Every industry is being disrupted, and technology is doing so in the most profound way. It’s difficult to overlook the power of technology to improve our quality of life and make us live longer, more productive lives. We may see a digital healthcare system that transforms patient care, from smart hospitals, to surgical robots.
“The digital healthcare market is expected be worth $206billion by 2020. It will include major contributions from mobile and wireless technology.”
The healthtech sector is expanding rapidly. There is a greater desire for consumers to have access to their healthcare professionals, and to have transparency in the system. This is an indication of a human and financial value to investing in new technology that enhances the healthcare system and renders better patient care.
Many technologies and trends are changing the way we think about healthcare. We’re sharing the most powerful ones with you.
1. Telemedicine Services Will Rise
“The market for global telemedicine will reach $40 billion by 2021,”
Telemedicine is both convenient and accessible for patients as well as healthcare providers. Telemedicine gives patients the ability to receive quality healthcare remotely. Telemedicine has also helped reduce the dependency on F2F meetings. It has also been able to bypass barriers like cost, timing, and lack in certain fields.
2. Cloud and mHealth Solutions – Forefront
“In 2018, the mHealth industry is expected to be valued at 33.59 million U.S.$.”
Each year, hundreds of millions of fitness and wellness apps are downloaded. They are used for many reasons: to help them achieve their goals, motivate, identify unhealthy habits, adhere to medication, connect with an expert, and compete. mHealth applications allow doctors and patients to track their health information from any device.
Patients want 24/7 access to their medical and health records. This is in addition to mobility for healthcare access. Integrating EMR/EHR for healthcare solutions comes with a multitude of benefits, such as easy data sharing or check eprescription.
Patients can now feel confident in their security and privacy, because healthcare applications must meet stringent compliance standards. HIPPA compliant solutions prevent healthcare providers sharing patient data without the consent of their users.
3. Major Technologies will be the Leaders in the Healthcare System
There is at most one technology that can lead any tech solution. The healthcare industry has been flexible enough and willing to embrace any new technology that can improve the existing system. Some of these are:
Internet of Things. (IoT). Think about being prompted by your body to exercise if it is high in cholesterol. You might be able track your daily activities, and you’ll be able manage your fitness regimen. This is what power fitness tracker gadgets (one of the many examples of IoT for healthcare) are doing for consumers every day.
“For 2018, the fitness tracker device sales revenue is estimated at around $2.57billions.”
IoT is a wearable technology that has many interesting applications in healthcare. IoT’s interesting contributions include enabling hospitals and patients to monitor their health statuses, as well managing administrative tasks (workflow optimization and inventory management).
Artificial Intelligence or AI: As mHealth solutions, wearables and Internet of Medical Things have grown in popularity, so has the data. This makes it increasingly difficult for humans, and Artificial Intelligence has the potential to make this a more manageable task.
AI isn’t just software for hospitals or mHealth apps, it has been a part large-scale healthcare initiatives like IBM Watson and Google Deepmind.
Blockchain: Blockchain is a promising technology for healthcare providers after its impressive performance in the fintech market. Blockchain protects the healthcare industry from growing fraud and abuse by encrypting and securing an ever increasing number of records.
“In 2016, a total $3.35 billion was paid to the federal and private governments as a consequence of health-care fraud settlements and judgements.” This is a reflection of fraud detection in health care.
What does 2018 have in store for Healthcare
While there are many challenges involved in healthcare application design, it is clear that the rising trends and technologies offer some amazing opportunities to deliver higher quality care. You can expect more innovations in the digital healthcare industry this year with mobile apps, wearables and other software applications.
You have an idea about reforming the health care system? We can help with our medical application development.