Technology has been transforming industries and the healthcare industry has seen technology inspire progress and innovation. The idea that customer comes first has dawned on each and every industry. The healthcare industry is no exception. Healthcare service providers realize that the rapidly-evolving technologies will disrupt hospitals worldwide. In this blog, we discuss what are the latest emerging healthcare technology trends in 2022.
The Healthcare IT Market is expected to be $390.7 Billion by 2024 and is growing at a faster rate than the GDP of most countries. It costs nearly $250 Billion to process 30 Billion healthcare transactions each year. The Healthcare expenditures for the U.S are projected to be $5.4 Trillion by 2024 representing an average annual rate of 19.6% of GDP.
Healthcare IT solutions are a highly complex and meticulous system comprising of large-scale and interconnected systems- where even small-scale inputs have dramatic effects. While the industry continues to contemplate and discuss what is the future technology trends in the healthcare industry, the following are the most disruptive trends according to us.
Future Healthcare Technology Trends and Innovations
Internet of Things (IoT)
Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming healthcare delivery, making it more reliable and efficient. IoT applications have made several things possible such as remote monitoring, as well as tracking the real-time location of medical devices and apparatus like wheelchairs, scales, nebulizers or defibrillators can be easily located with IoT sensors. IoT is beyond doubt, bringing a new wave of change in the healthcare industry by redefining the interaction between devices and people in delivering healthcare solutions.
IoT has several applications in healthcare that enhance benefit different stakeholders of the healthcare ecosystem patients, families, physicians, hospitals, and insurance companies. This emerging technology allows elderly patients to track health conditions, as well as monitor health conditions. In case of any deviation or change in periodic activities, there is an alert mechanism to inform or send signals to family members and healthcare providers.
With patient data and real-time tracking, healthcare delivery is touching new heights than before. Now, it’s for healthcare providers to utilize technology in the best possible way.
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Natural language processing represents and analyzes human language computationally. As a subfield of linguistics, computer science, information engineering, and artificial intelligence, NLP deals with the interactions between computers and human languages. This emerging technology has benefited the healthcare industry tremendously. The combination of analytic tool and deep learning allow interpreting medical data and enhancing clinical decision to drive the growth of NLP in healthcare. The unstructured clinical record contains voluminous insights about patients that are not available in the structured record.
Additionally, advances in data science and artificial intelligence have introduced new techniques for analyzing text to gain an understanding of the patient. Any organization looking to leverage data to improve outcomes, reduce costs, and further medical research needs to consider voluminous insights stored in text and how to create value from data using NLP.
- Condense extensive chunks of narrative text, such as a clinical note or academic journal article by identifying phrases in the source material
- Enhance clinical data integrity by mapping data elements in unstructured text to structured fields in Electronic Health Record
- Convert data from machine-readable or different formats into natural language for reporting and training/education purposes
- Answer unique free-text queries for the synthesis of multiple data sources
- Engage in optical character recognition to turn images into text files for parsing and analysis.
NLP will be the driving force in the future for better clinical decision support and patient health outcomes.
Machine Learning (ML)
ML for healthcare is still in the nascent stage for production, development, and planning stages in healthcare with algorithms that learn from data. Data in healthcare revolves around everything from diagnosis, treatment, medical procedures to image analysis.
Below are some innovative ML use cases.
- ML-powered chatbots are transforming the way patients interacted with people. They also bridge the gap of information which exists between patients and doctors.
- ML can assist radiologists in identifying differences in scans, thereby helping them detect and diagnose the health issues at the early stages.
- Create a different stance with the help of Machine Learning. Health records in this industry effectively mean improved access to medical data. Now, with the assistance of ML applications, health care providers can identify better treatment plans.
Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality in Healthcare
The rapidly evolving virtual and augmented reality solutions have significantly changed healthcare technologies. Advances that were unthinkable for a decade are now implemented. From training new students to planning procedures, the field of AR and VR in healthcare offers a wide range of possibilities. Data can be accumulated to assist therapists in crafting unique custom care plans. They have complete access to activities that are not available in the current environment and let patients improve overall health and emotional wellbeing.
Data Science and Predictive Analytics
When you treat a patient with a chronic disease, there is a great deal of data generated. Turning this information into actionable data can be a challenge. Big data analytics can come to the rescue in such a case, providing deeper insights to healthcare practitioners. Data can be obtained from different sources from the nearby environment, allowing doctors to identify and address problems. Healthcare organizations depend on the expertise of analytics to decipher the data collected from various sources and monitor the efficiency of processes to help understand how patients respond to the program. The overall health of the population will significantly improve over time, and the general costs will reduce.
Telemedicine
The outbreak of the global pandemic has caused a paradigmatic shift in the nature of different business and healthcare operations. With the norms of physical distance, most people took to the virtual world to avoid visiting healthcare centers physically to control the spread of the infection. This gave rise to the development of telemedicine where patients could connect with doctors online and seek assistance without visiting the clinics. Telemedicine has therefore grown to be one of the most crucial developments in healthcare in 2020. Research studies have also indicated that telemedicine has not only been a much-needed change brought about in the healthcare industry but has also been a more preferred mode of treatment. Thus, patients can consult doctors whenever they want, from their houses, without getting an appointment and waiting in large queues to get themselves treated.
Healthcare Wearables App
Wearable App Development in Healthcare has made monitoring health easier than in previous times. These wearables include watches, bands, and other items that have made tracking health parameters easier. Such devices are loaded with micro-sensors that help in checking the normal parameters of the body including the heartbeat, pulse rate, and so on. These can also be used to monitor the number of calories burnt, the number of steps you walked, and so on. Thus, you need not rush to a hospital to check your oxygen levels, and other issues every now and then. You can simply use these and detect any drop in your normal parameters.
3D printing
3D printing is one of the most revolutionizing contributions of technology in the 21st century. 3D printing has helped doctors and surgeons to understand patient reports better through 3-dimensional figures. Such technology has helped them view the veins, arteries, appendages, and other parts of the body after an x-ray or similar tests. Thus, 3D printing has helped in improving the nature and efficiency of the treatment administered to patients. The patients are also able to understand various issues in their bodies through these printing systems. Such systems are more popular and effective in the case of skin burns or minor injuries that patients and doctors might ignore otherwise. This helps the doctors to understand the exact spot of the issue and treat them accordingly.
Conclusion:
Healthcare IT solutions are transforming the world of patient care and the overall operations of the entire health ecosystem. With the rapid technological advancement taking place globally, healthcare services have been increasingly using different tools and cutting-edge solutions to deal with different patient-centric issues.
In fact, the nature of care and treatment administered to patients has become easier and more accessible for people. Thus, you need not visit a hospital every time you think there is an issue in your body. You can simply get help online and take the necessary actions.
You also need not worry about storing your reports for a lifetime because the cloud computing technologies used in healthcare units have ensured to record your medical history in a more systematic way. Thus, technological innovations have undoubtedly brought about significant changes in the operations of the healthcare sector, benefiting both the patients and the doctors.
