Health Technology, Digital Healthcare
Article | August 16, 2023
The pandemic-fueled technology adoption has enabled the healthcare industry to address the challenges, including cybersecurity, telehealth, invoicing and payment processing, patient experience, effective payment model, and big data. The responses to the unusual COVID-19 pandemic has sped up the adoption of new digital technologies in the industry. It has also fueled advancements in health technology. From the start of 2020, these advancements transformed the healthcare industry into a next-gen one by accelerating digitization of their internal and external operations by two to three years.
This surprising impact of technology in the healthcare industry has brought out unexpected competition between the key players in the B2B healthcare market. Whatever the field, adapting yourself to modern changes is the best strategy to thrive. Get yourself updated according to the changes or get yourself outdated is the new norm in the healthcare industry.
The following trends and advancements in technology in the healthcare industry due to the pandemic in 2020 show that healthcare providers are always searching for new ways to improve their productivity, performance, and efficiency. These were the need of the hour during the pandemic, for them to surge ahead of their competitors.
• Telemedicine
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare
• The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT)
• Supply chain management technology
• Privacy issues
• AR/VR/MR in Healthcare
• Blockchain
• Digital marketing trends in healthcare
This article looks into the major innovations, advancements, and trends brought out by the global pandemic in 2020 in the healthcare industry.
Pandemic-fueled Advancements
One of the biggest challenges faced by the healthcare industry in the US today is its digital capacity to effectively engage consumers and make them stay healthy. This can include helping people to prevent getting infected by various diseases such as COVID-19 and effectively managing various other chronic conditions. This is where technology in the healthcare industry has a major role to play.
Due to the latest advancements in technology, the healthcare industry was already evolving but the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this transformation dramatically. McKinsey reports that US$250 billion was spent on technology in the US healthcare industry to shift the industry into a virtual care model in the wake of the pandemic. Also, a study by FAIR Health, a non-profit group, says the increase in telehealth claims in the US is 4,000% in 2020.
Here’s a detailed look into the above-mentioned advancements, innovations or trends brought out by the pandemic in the industry.
Telemedicine
Had the world ever thought that it would be possible one day for doctors to remotely examine the health of patients via a smartphone or a computer? Telemedicine, a new trend in technology in the healthcare industry, addresses many challenges in the industry. Improved technology in the industry has made telemedicine easier, even for people, who are not computer savvy. Telehealth services are now provided through different telemedicine apps.
In the light of the pandemic, rather than in-person visits, 43.5% of primary medical visits were done using telehealth methods in April 2020 in the US. The major benefit of telemedicine is that it reduces contact between healthcare workers, patients, and other patients. This reduces the chances of the spread of infectious diseases.
Reports say that 71% of Americans considered telemedicine useful at the beginning of the pandemic. This trend is expected to continue in the coming years too. With the pandemic, telemedicine saw an immediate boom compared to previous years. This boom in telehealth is projected to break US$185.6 billion by 2026.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare
Artificial intelligence, a new trend and advancement in technology in the healthcare industry, had a critical role in fighting the pandemic. AI played a major role in areas such as pandemic detection, vaccine development, facial recognition with masks, thermal screening, and analyzing CT scans. AI is becoming the new operating technology in the healthcare industry.
Major AI healthcare applications
Healthcare providers will benefit a lot from AI-driven tools as AI technology in the healthcare industry has become a transformational force. Machine learning algorithms and software in AI will revolutionize the use of technology in the healthcare industry and the science of healthcare in the coming years too. AI will unify machines and humans through the brain. Some of the AI technologies in the healthcare industry, which are very relevant, are machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), rule-based expert systems, physical robots, diagnostic and treatment, patient engagement and adherence, and administrative applications.
Benefits of AI in healthcare and statistics
AI addresses many challenges that present technology in the healthcare industry cannot tackle. Better data-driven decisions, increased disease diagnosis efficiency, reduced treatment time, easy integration of information, reduced costs, increased patient satisfaction, fewer errors, and easier payment options are some of the benefits AI-assisted technology in the healthcare industry can provide.
According to an analysis by Accenture, by 2026, clinical AI health applications are expected to create approximately US$150 billion for the US healthcare economy as annual savings. Also, the US AI health market is expected to reach around US$6.6 billion by 2021.
The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT)
Nowadays, medical interactions involve some sort of equipment or device; it can be a glucose monitor, blood pressure monitor, or even an MRI scanner. It may not be a surprise now that, according to a 2020 Deloitte report, the available number of medical technologies are around 50,000. The internet-connected devices, which are known as IoMT tools, are transforming the healthcare and technology in the healthcare industry.
What Is IoMT?
The connected infrastructure of software applications, medical devices, and health systems and services are the IoMT. This has emerged by combining IoT development with telehealth technologies and telemedicine.
Potential of IoMT in healthcare and statistics
Lower costs for care, fewer mistakes, and more accurate diagnosis are the potential capabilities of IoMT. IoMT paired with various smartphone applications allows patients to send information regarding their health to doctors and get treated for diseases. This type of technology-driven healthcare not only improves patient experiences but also reduces the cost. IoMT, the new trend in technology in the healthcare industry, also has a positive effect on drug management.
According to Goldman Sachs, IoMT will save US$300 billion annually in the healthcare industry. AllTheResearch expects that the global IoMT market value will reach US$254.2 billion from US$44.5 billion in 2018.
Supply chain management technology in the healthcare industry
Utilizing advanced supply chain management technology in the healthcare industry enables healthcare providers to reach the right patients with the right product at the right time. Digitalized supply chain management also makes healthcare organizations improve provider-patient connectedness, data flow and analytics, regulatory compliance, and asset tracking.
A range of challenges faced by healthcare providers prompts you to digitalize supply chain networks, using the latest technologies in the healthcare industry. Advanced supply chain management technology will help you optimize costs, reduce unnecessary variation due to error and variability, enhance patient care, engagement, and delivery, and address new value-creation priorities.
According to reports from market researchers, global healthcare supply chain management technology is expected to reach US$3.3 billion in 2025 from US$2.2 billion in 2020.
Privacy issues
Privacy is a serious concern in technology in the healthcare industry, especially because of HIPAA compliance in 2020. Although data and information of patients can be efficiently stored and retrieved through cloud computing, complying with the strict electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI) is difficult.
While electronic health records and sensor networks, and advancements in other technologies in the healthcare industry will surely improve the quality of healthcare by reducing medical errors and costs, associated security and privacy are challenges to be addressed. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association estimated that stolen or lost PHI may cost the US healthcare industry approximately US$7 billion annually.
To solve these issues, hospitals, and other healthcare providers have to stop using outdated technology and adopt state-of-the-art technologies without violating HIPAA. Encryption technology in the healthcare industry is the best option and healthcare providers should start using it to ensure the privacy of patients.
AR, VR, and MR in Healthcare
Virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are important technologies in the healthcare industry to enhance and ensure the quality of telemedicine, especially during the period of the pandemic. The pandemic has made these technologies more popular and the trend is expected to continue in the future too. Both of these technologies in the healthcare industry are used to enhance patient and provider visits and even to educate medical students.
AR and VR also have the potential to help stroke victims overcome deficiencies, assist in robotic surgeries, educate patients before surgeries, facilitate easy surgical planning, help patients with PTSD, and reduce anxiety in children during a painful procedure or blood tests. Mixed reality (MR) is the mixed use of both VR and MR in a patient’s healthcare process and is also gaining popularity.
Blockchain
Blockchain is a trend which is expected to revolutionize technology in the healthcare industry. Using blockchain or digital ledgers will enable you to securely distribute transaction records to patients with improved data security. Along with other trends such as cloud computing and IoMT, blockchain also offers portability, accessibility, and high security. One of the greatest benefits of blockchain technology in the healthcare industry is interoperability.
As blockchain provides full visibility through a digital ledger, it improves integrity and transparency. Blockchain technology in the healthcare industry is beneficial to handle clinical study information, patient wearable data, and patient records.
Scope of blockchain technology in the healthcare industry
Various statistics on blockchain technology in the healthcare industry expect a wide scope for this technology. The global blockchain technology market in the healthcare industry is projected to cross US500 million by 2022.
Digital marketing trends in healthcare
Digital marketing technology in the healthcare industry has been revolutionized as new trends were set by the pandemic in 2020. As the world shrunk to online mode during the pandemic period, the following healthcare digital marketing trends emerged.
Content marketing
The smartest way to attract new patients to your service is content marketing and educational content. 2020 is the time where the content truly emerged as king. Educational content is vital in the healthcare space because everyone always tries to learn new things. It can be a trick or tips about the latest technological advancements, general industry news, or new diagnostic options.
Mobile responsive websites
Another important digital marketing technology in the healthcare industry is making an attractive website, which also must be mobile responsive. In this modern world of technology, everyone wants to access every facility at their fingertips. So, if your website is not mobile responsive, you won’t get traffic to your website easily.
Along with these two trending digital marketing technologies in the healthcare industry, some of the other trends are:
• Video marketing
• Multichannel initiatives and customer touchpoints
• Online reputation
• Powerful presence on social media channels
• Location-based SEO
The essential trends and advancements in technology in the healthcare industry depicting the future of healthcare are machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data science along with a focus on effective healthcare digital marketing technology and strategy. The pandemic fueled B2B healthcare technology will make the industry evolve every year and go on resolving new challenges that arise.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is technology important to the healthcare industry?
Integrating technology with healthcare industry will improve quality of life. Also, the use of digital technology in the healthcare industry will increase efficiency, quality, and patient experience.
What is new technology in healthcare?
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many trending technologies are used in healthcare. The new technologies in the healthcare industries are AI, blockchain, chatbots, voice search, and virtual reality.
What are the negative impacts of medical technology?
Medical technology can have some negative impacts on patients such as impersonal or minimized care, negative health effects, increased patient costs, inappropriate use, and invasion of privacy.
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Healthtech Security
Article | August 31, 2023
Yes, empathy has become a fad.
Connecting to another human is actually something cool kids do now. If a brand doesn’t have an impact model that includes a practical social issue, consumers tend to not take that brand seriously. In this case, empathy needs to be revisited beyond the trend itself for these strategies to have real, lasting impact.
Practical strategies around compassion meanwhile have similarly become an intrinsic part of social impact organisations. They have become so commonplace that prosocial behaviour has strayed into a kind of tokenism. It is common for instance for consumers to donate their hard-earned money to companies who focus their energies on trying to alleviate real-world issues.
The question then is whether this proxy for compassion isn’t in fact watering down human connections, as well as our positive impact on the issues business and organisations seek to solve with our help.
Postmodern behavioral science
If it is, then we must understand why and how to change that. This is where postmodern behavioral science provides a possible better alternative to social impact strategies. Postmodern behavioral science suggests that the current approach to understanding human behaviour lacks even a rudimentary understanding of empathy, defined in the area of social impact as a discursive strategy that allows us to feel what the group we are trying to help is feeling.
Of course, compassion has very close ties with empathy. Empathy is an innate ability we all have, one that we can learn to develop and fine-tune over time. It is our emotional connection to another human, though one that lies beyond our own ego. It takes the perspective of the person who is struggling and seeks to understand their life, their struggle, and their worldview. It also resolves to value and validate their perspective and experience — something that donating money to a social impact cause does not.
In its broader definition, empathy is a shared interpersonal experience which is implicated in many aspects of social cognition, notably prosocial behavior, morality, and the regulation of aggression.
Empathy has a host of positive after-effects when applied as an interpersonal experience. If a social impact organisation is preoccupied with raising capital, then it is likely to disregard the practical worth of empathy for those who truly want to achieve its mission.
Immersive empathy
One way that behavioral science can contribute is to utilise tools that can help augment the experience of those in need for those needing to understand those needs. Both AR and VR can help people visualise and follow the stories of those who require compassion. These create virtual environments for partners, governments, and consumers to experience with the people they seek to help.
But of course, much of human behaviour is geared toward seeking pleasant experiences and avoiding unnecessary pain. Our in-built hedonic valuation systems guide decisions towards and away from experiences according to our survival instincts.
This is precisely why business owners who want to encourage empathy in their customers go the easy route, but should seek a more participatory frameworks to inspire and provide experiences for those on board with a social mission.
Then there are issues like financial literacy in underserved populations, access to clean water, education for women and girls, and environmental conservation, to name a few of the problems that social impact companies are attempting to tackle.
If a company is trying to tackle an issue such as access to clean water, then rather than start there, it should first ask exactly how this issue arose and developed. It should question the beliefs that underpin this chronic social inequality, those that inform policies, practices, cultural taboos, and beliefs about water and people’s access to it.
To simply respond to an issue in its developed form is to leave it unfixed. We must be willing to reverse engineer the origins of that issue that got us to where we are. In other words, human behaviour is not the only component to consider in this.
The main behavioral framework public servants should take with them is to develop a nudge unit solely based on the relationship between behavioural science and technology.
This is mainly because technology is an inevitable part of how we now relate to one another. Immersive Compassion meanwhile should embrace tools like AR/VR that seek to create empathetic environments and valuable impact longevity.
To fully embrace empathy as an organisation is to create relevant and rigorous responses that go as far as to alter the infrastructure of its target goals. Optimising social impact comes down to optimising human experience.
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Health Technology, Digital Healthcare
Article | September 8, 2023
It’s no secret now that healthcare is an in-demand field. Today, business leaders need modern and intelligent decision-making solutions for their customers and clients. They must also focus on the right investment areas and learn the tricks for investing, spending, and setting goals for revenue generation to accelerate business.
With continuous developments in the healthcare sector, integrating AI into processes can help increase ROI. Therefore, if you, like any other business leader, are looking for solutions to empower your services and products in the healthcare domain, this article will help you through AI’s ultimate use cases and churn out a higher ROI.
What’s with AI in Healthcare at Present?
AI’s role in healthcare is evolving and enhancing traditional business operations, particularly marketing. According to a study by IBM, 71% of customers expect real-time communication. Thus, global demand is fueling the rising adoption of AI marketing solutions.
The effects of AI in healthcare are evident. Gartner reports increased marketing efficiency and effectiveness (86%), improved decision-making (71%), better data analysis and new insights (79%). Global AI spending will rise from $450 million in 2019 to over $28 billion by 2024 is not surprising.
Similar and further studies are ongoing on various use cases of AI in healthcare at scale. What are the efficient use cases of AI that will help healthcare businesses boost their ROI? Let’s find out.
How is AI Applied in Healthcare?
The promising applications of AI in healthcare to improve outcomes are very intriguing. While there is still much to achieve in the AI-dependent healthcare business, there is sufficient potential that tech companies are willing to invest in AI-powered tools and solutions.
Let’s examine the potential examples of AI in healthcare to prepare and support business strategies accordingly and foster higher ROI generation.
Predictive Analytics
AI-based predictive analytics impacts a business by automating administrative tasks, predicting sales outcomes for a year, customers’ behavior and making strategies accordingly. According to a Forbes study, AI-based predictive analytics can save businesses $18 billion in tasks, expenses, and pricing.
To understand this, one example of using AI to automate admin tasks is a collaboration between the Cleveland Clinic and IBM. Cleveland Clinic uses IBM’s Watson to mine big data and provides personalized services for customers and clients on marketing deeds.
Some of the practical applications of AI and predictive analytics in healthcare are:
Monitoring market trends to maximize marketing efforts
Organizing datasets
Creating marketing campaigns tailored to each demographic-based client
Mining collective data for future decision-making
Fraud Prevention
AmerisourceBergen Corp detects fraud and misleading business operations through AI. A sales account team conducts audits with AI to detect usual lea and queries to prevent hefty expenses for businesses.
The example explains that implementing AI in your process will help detect any significant fraud attempts inside your business operation. This will help your business save huge expenditures.
Boost Sales
By putting down false leads, AI helps in maximizing sales numbers, resulting in significant ROI generation. For example, AI transforms data into personalized data, which reduces the cost of operations.
Chatbots
Most healthcare businesses leverage chatbots on their websites to engage more and more customers and boost engagement. In this way, businesses tend to gain multiple leads and convert them into clients by providing the best marketing solutions.
Chatbots are fruitful for AI start-ups in healthcare—small businesses can deploy AI to their websites. By doing so, they can save millions in administrative costs and attract numerous leads.
The most prominent examples of AI in healthcare hail from giant tech titans such as IBM, Amazon, and Microsoft. They are assisting healthcare providers with AI to create and deploy digital-human employees.
Segmentation of Marketing Targets
Is your target audience not responding to your marketing campaigns (for example, by not clicking a link, subscribing or unsubscribing to a newsletter, or not registering for a medical event)? If that's the case, how should you go ahead?
Using AI-based tools allows your marketing to easily identify target behaviors and reactions based on the type of marketing actions to be carried out. Analyzing these actions can help segment targets based on your company's marketing objectives.
The most significant development took place in April 2022, when Amazon Alexa became fully HIPAA compliant. It works with health developers and service providers that manage protected information for customers.
AI Leads to Data Modernization
It’s all about the data—not any data!
There’s a precise association between AI and data management, resulting in data modernization. According to a Cognizant research study, healthcare leaders have made significant progress in modernizing their data. In contrast, most upcoming businesses are expecting to do so by 2024.
The maximum acceleration of AI in modernizing data will be seen in the manufacturing and marketing of healthcare products and services, respectively. It is because AI helps to churn data easily. The accessibility of data, in particular, becomes simpler with automation than doing it manually, which generates a massive amount of data. Such effects of AI in healthcare can be one of the prime reasons for the higher ROI of your business in the future.
“There has never been a greater need for skilled analytic talent in health care. Because AI is becoming more strategic, organizations must ensure access to this skill set, either by growing their analytic teams or seeking out experienced partners."
Steve Griffiths, CEO of Optum Enterprise Analytics
AI Expenditure is on the Rise
McKinsey says that by 2025, the use of AI in healthcare will be widespread, resulting in significant expenditure by global healthcare leaders.
AI is a significant concern for healthcare decision-makers, investors, and innovators as customers extensively engage and react to AI-powered services and solutions. AI is constantly bringing improvements to almost all processes, including cost savings, management of services and products, and monitoring of multiple operations. Even small businesses in the healthcare industry are proactively investing in AI applications to match steps with the current wave of innovation in healthcare services.
Accelerate ROI Using AI
AI in healthcare is becoming one of the prime responsible technologies for accelerating ROI. Technology can eradicate multiple business growth challenges. Let’s find out how.
Enhanced Performance
As previously stated, use cases of AI in healthcare can relieve stress on employees. This would allow them to devote their time to more value-added marketing activities to churn more ROI.
Emphasize Cost-Effectiveness
Most of the businesses associated with healthcare are concerned about the costs involved. With AI, they now develop policies to spend less on non-essential activities and necessitate profit-oriented actions.
"We believe in the potential of AI to deliver insights and operational efficiencies that unlock better health-care performance."
Robert Musslewhite, CEO at OptumInsight
Frequently Asked Questions
How is AI used in healthcare?
AI in healthcare automates and predicts processes by analyzing data throughout. It is used to predict potential customers, improve business management workflows, and manufacture medical products.
How does AI drive growth in the healthcare industry?
AI drives business growth by improving the ability to understand better day-to-day customer patterns and needs based on services and products.
How is AI changing the Healthcare industry?
AI applications in healthcare have demonstrated their potential to improve analytics and data management and assist service providers in making timely medical decisions.
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Health Technology
Article | June 9, 2022
Healthcare leaders are embracing the benefits of the cloud and software as a service (SaaS) after the pandemic challenged them to adapt and innovate like never before. 66% of them expect to move their technology infrastructures to the cloud this year – a number that is set to rise to 96% by 2024 [1]. Yet moving to the cloud is more than just a technology transformation. It’s an organizational transformation. Through cloud-based platforms and solutions, healthcare systems can begin to unlock clinical and operational insights at scale while speeding up innovation cycles for continuous value delivery.
Integrating data across the care continuum
In many ways, COVID-19 catapulted healthcare into the future. The pandemic created a new urgency for healthcare leaders to expand their virtual care offerings as a way of connecting with patients beyond the walls of the hospital. At the same time, they wanted the flexibility to scale up or down without large upfront capital expenditures. Effective crisis management also required the rapid exchange of patient information across systems and care settings. Thanks to the flexibility of pay-as-you-go cloud-based services and solutions, healthcare providers were able to quickly scale up digital health technologies to meet new demands. As a result, the acceptance of cloud has increased remarkably [2].
Keeping patient data secure and compliant
As healthcare leaders embark on this journey to the cloud, data protection is a critical consideration. Data processing in healthcare must comply with rigorous standards, whether it is HIPAA in the US or GDPR in the EU. Unfortunately, healthcare organizations also remain a top target for data breaches, calling for additional data security protection measures [3].
While the need for data security and regulatory compliance has historically motivated healthcare organizations to keep data on premises, today there is a growing awareness that moving to the cloud can in fact be the better road to travel. In fact, 60% of healthcare leaders now cite security as one of the top benefits of the cloud [4]. When healthcare organizations rely on their own data centers, they are responsible for security from end to end, which can become prohibitively complex and time-consuming as IT infrastructures expand over time. Cloud-based services and solutions can reduce dependency on local hardware to store sensitive data while automated software updates keep systems current.
Turning data into insights at scale at the point of care
Working from these foundations, the next big opportunity in healthcare is to capture the insights in the data that we are beginning to connect and integrate. This is where the cloud is also turning into a vital enabler, with its powerful computing resources and advanced machine learning capabilities, offered as microservices. These microservices provide the building blocks to develop new digital solutions that, once validated and approved, can be deployed at scale to help improve clinical outcomes and operational efficiency.
Enabling rapid experimentation and continuous value delivery
Embracing the cloud also changes the very nature of innovation in healthcare.
Healthcare-compliant cloud platforms offer a flexible foundation for rapid development and testing of digital applications. Cross-functional teams working in short and agile cycles can put new digital applications into the hands of physicians or patients more quickly, and then add new or improved features and functionalities as they gather additional user feedback. That means healthcare organizations get to innovate faster. And in smaller, more digestible increments.
Moving to the cloud is not all or nothing
Of course, none of this is to suggest that moving to the cloud is like switching a button. It’s a complex and multi-year journey for most of our customers. And it’s quite a journey for Philips, too. Any organization that has accumulated a large number of legacy systems and infrastructures over the years will have to manage a hybrid architecture during their journey to the cloud [5].
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