As we approach 2020, the technology-related trends in the healthcare industry will continue to grow and advance. Virtually present doctors are becoming increasingly commonplace in telemedicine, videoconferencing. Patients will become part of their own care through portals, and centralized cloud data. People will also be able to monitor their health through wearable devices connected to the cloud on a regular and independent basis.
With the following growing trends, the future of the healthcare industry will grow and advance comprehensively:
- AI’s big contribution: Artificial intelligence could theoretically cure diseases and conditions that have so far seemed incurable. Also the execution of extremely complex algorithms analyzing terabytes of gene data and patients ‘ molecular level and trying to develop personalized treatments.
- A smart way to handle data: With the use of cloud-based storage and retrieval facilities, tractability and continuous monitoring of a patient’s food patterns, diet charts, and laboratory tests, data handling, and management aspects are sure to disrupt and rebuild the entire data handling system in the healthcare industry. Data management must take shape as the complexity and amount of information shifts with these and other decision support software applications.
- Healthcare in Internet society: The ecosystem of the healthcare industry will build around collective collaboration and knowledge sharing as healthcare providers catch up with the solutions available on the Internet. Doctors and patients will exchange healthcare in a society that is influenced and guided by the internet.
- Virtually operated hospitals: For skill-building and training purposes, immersive healthcare environments will become more popular by 2020 and pave the way to develop clinical skills through the incorporation of patient and physician avatars into Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality applications.
- Affordable healthcare: Advances in technology can take delivery of health care beyond the hospital’s four walls. The move would result in low-cost environments as a hospital’s maintenance cost contributes to the medical services rendered, making healthcare costs boom.
- Development of healthcare in remote areas: By telemedicine, in case of patient immobility, lack of healthcare resources and long distances to hospitals, healthcare will be made available in the comfort of home. Remote areas will now be able to avail health services through various mediums and it will help in the collective good of the nation.
- Advanced services: Wireless biomedical sensors, radar technology, etc. allow wireless technology to track patients. Improved use of smartphones would allow for remote communication between providers of healthcare and patients. Through advanced tests and laboratory proceedings, the time between the test and the results will be shortened resulting in a faster diagnosis of disease and early treatment.
- Personalized medicines: Medicines will move from one-fits-all to a more tailored approach offering personalized medicine and healthcare services with efficient and economical genome sequencing technologies. This would also help to distinguish and manage various forms of a single disease. The adverse effects can be greatly reduced by a comprehensive study of a patient’s DNA and tailored medicines.
- Medical imagery: Molecular information could be applied to body imagery to allow clearer imagery and easier and more efficient care. MRIs would contribute to a description of the physiology of a patient, thereby ensuring better treatment and early disease detection.
- Research and development: Research leads to the invention of new drugs and innovations in healthcare operations to drive better diagnosis, communication, and data management.
The healthcare industry is witnessing amazing innovations and development with mobilization of applications, the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, and Big Data.
