Top 5 Healthcare Technology Trends That Work in the Future
Healthcare has always been a big concern no matter what century it is. However, at the moment, thanks to all the advanced technologies, human beings are living in the best period of time. So, what are those healthcare technology trends helping us go through the deadliest diseases like cancers, stroke, diabetes, etc.? Let’s discover this interesting topic with us in today’s article!
What is Healthcare Technology?
When it comes to healthcare technology, we often think of a broad spectrum of technologies like AI or robotics used to improve healthcare services, medical outcomes, and patient care. By using these innovations, healthcare providers can significantly optimize their clinical workflows, make diagnostics more accurate, and create more accessible yet effective patient care.
These benefits, coupled with increasing investments & initiatives in eHealth, have increased the global healthcare IT market. One recent research estimated that its revenue reached a staggering value of $663 billion in 2023. This figure undoubtedly will continue to grow by annually 15.8% in the next seven years (2024-2030).
Along with this growth is a growing collaboration between companies to build more innovative healthcare solutions. Typically, GE Healthcare partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to develop brand-new, purpose-built foundation models and generative AI apps. These tools aim to speed up operational & clinical workflows while enhancing patient care and medical diagnostics.
The 5 Best Healthcare Technology Trends that You Should Focus On
When tech advances, no wonder that various healthcare technology trends are emerging accordingly to shape our healthcare industry. So, which are the best trends you should focus on now? Let’s take a quick look:
1. AI Technology
Despite popular belief, the use of AI didn’t just show up in the past few years; instead, the very first expert AI program was launched in the 60s. Its main purpose was to identify unknown molecules, in other words, the software was developed to serve the chemistry field. And it was a big inspiration for creating MYCIN – a program that could put names on various bacteria and one of the first backward chaining expert systems.
At the moment, thanks to many benefits derived such as cost-saving, increasing patient satisfaction, etc., healthcare-assisting AI programs are invested in and launched more than ever. They use complex algorithms and software deep learning to solve various issues related to the healthcare industry. The top five powerful examples of AI in healthcare include:
- AI-assisted robotic surgery;
- Virtual nursing assistant;
- Aid clinic judgment or diagnosis;
- Workflow and administration task;
- Image analysis.
To perform these difficult activities, AI programs are developed to analyze, interpret and comprehend complicated medical and healthcare data.
Even though there are a lot of advantages when it comes to using AI in the healthcare industry, some drawbacks that might be mentioned are that these programs can only understand what it is told; or cannot tell the cause of the disease despite their ability to predict it very accurately.
Top AI healthcare companies: Remedy Health, Subtle Medical, Quid, BioSymetrics, Bio Beats, Jvion, Lumiata, DreaMed, etc.
2. VR, AR
First of all, let us explain to you what AR (Augmented Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality) are.
AR is the use of cameras, sensors, and other technologies to add layers of digital (or intangible, untouchable) objects to the real world. When playing Pokémon Go or using the IKEA app, you are experiencing such a technology.
VR, on the other hand, is able to place you inside a 3D world. It will stimulate human senses (vision, hearing, and touch) to optimize user experience in this artificial world. This technology is mostly used in games and education, but recently, it’s becoming one of the outstanding healthcare technology trends.
Though these two technologies have just come around recently, the VR/AR healthcare market is growing every year at an astonishing speed. Estimated, the value of this market will reach the amount of $38.46 billion by 2032.
The ability to reduce training and learning time is the most significant benefit these two have been offering. Back in the day, newly graduated surgeons have very little chance to practice due to the fear of putting patients at risk. But now, VR gives them the opportunity to learn whenever they want.
FURTHER READING: |
1. Healthcare UX Design: Innovative Approaches to User Experience |
2. Digital Healthcare: Transforming the Medical Industry |
This technology even helps the surgery process occur more precisely. Such platforms as SentiAR or Proximie give surgeons a real-time, interactive, 360-degree view of the body they’re treating. This helps them better understand underlying medical conditions.
Plus, VR/AR plays an important role in physical therapy and rehabilitation. Accordingly, these technologies will create a safe environment for patients to practice their movements and orient their exercises.
Top VR/AR healthcare companies: MindMaze, Osso VR, Touch Surgery, zSpace, Vicarious Surgical, etc.
3. Wearable Devices
Recently, wearable devices have become one of the most used types of accessories. However, they are not just something to make you look good or look rich in people’s eyes. Instead, wearable devices can play a vital part in taking care of our health as it has shifted from just mobile device to real-time clinical monitor.
The value of wearable medical devices is expected to steadily grow by 15.9% annually between 2024 and 2032. So, as you might guess we are witnessing fierce competition between wearable brands in terms of technology and features.
In fact, there are dozens of types of wearable devices such as fitness trackers, smart health watches, ECG monitors, and biosensors. Each of them has its own strength and weakness. That being said, they all serve the same purpose that helps people take control of their own health.
Thanks to the fact that mobile phones are available more than ever, our AI solutions are getting better every day, and sensors are continuously upgraded, wearable devices become incredibly powerful. It now can track our fitness condition, and sleep disorders and even manage our diseases.
Besides, wearable devices are able to track and transmit data to doctors or nurses so that they can access our health records in no time if needed.
Top healthcare wearable device manufacturers: Apple, Fitbit, Garmin, Google, Huawei, HTC, etc.
Recommended reading: Top 10+ Healthcare Mobile App Development Companies In 2023
4. Big Data
Another important healthcare technology trend is big data. This refers to the practice of gathering a large amount of data, analyzing it, and turning it into insightful information with the help of data analysts, machine learning techniques, and algorithms.
Recommended reading: What Is Big Data Analytics and How It Useful for Business?
We, as patients or medical personnel, all derive many benefits from such amazing technology. Basically, big data is able to
- Create a bigger picture of the healthcare/medical industry.
- Optimize the flow of capital for this industry as it has accounted for a large piece of the pie for years.
- Optimize the quality of curing processes/treatments.
- Help medical providers make better decisions and less guessing.
- Prevent the disease before it occurs with a better diagnosis.
- Reduce errors.
Most of the time, data will be collected from wearable devices, mobile apps, marketing data, data from hospitals/clinics, etc.
5. Telemedicine
You’re tired of waiting for long queues or long days at clinics or hospitals. Or you want to receive healthcare services but are unable to leave homes or live too far from healthcare centers. In this case, telemedicine comes into play to change the way you access treatment and care.
Briefly, telemedicine, or telehealth, is health-related services provided to diagnose, treat, and care patients remotely. This makes healthcare accessible to anyone in need.
Telemedicine wasn’t quite prevalent until the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a series of lockdowns and required social distancing among population. At that time, all online activities were on the rise, including virtual health-related services. Even after the pandemic, there’s no sign for telemedicine to level off. On the contrary, its market is predicted to increase by annually 16.4% (2024-2032).
It mostly covers psychiatry care (over 29%), enabling mental health professionals to provide effective diagnostics, treatment planning, and ongoing therapy. Further, telemedicine platforms are widely used to offer online consultations, prescription, and appointment booking or cancellations. They also integrate electrical health records for physicians to easy follow up and improve their clinical decisions.
Conclusion
In fact, there are many other types of healthcare technology trends such as nanotechnology, robotics, Genomics, etc. Nonetheless, the above are the four most popular and significant practices which are making the world a better place.
If you are looking for a powerhouse to build your own healthcare software, Designveloper should be at the top of your list. Here we have experts to solve your problems or turn the craziest ideas into your desired product at affordable costs. Contact us for free estimations.