Healthcare digitization is one of the positive impacts of the continuing technological revolution. A few examples of digital transformation in healthcare are the use of artificial intelligence, enabling medical devices, telemedicine, and block-chain electronic health records. The name of the game here is ‘innovation.’ The main goal of streamlining providers’ work and optimizing their systems is to improve patient outcomes, lower costs through mobile and web experiences, and reduce human errors. It’s quite unfortunate for an industry that could do a lot better implementing digital strategies, but the healthcare and pharmaceuticals have lagged. In a survey, approximately seven percent of the pharmaceutical industries and healthcare have gone digital compared to the fifteen percent of organizations in other sectors.
In the United States, with healthcare being an enormous market, national spending is projected to reach approximately $5.7 trillion by 2026. There is still time for leaders of huge companies and startups to become well-versed with digital technology to bring in more business. However, by 2020, these organizations need to transform digital machines’ standard practices to thrive by 2026. The modern healthcare landscape requires a change in conventional medical practices.
Let’s take the example of Alexi Alizadeh, the American-born founder of Adviise Inc. Alizadeh attended the Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, studying government and public policy. It is not easy to start an online business website, but Alexi took it as a challenge. At the age of 22, Alizadeh survived a stroke. However, her struggle to find proper healthcare resulted in launching Adviise in 2019. In May of 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, her platform tapped into the telemedicine market to increase better access to the quality care demand of patients. Adviise has been a game-changer for many patients facing health crises, and vowed to continue to do more to challenge the status quo for patient-provider interaction.
Better Patient Care with Better Technology
In 2020, the healthcare systems are trying to provide better treatment to patients with tools like virtual reality, telehealth, wearable medical devices, and 5G mobile technology. On the other hand, doctors can streamline their workflows by using artificial intelligence-powered systems.
The entire structure of the healthcare facility has a vast potential to improve with technological advancements. For example, record keeping, contacting doctors and the healthcare staff, and improving patient-doctor engagement. Some of the most exciting trends transforming medicine and healthcare are:
Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
Machine learning and artificial intelligence offer different ways of identifying disease. By diagnosing the conditions, developing and crowd-sourcing treatment plans, creating efficiencies in the medical research or clinical tests, and monitoring health epidemics and other operations to become more efficient, online healthcare is more in demand.
In 2020, the medical data will keep increasing in every seventy-three days. In McKinsey’s research, there could be an estimated $100 billion in savings annually by learning uses of big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence tools in the pharma and medicine industry.
The Robotics
The online collaborative robots like the da Vinci surgical robots are assisting humans with operating room tasks. The robotics market globally is expected to reach $20 billion by the year 2023. With this tremendous growth, the robots will continually conduct multiple tasks. For example, doctors are examining patients in rural areas through ‘telepresence,’ helping in faster diagnosis and treatment, transportation of the medical supplies, assisting patients with prosthetics or rehabilitation, disinfecting the hospital rooms, automating labs, and packaging the medical devices.
The Vision of Machines
Computers are getting trained to understand visual input. Significant progress has been made in a machine’s vision to diagnose, surgical uses, medical images, or viewing scans and others. For instance, computers help doctors know of the amount of blood a woman loses during childbirth to provide appropriate healthcare to mothers.
Patients are Demanding Healthcare at their Schedule
The consumers are demanding healthcare at their convenience. The healthcare industry is entering an era of digital innovation, where patients seek on-demand healthcare due to busy schedules. Mobiles, on the other hand, have become an essential marketing tool. Here, the name of the game is mobility. Recent stats have shown fifty percent of web browsing occurs on our mobile phones. More than 4 billion people are using the web; the possibilities offered by transforming healthcare are increasing.
According to a study by DMN3, consumers obtain medical data online for the following reasons:
– 47% of research for doctors
– 38% of research for medical and hospital facilities
– 77% book hospital appointments
The ‘gig’ economy drives online on-demand healthcare as many freelance professionals in multiple industries hire themselves out per gig or job, instead of tying themselves to a single organization. Companies like Nomad Health is an online marketplace linking doctors with medical facilities for their short-term tasks, making it easier for providers to provide on-demand healthcare to patients residing in specific circumstances. In other words, doctors are themselves becoming on-demand healthcare providers to meet the changing need of patients better.
