Health is THE priority, COVID raised the bar so high. The race today is all about data and how it can be used in the favor of the healthcare industry stakeholders.
The question is, how can all players increase cohesiveness and collaborate better while identifying and interpreting data patterns faster and more accurately? The answer, digital technologies.
The pandemic brought the future, we are living in the new normal. These are words we hear and read everywhere. They are true. Today, everyone is feeling bad, everyone is looking for information online, everyone wants to know more, governments are surprised and keep looking for ways to manage the pandemic, healthcare practitioners are losing the battle against COVID and a lot of knowledge therefore is being lost.
Patients are worried and insecure, personal health and wellness became a priority, alternative medicine is more attractive than ever. Healthcare companies are doing their best to provide the patients with the vaccines or medications to treat COVID-19.
Data. This is what everyone is looking for, online.
Here are some digital health trends that picked up in 2020 and are proving to be indispensable in 2021.
The New Normal Main Keywords
Online search about the healthcare industry shows trending keywords:
– COVID-19
– Big data
– Digital health
– E-health
– Healthtech
– Meded
– Medtech
– Mental health
– Health Talks
– Biotech
– Pharma
– Medical Technology
– Patients
– Robotics
– Tech
– Technology
– Alternative medicine
– Wellness
– Nutrition
Discussions around health tech online in the health categories are picking up outside industry specialists, and they include; apps, therapeutics, blockchain, diagnosis, patient monitoring, wearables, robotics, artificial intelligence, medical education, health insurance.
Patients are also actively looking for apps that have the following keywords; medication, nutrition, lifestyle, disorders, stress, fitness, diabetes, sleep, wellness, weight loss.
So what are the digital health trends that marked the healthcare industry?
Big Data Analysis in the Health Industry
Today, patients are online and their activities can be observed via data shared about their behavior online. Data can be tracked and analyzed. Governments, healthcare professionals and other health care stakeholders can benefit from the large amount of data available online to collect it, analyze and discover new health trends. When such information is collected at the international scale will allow governments to collect big data, analyze it to discover patterns and tendencies. These insights can assist the governments in taking appropriate preventive measures and offer treatments or solutions to their citizens. Healthcare organizations and healthcare practitioners can also benefit from these insights to be well prepared. Big data will help make healthcare smart, prevent pandemics, reduce maintenance and medication costs. The benefits range from faster treatment methods, enhanced services and procedures, improve staffing and hospital administration, enhanced electronic health records, error minimization and cost reduction to improved customer involvement.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Health Industry
All pharmaceutical and healthcare stakeholders are actively involved in delivering effective treatments and accurate diagnosis. This is where artificial intelligence will come into play. The use of the big data along with the artificial intelligence will allow for more efficient and accurate practices. We are still in the early phases, however, there is optimism in the industry on the role of AI in the healthcare industry, and this is a trend worth keeping an eye on.
Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) and Telehealth in the Health Industry
Many claim that the healthcare sector is a late adopter of IoT, however, better late than never, no? The “market is forecasted to exceed $136.8 billion by 2021, this sector is being propelled by convenient patient-oriented medical devices and applications that gather, analyze and transmit data to healthcare IT systems in real-time” (Digimind, 2021)
What is better than being continuously connected to your health care provider by sharing patient-generated data using tech products and services? This is a main objective of IoMT. Cardiac monitoring, glucose measurement, blood pressure measurements and much more are all tech products and services that will allow the patients to share their diagnosis results immediately with their healthcare practitioners via the internet. Healthcare professionals can now monitor, review and communicate with their patients immediately. Diagnosis is faster, treatment is faster, and health care monitoring is improved even if the patient is physically far. Can you image how many lives can be saved?
Telemedicine allows to provide patients healthcare services outside of the traditional hospital environment. It also allows to build a relationship between the patients and the practitioners using digital tools. This trend is picking up, and was definitely a great tool during the pandemic and lockdown, however many patients still prefer to keep the traditional patient doctor relationship in person.
Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) in the Health Industry
Virtual reality allows practitioners to produce images that are displayed onto the artificial world, while augmented reality produces images that are displayed onto the real-world environment.
The digital health industry has definitely identified virtual reality, augment reality, 3D printing as tools that will help diagnose and treat many diseases and disorders. These tools have already started to be used by surgeons to remove tumors for example. The medical education system has proved their efficiency. In November 2020, NBC News shared an article on how doctors used virtual reality and 3D printing to perform a surgery on a 2-year-old child with brain tumor and save his life. It was the first time such a surgery is performed on a patient so young.
Blockchain in the Health Industry
A term highly associated with crypto currencies, blockchain technology has proved to be useful in the healthcare industry. Applying blockchain technology to conduct vital research and share healthcare data with key stakeholders has remodeled the way clinical researchers, doctors, pharmacists, and other healthcare providers process medical information. This led to improved digital data management, clinical research and data access and health supply chain management.
The future of digital health is without a doubt highly related to the technological tools that are being available today. The pandemic has accelerated the use of these technologies to the benefit of all stakeholders in the healthcare industry. Many major tech companies are investing largely in digital health such as Google, Microsoft, Tencent and more. There is a lot more to come, these technologies need to be used on a larger scope so everyone can benefit, 2021 will definitely bridge the gap between digital technologies and the healthcare industry.
If you are a healthcare professional or a business operating in the healthcare industry, Socialprise’s team is here to help you embrace digital technologies, contact us.
Like always, I hope you enjoyed this blog. Comment below if you have tips of your own!
Stay safe, productive & happy!
