The healthcare industry’s focus has shifted from the traditional fee-for-service model to value-based care. Healthcare’s future will require healthcare professionals to combine traditional healthcare capabilities, communication, and leadership with the latest skills in technology and analytics.
Therefore, this guide will discuss the top technological trends shaping healthcare in the next five years, including personal wearables and remote patient monitoring (RPM) services, AI & ML, and Human Genomic Data.
Personal Health Wearables & Remote Patient Monitoring
The CDC Healthy People report states that only 23 % of people meet the guidelines for healthy living regarding fitness; wearable healthcare technology can help increase that percentage.
Wearables are everywhere, while fitness and wellness trackers and applications are expanding at an alarming rate. Millions of users use these smart devices, from Fitbit to the Apple Watch, to monitor their steps, track heart rates, and perform various other physical actions. Juniper Research did a study and found that by 2023 1 in 5 people in the US will use activity trackers.
And although wearables are everywhere from a consumer’s perspective. Healthcare providers are also utilizing the data produced by wearables using remote patient monitoring systems to understand their patient’s health. They can replace less sophisticated or secure methods for sharing sensitive medical data, like sending emails or printing information.
How Healthcare Providers Are Leveraging Remote Patient Monitoring
RPM services are leveraging wearables to transform healthcare. It is becoming common for primary care providers to use remote patient monitoring to recommend a wearable device to the patient to monitor their health over a long time virtually monitor their health over a long time. The reason could be to track:
- Heartrate
- Blood Pressure
- Activity Levels
- Sleep Quality
Benefits of Using Remote Patient Monitoring
With the present capabilities of wearable health technology and remote patient monitoring services, doctors can use information from the device to prescribe medicine and provide a precise diagnosis. It’s a win-win situation for both the patient and the physician.
And although today’s versions of wearable fitness trackers are helpful for effective remote patient monitoring system, the next step will be more beneficial to one’s health and well-being. The next-generation wearable device will securely transmit data directly to a patient’s healthcare provider and payer, providing more accuracy, better functionality, and real-time data analysis regarding the patient’s health.
A doctor will track everything from blood glucose levels to glucose pressure in the hope of identifying issues faster to provide more proactive treatment that will improve the outcomes of patients. Thus, remote patient monitoring is considered a trend that will shape the future of healthcare delivery.
Remote patient monitoring is a sub-category of telehealth technology that has experienced an upsurge during the Covid-19 pandemic and is still helping physicians in follow-up encounters.
Artificial Intelligence and Medicine
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been transformed from technology incubators and R&D centers to technology with many possibilities. Many healthcare organizations are testing AI in various ways, including:
- Improved diagnostic medicine through studies of medical images
- AI and machine learning (ML) can extract meaningful results from massive amounts of healthcare data
- Identifying the patterns of infection for the prevention of a diagnosis
- Investigating the quality of hospitals’ networks or physicians who provide optimal patient care
Benefits of Using Artificial Intelligence
AI and ML have the potential to affect healthcare facilities significantly. Organizations benefit from AI by using natural language processing and robot automation. It can reduce specific information and automate repetitive administrative tasks, allowing employees to focus their attention elsewhere.
Besides, radiologists pay active attention to AI and ML, particularly regarding AI image study and networks for sharing images.
While machine learning aids radiologists with image segmentation, captioning, and classification tasks, a solid data movement system capable of efficiently and safely transfer data from images to individuals, applications, and external healthcare organizations is essential. When the fundamental requirement is in place, AI and machine learning can provide doctors, researchers, and medical professionals with more precise information to ensure and guarantee accuracy in patient care.
If you want to leverage AI, get CareCloud’s healthcare analytics software to streamline your medical practice’s clinical and financial aspects.
Human Genomic Data
Genetic sequencing that can better identify and manage rare and chronic illnesses was costly and required a lot of technology that most healthcare organizations didn’t have. However, as we approach the end of 2022, medical facilities are benefiting from the lower cost barrier and technological advancements leading to some significant breakthroughs and advances in medicine that are tied to genetic sequencing.
Here are a few of the opportunities in medical science related to the process of genomic sequencing and, in some cases, the capability for companies to effectively ingest genomic data sets onto the storage and analytical platforms and transfer the data to other research organizations as well as pharmaceutical manufacturing companies.
Benefits of Using Genomic Data
- Improve your understanding of the genetic causes of human diseases.
- Use genetic variation to those in the sciences of life and manufacturing industries to create new targeted drugs.
- Increase the amount of information available about evolutionary science, aging, and comparative genetics both within and across species.
Check out prenatal testing to find some of the most intriguing real-world applications. It is the most prominent application in the use of genomic medicine and offers a previously unimaginable insight into what the baby’s genetics will be. By using genomic data science, physicians can detect and effectively treat genetic disorders or harmful mutations before the baby is born. Moreover, Oncologists are exploring genetic sequencing to create a targeted treatment.
Conclusion
This guide discussed the top three trends shaping the healthcare sector and care delivery dynamics in the next five years. These trends include remote patient monitoring systems and wearables, artificial intelligence, and human genomic data.
CareCloud’s digital health solutions are helping healthcare professionals transform the way they deliver care to their patients by integrating remote patient monitoring and chronic care management solutions. Thus, get our digital health services now if you want to provide quality patient care while ensuring better reimbursements.
