For many people, the speed of change in the healthcare industry has long been a source of annoyance. In the past, change has frequently and methodically occurred due to legislation or ongoing technological advancement. The global epidemic, however, was a major impetus for bringing about significant, quick change in the sector.
Lessons from the recent past have created new perspectives and mindsets that affect the industry’s direction and how it will get there.
One of the major themes in our recent industry research on the future of healthcare is this.
The four healthcare trends listed below continue to catch decision-makers attention across the nation as we look to the future.
Healthcare is undergoing a huge digital change, just like most other businesses.
The pandemic has increased demand and expectations for telehealth and virtual care, and the possibility of remote patient monitoring is only growing.
According to a J.D. Power research, only 7% of patients in 2019 used telehealth services in the previous 12 months. That percentage had increased to a staggering 36% by 2021.
Undoubtedly, work is to be done to guarantee equal access to telehealth services, including selecting a platform with accessible features and providing clinicians with the required training.
While telemedicine has clear advantages for patients, it may also help doctors avoid burnout by giving them the freedom to visit patients at home and on their schedules.
The ability to remotely monitor patients is also developing. A recent study predicts that by 2022, there will be over 84 million health and fitness apps users in the United States, a more than 20% rise from pre-pandemic levels. Doctors can increasingly collect patient data in real-time with smartwatches, Bluetooth-enabled blood pressure cuffs, smart thermometers, and other devices.
The next step is ensuring that this real-time data is automatically entered into a patient’s electronic health record (EHR) to give a more comprehensive picture of their overall health.
For a good reason, data interoperability consistently ranks among the top trends in healthcare.
According to research from RBC Capital Markets, the healthcare sector produces over 30% of the world’s data output. The issue is that because of the various, unconnected systems across the healthcare value chain, a large portion of that data is not managed, integrated, or able to be capitalized on efficiently.
Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) and Health Level Seven (HL7) are two basic components for advancing the healthcare sector into a more connected state.
The healthcare sector is implementing cutting-edge technology like artificial intelligence and machine learning to sift through massive data to achieve real interoperability.
Health systems are increasingly trying to adopt intelligent automation solutions across the entire company rather than focusing on one-off automation.
These solutions enhance end-to-end processes in healthcare, boost interoperability, and promote enterprise-wide automation by combining robotic process automation (RPA) with technologies including artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, machine learning, and data mining.
Intelligent automation systems can take things a step further by learning over time, sharing information, and making predictions based on that data using cutting-edge machine learning algorithms to evaluate both structured and unstructured data.
Increasing the human workforce lowers costs, enhances clinical decision-making, and boosts productivity.
What steps can health systems take to integrate technological innovation into their culture?
Often, it begins with staff members being completely responsible for innovation.
More and more people with titles like chief innovation officer or director of innovation are concentrating more than ever on developing, disseminating, and carrying out a strategic approach to how the future of healthcare will be provided.
Similar to this, health system IT teams are investigating the need for data scientists, analysts, and engineers to keep up with the exponential expansion of data sources and quantities and the increasing prevalence of intelligent automation solutions.
Becker’s Hospital Review stated that “advanced data teams can help improve patient care and produce savings for the business, a significant value proposition” in an article about the areas on which healthcare CIOs are concentrating.
Looking for more information on the healthcare industry’s future? Check out our blog and stay updated with the industry trends.
