Technology has made significant strides in the recent years and has had much impact in almost every sector. This has had significant advancements in improving the efficiency of marketing, learning and production. Healthcare seems to be the most benefited in this churn of technological progress.
Following are some of the major trends affecting healthcare industry:
Electronic health record(EHR) system
It is the patient’s digital record chart. Through this, the physician gets all data of the patient in real time. Information is made available instantly and securely. It contains the patient’s standard data that is critical when there is a requirement of urgent health services. Right from the diagnosing data to the laboratory results EHR is like the healthcare Aadhar.
Telemedicine services
Due to adopting emerging technologies and internet, the usage of Telemedicine has increased significantly. Now medical assistance is available at an affordable price to everyone without geographical limitations because of telecommunication and information technology providing clinical health care from a distance.
The international telemedicine industry is forecasted to be around $40 billion by 2021. It has already started to restructure the way how doctors and patients interact disregarding the geographical distance between them. It has effectively reduced hospital visits and increased the effectiveness of virtual assistance between the doctor and the patient.
Cloud based solutions
One of the most painstaking tasks was getting a patient’s history of treatment each time they visit or at the time of emergency. With the advent of cloud solutions, these woes have reduced. According to HIMSS analytics, globally about 83% of healthcare organizations use cloud computing solutions to store patient data and treatment history. In near feature, all your health data and insurance policy would be mapped so you can access and visit any hospital without any problem.
IoT in healthcare
Well informed technocrats have hailed IoT and AI as the frontrunners in the fourth industrial revolution. The IoT is in other terms called as virtually connected internet technology is influencing a number of industries. IoT, when linked with health apps, will give comprehensive health care and comfort to the patients. Besides it also enables to get valuable patient information and monitor his progress.
Fitness band which is an excellent example of IoT tells all about health conditions and suggests medical sessions. It is estimated that this year alone there will be about $2.56 billion in revenue from fitness tracker devices. IoT will grow beyond wearables and provide innovative use cases for the healthcare industry. Right from monitoring patient’s vitals to enabling hospitals in managing their administrative tasks, IoT will make significant strides in the healthcare industry. It may well be instrumental in suggesting treatments, diagnosis and in the process enhance the patient care.
Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare
AI will elevate health care to whole new levels. With the help of Artificial Intelligence and AI enabled device patients can examine themselves with minimal doctor needs and doctors can do complex operations. Therefore, there will be affordable healthcare service to everyone. It will greatly reduce the human errors in diagnosing a patient with respect to doctors. Tech giants like Microsoft, IBM and Google have already started their research using AI in various medical fields.
Blockchain
Being compliant and preserving patient data are two vital elements for healthcare providers all across the world. There are literally too many regulations which have to be abided by the healthcare providers who usually yield to the pressure. Imbuing the use of blockchain when building the healthcare solution avoids the number of problems. The security features of Blockchain makes them the ideal partner of EHRs because the information travels from one network to other. With such a single security procedure the patients get assured that their data is safe and rightly so.
Healthcare Data Security
Cyber Attacks are common in all industries and healthcare is no exception. Healthcare data security is important because it holds the patient’s biological and medical, financial and personal information. If it reaches the wrong hands it can lead to personal threats. So there are regulations like HITECH, HIPAA and FDA guidance to safeguard the data and to prevent the Cyber Attack. Cyber security safety measures and precautions are helping to keep the system and data safe.
Health Insurance Companies (HIC)
In 2018, health insurance will be a key domain which would be in need of development services using emerging technologies like Cloud, Mobility, BlockChain etc… It is based on the assumption of about 85% of HICs that customers would be willing to share their health data with them to build an effective healthcare ecosystem.
Augmented Reality in Healthcare
AR has already overtaken many industries like gaming, marketing, entertainment etc… Mobile apps enhanced with Augmented Reality features are becoming more popular every passing day due to easy and no cost of usage. Apps and games like Ikea and Pokemon Go only show the efficiency of the technology. The healthcare industry can greatly use the technology for improved results. Medical students can learn better as they can now relate well to the numerous visualizations put forth by AR.
Conclusion
Healthcare industry is growing rapidly due to health-consciousness of the people and the adoption of latest technologies in the domain to make healthcare services more affordable to everyone. That being said here are some of emerging healthcare technology trends which will have a significant impact on the healthcare industry. As we are ever in tune with these developments you can know more about them through our articles, blog posts, press releases.
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