Healthcare Sector’s New Avatar Is Driven by Digitization

2022: The Year Of Healthcare Digitization

As the world is still fighting the battle with the Covid Pandemic, the economies all over are trying to strengthen the healthcare industry. 2022 is being looked upon as the year where most technological advancements will take place in the healthcare sector.

The prime focus of the healthcare digitization move is towards employing breakthrough innovations for supporting the quality and affordability of healthcare and related services. The emphasis should be on enhanced efficiency, boosting productivity, and elevating the level of security without losing dependability or mobility. 

As we move forward, it's important to keep an eye on the developments that will shape healthcare technology in 2022. Even if the legacy software and infrastructure are fundamental to the survival of contemporary hospitals and healthcare centers, we must evaluate how old systems may merge with current technologies or be substituted with much more dependable systems in the coming time.

This blog will discuss some of the vital medical technology advancements and revolutions that are projected in the near future.

The In & Out of Healthcare Technology Trends

So, what are we trying to bring into the limelight when we are talking about healthcare technology trends? Well, it’s simply the use of pioneering technologies such as artificial intelligence, the internet of things, virtual reality, machine learning, and more for the betterment of the healthcare industry.

Being a dynamic industry, Healthcare is one of those sectors that is full of new prospects and advancements due to the ongoing desire for ingenuity, optimization in its output, reliability, usability, and cost.

Unlike employing technologies for advanced specialty care as earlier, the healthcare digitization is specifically working towards preventing diseases and looking after primary care of patients. Such elements have greatly expanded the range of technology-driven healthcare options. 

Future times are set to witness several present and developing advancements that have a favorable influence on the healthcare business. AI/ML, AR/VR, wearable technology, and more would all form useful components for medical professionals and organizations to improve their performance.

The Key Shifts in the Healthcare Sector Have Arrived! All Thanks to Digitization

Internet of Medical Things (IoMT)

The IoMT is a group of healthcare equipment and applications interacting with healthcare information technology systems via online computer networks. Medical devices with Wi-Fi enable M2M connectivity, which is the foundation of IoMT.

The widespread deployment of IoMT equipment would be the most predictable event of the healthcare technology developments in 2022. This is because they are capable of lending medical services to remote and rural areas which cannot afford full-time hospitals. 

Moreover, the prospects of IoMT look great with people investing in its solutions, and the market is forecasted to grow up to $254.2 billion in 2026 from a mere $44.5 billion in 2018. 

Telemedicine for Efficient Remote Healthcare

Remote Health

Telemedicine has become the top favorite shift for economies across the globe, and the major underlying reason towards this is its potential to enable a handful of doctors to serve numerous patients from places and times of their convenience.

For countries where there’s a shortage of medical professionals, telemedicine could be a boon saving many lives in a single go. What a fantastic concept, right? But how’s this possible, you would be wondering! 

The next-gen wearable devices you would have heard of…are making a great buzz in the industry. Yes! Nowadays, these advanced wearable devices are embedded with sensors that could measure different health variables in real-time, such as stress, blood oxygen detectors, and heart rate. 

What’s more? It has been observed that the role of robots, as well as IoT, is vital for better telemedicine facilities for efficient remote healthcare. Moreover, other intelligent technologies such as machine learning play their part in alerting healthcare workers as and when the sensors sense the need of intervention. For instance, the smart camera detects if one of the elderly persons has slipped on the floor of their home. 

Data Interoperability in the New Tech Wave

Forecasts of future healthcare technology trends are particularly complex, but data interoperability is simple. For a certain time now, electronic health records (EHR) and electronic medical records (EMR) have been developing interoperability.

Interoperability, on the other hand, might become a key medical technology trend in 2022 as a result of investments in healthcare digitalization. In the United States, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has adopted guidelines that provide consumers more discretion over-sharing health information, resulting in a more consumer-centric approach to healthcare.

Clinical Treatment Backed by the Advanced XR Technology

XR is the abbreviation of Extended Reality, a cutting-edge technology that comprises augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality. But, how can these technologies be used for the betterment of the healthcare industry? 

• VR Medical Solutions: 

VR headsets are employed to educate surgeons and physicians, enabling them to become intimately familiar with the functioning of the human body without endangering patients or necessitating a stock of clinical corpses.

It may also be used as part of treatment to teach children with autism social and coping skills. It's also been used to help with chronic pain and anxiety, where therapies have been devised to enable patients to deal with them in safe and non-threatening situations.

• AR Health Solutions: 

Medical professionals can employ AR to investigate the genetics of their patients. They can use an AR headset to input their MRI and CT scan results. Then, prior surgery, place unique patient anatomy over their body. The procedure will make it easier for doctors to see ligaments, bones, and vital organs.

• MR Care Solutions: 

Doctors and surgeons have access to mixed reality headsets that involve holographic processing, advanced optics along with advanced sensors. 

Empowering Medical Data Using AI/ML

Current advancements in the application of Artificial intelligence in the medical area frequently entail the augmentation of human personnel along with their upskilling. Another important use case is automating preliminary contact with patients and screening to save up professionals' time for more important tasks.

The advanced application for Artificial Intelligence in healthcare, like in other industries, is to assist in making the most of the massive amount of unstructured data through systematic data collection and smart analytics. 

Preventative medicine is yet another area of healthcare that will be heavily influenced by Artificial Intelligence in the upcoming decades. Instead of treating diseases after it has transpired, preventive medicine tries to forecast the root cause of illness and scenarios of where and when they will emerge, thereby springing up remedies in place before it actually occurs.

E-Prescription Is the Next Smart Move

The epidemic intensified the need to digitize healthcare operations, apart from telemedicine. This is especially crucial for administrative chores. Even if a doctor's visit is required insight, almost everything, insurance negotiations, and so on—must be performed digitally.

Doctors and other healthcare professionals can get information about healthcare insurance coverage through an integrated e-Prescription system. The method may be used to guarantee that patients receive prescriptions for pharmaceuticals that are protected by their insurance plans. The entire procedure is totally automated. And, because all documentation, including healthcare insurance coverage, is confirmed digitally, a patient just has to grab the medical prescription.

The Virtual Patient Presented by the Digital Twins

This paradigm in the healthcare sector includes the concept of the "virtual patient" - computer models of humans used to evaluate medications and treatments in order to minimize the time it takes to go and get new antibiotics from the design process into the popular application.

Nowadays, digital twins in healthcare are a trend, such as that of the human organs and systems. These are becoming a reality, allowing medic specialists to investigate multiple illnesses and test therapies without endangering individual patients and decreasing the need for costly human or animal experiments.

Digital twins are swiftly gaining traction in a variety of sectors as part of a wave that includes developing models based on real-world data that can be employed to replicate any system or process.

Personalized Healthcare With Genomics

Genomics is the examination of genes and, more generally, the use of technology to identify individual genomes, for instance, the DNA structure of humans – is especially valuable in developing tailored medicine.

This is rapidly driving the development of novel medicines for major diseases such as cancer and arthritis. Nutrigenomics is a subset of genomics that will receive substantial investment and growth in 2022; it entails building personalized health-focused meal programs based on various genetic characteristics.

Historically, medications and therapies have been developed on an all-purpose premise, with studies aimed to enhance pharmaceuticals for usefulness to the greatest number of patients while minimizing nasty side effects.

Technological advancement, such as genomics, artificial intelligence, and digital twins, enables a significantly more individualized approach, leading to remedies that can be customized straightway to the individual level.

What Lies Ahead For Healthcare Digitization?

So, what do you think? Does 2022 hold a surprise that it could reveal by the end of the year? Well, yes. It has been predicted that healthcare technology will continue to advance in all areas. 

Although digital security will strengthen across the board, threats are always developing and must be addressed via prevention rather than waiting till the time to respond. Owing to the state-of-art and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and extended reality, the quality and efficiency of the healthcare industry will keep on optimizing. 

It’s high time that you make the most of your investments by selecting the ideal way to optimize your healthcare operations. Come, and park your valuable time with the experts of software engineering for the healthcare sector that would not only understand your demands and goals but also offer you the most relevant software solution on the go.