data you can use to inform patient care.
Conclusion
Remote health care is all about connecting, cooperating, and connecting with patients’ healthcare while delivering the best healthcare services to them remotely. Digital innovations like predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are transforming healthcare paradigms while making people’s lives easier.
The combined potential of all the emerging technologies accelerates the digital transformation in the healthcare industry while making it more independent and faster.