Today’s healthcare trends include innovative technologies and solutions that meet clinical diagnosis, treatment, and disease management needs. The global COVID-19 pandemic prompted a boom in technologies for disinfection, transmission control, disease detection, treatment, patient care, and vaccination.
Technology advancements in the healthcare industry
There have been myriad examples of top technology improvements in the healthcare industry. Here are prominent of them:
- E-consultations, telemedicine, real-time diagnostics, and access to digital therapies supplied through immersion technology tools.
- Genetic analysis, clinical data storage, and big data and analytics have altogether contributed to the success of precision medicine.
- Start-ups use real-time, remote monitoring equipment to personalize treatment planning and execution for specific patients.
- Hospitals are becoming smarter as artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), and data management practices become more prevalent.
All these technology healthcare solutions improve workflows and staff scheduling. In addition, they also provide connected infrastructure, devices, and systems to help clinicians provide more accurate and equitable care.
Taking this discussion further, here are some of the top technology trends in healthcare in 2021.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
In the domain of healthcare, artificial intelligence is replacing labor-intensive and time-consuming operations with quick, remote-accessible, and real-time solutions for diagnosis, treatment, and disease prevention. Furthermore, to spread the benefits of AI, start-ups have created beneficial software platforms, application programming interfaces (APIs), and various other digital products. Among the many instances of artificial intelligence used in the healthcare trends, Clinical workflow management, improved surgery support, and medical diagnostics hold high prominence.
Internet of Medical Things
IoMT is critical for the development of solutions that provide healthcare services with little or no human interaction. The connected medical devices, equipment, and infrastructure such as automatic disinfection, smart diagnosis, and remote patient management have enabled multiple applications. In addition, cognitive IoMT (CIoMT) is a new technology that combines sensory data, autonomous processing, and network connection for real-time diagnosis, monitoring, tracking, and illness control.
Telemedicine
Many governments, healthcare systems, professionals, and patients have embraced telemedicine as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. As medical practitioners communicate with their patients via telecommunication, this lessens the load on facilities and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). Furthermore, through increasing social separation, telemedicine services aid public health mitigation strategies. Telemedicine also helps to support elderly persons remotely, saves healthcare resources, and lowers bed space.
Mobile Health (mHealth)
Mobile health technologies use digital solutions and connect gadgets to give personalized insights. Mobile devices let patients visualize health conditions that hinder them from committing. Moreover, smartphone-connected wearable sensors, point-of-need diagnostic devices, and medical-grade imaging, which are not confined by geographical borders and use real-time data streams, make healthcare more accessible. Hence, mHealth, built with top technology, has played a crucial role in preventing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. It executes this task by providing contact tracing, surveillance, quarantine control and management, immunization cycle tracking and notification.
Analytics & Big Data
In the future years, the amount of health and medical data is likely to explode. Big data and analytics provide tools and solutions for analyzing large amounts of unstructured medical data. It enhances patient-centered services, detects diseases early, and uncovers fresh information about disease causes. Furthermore, big data solutions may be helpful to assess the quality of medical and healthcare institutions as well as improve treatment procedures and thus create healthcare trends that generate optimistic impact.
Immersive technology healthcare
In the healthcare industry, the adoption of immersive technologies like AR/VR and MR is on the ascent. VR has a wide range of applications in healthcare, ranging from rehabilitation therapy and exposure therapy for anxiety disorders to cognitive and physical rehabilitation. In medical education, augmented reality and virtual reality also play an essential role. In addition, immersive technologies find a religious use in surgery, for example, to present patient information, holographic pictures, and scans during surgery.
Genomics
In recent years, there have been major initiatives to build genomics tools for numerous uses. Integrating genetic knowledge and processes into existing clinical workflows would ensure that physicians communicate with patients in a consistent and actionable manner, which a genomic test may deliver. Because of advances in genomics, a new era of personalized medicine is now feasible. For various unmet clinical requirements, gene therapy and gene-based therapeutic options have changed clinical medicine and specialist care.
Takeaway
Future trends in healthcare like robotics, 5G, and stem cell therapies, among others, are all set to change the industry as we know it today. Early identification of new prospects and developing technologies can help to acquire a competitive advantage. Furthermore, the advancement of robotic surgery is likely to continue across the healthcare system, in areas such as the spine, cardiology, and oncology. Summing up, the healthcare technology trends mentioned here have just scratched the surface of the emerging trends in healthcare we discovered during our extensive investigation.