The world is digitizing, the healthcare industry has also embraced a number of technological trends over the last few years.
The pace of change in healthcare technology is unprecedented, as new innovations and discoveries almost daily foster progress.
Patients can connect with their doctors by using their smartphones that tell you what to eat, and when to exercise.
The digital world offers the potential to the medical industry which ensures that patients have a safe and healthy life.
Five trends that are most relevant to our future Healthcare Industry.
Augmented Reality for Healthcare
The use of augmented reality software opens up new possibilities in the healthcare sector. The international market is expected to hit a size of $1.5B by 2020.
Technology will become more familiar to healthcare in the coming years and will provide faster and more personalized care to patients.
The AR innovations can improve the ability of physicians and surgeons to diagnose, treat and perform surgery on their patients.
This can be done more precisely by giving them faster and more accurate access to real-time data than ever before.
AR can also add enormous value to the practice of medicine and education by helping students and trainee physicians to better imagine the health issues and situations they will one day behandling.
The advantages that AR can bring to the healthcare sector can be transformative, and we are just seeing the beginning of what is to come from AR in the field of healthcare.
IoT in Healthcare
The Internet of Things has revolutionized the way many sectors operate today, improving productivity, optimizing workflows, and distributing critical data across the enterprise.
Real-time patient tracking helps to provide faster and more effective care. Emergency communication through a mobile app helps doctors to access information more easily and provide high-quality care well before the patient enters the hospital.
IoT does not stand alone in the healthcare sector. All IoT devices and their networks need to be combined with other technologies to help healthcare facilities transform themselves in a meaningful way.
As mentioned earlier, IoT will revolutionize the healthcare sector, but it also needs data, high-speed communication, and proper security and compliance.
- Smartwatch.
- Insulin Pens and Smart CGM
- Brain Swelling Sensors
- Smart video pills
- Ingestible Sensors
AI for Healthcare
Artificial Intelligence, a software that conducts characteristically human activities, including the fields of preparation, language comprehension, object and sound perception, training and problem-solving.
Advances in AI transformed the technology revolution of healthcare, resulting in improved health outcomes while reducing the cost of providing healthcare.
Artificial intelligence has played a key role in the industry for decades. Healthcare AI focuses on analyzing consumer health data to improve outcomes by suggesting diagnostics, reading medical device images, accelerating medical research and development, and more.
More than 80 percent of the healthcare industry is currently using AI, and by 2020 the industry is expected to spend an average of $55 million on this technology.
AI is emerging as a game-changer for the healthcare industry here are a few examples:-
- Radiology
- Drug Discovery
- Patient Risk Identification
- Primary Care/Triage
3D Printing in the Clinic
3D printing is revolutionizing and improving the different industries and the healthcare sector is no exception. There are numerous benefits of 3D field printing in order to improve and save the lives of patients.
Through the use of 3D printers the healthcare industry has been changed and strengthened than ever after.
3D printing in healthcare allows medical professionals to provide patients with a different form of treatment in a number of ways
It is used to develop new surgical cutting and drilling guides, prosthetics and patient-specific replicas of bones, organs and blood vessels.
The healthcare 3D printing market reached $578 million in 2017 and is expected to increase its value by 21.2 percent CAGR between 2018 and 2024.
Benefits of 3D printing in the Healthcare Sector:-
- Complex operations
- Advanced technology
- Intricate care
- Expensive procedures and long waiting time
- Customization
Blockchain Technology for Healthcare
Critical patient data and information remain scattered across different departments and systems in the healthcare sector.
As a consequence, critical information is not usable and readily available at times of need.
Blockchain in healthcare enhances the overall safety of patients ‘ electronic medical records, addresses the issues of product authenticity and traceability of the drug supply chain and facilitates efficient interoperability between healthcare organizations.
Blockchain technology has the potential to transform health care, put patients at the center of the healthcare ecosystem, and improve the safety, confidentiality, and interoperability of health data.
Approximately $34.47 million worth of sales will see a sharp rise in 2024, with profits rising to $1415.59 million. In addition, CAGR growth will be around 70.45 percent between 2018-24.
This is for sure, that blockchain can enhance security in healthcare organizations which will protect sensitive data from external threats and attacks by using multiple encrypted blocks rather than a single database.
Conclusion
As we discussed above, these technical development are going to revolutionize healthcare this year and beyond.
You can expect that superior, safer and quality healthcare services will be provided to patients and that the patient’s own health and well-being will be more closely accessible to them.
Change in innovation is exponential and the healthcare sector is primed to take advantage of the productivity it has gained.
Time is going to teach us what innovation has the power to transform medicine and general health for the better.