Digital Transformation in Healthcare!
The last two decades have seen hospitals and healthcare institutions scrambling to embrace every scintillating technology—including advanced digital records and mobile apps.
However, they were like part-time dabblers and invariably tended to execute just with the age-old methods.
Then, bam!
COVID-19 hit, and suddenly, everyone had to figure out how to do health stuff online.
Home became the new hotspot for health care, and people actually liked it that way.
But guess what?
This change didn’t happen overnight.
The pandemic just hit the fast-forward button on some trends that were already creeping up—like people wanting different things, tech getting crazier, new talent showing up, and doctors coming up with cool new ways to do their thing.
Now, as hospitals and health systems try to keep up with all these changes, it looks like having a smart plan for using digital tech is gonna be the key to making things awesome.
Digital Transformation In The Healthcare Industry
We’ve got telemedicine, super-smart medical gadgets using artificial intelligence (AI), and electronic health records powered by blockchain.
These things are shaking up how we connect with health pros, share our info, and make decisions about our health.
It’s all about innovation—making life easier for doctors, improving systems, boosting patient outcomes, cutting down on mistakes, and saving money through awesome web and mobile experiences.
But get this: Healthcare and pharma have been kinda slow to catch on to this digital stuff.
Only seven percent of them have gone digital, while 15 percent of other industries have.
Crazy, right?
Even though they’re lagging, the U.S. health market is massive—set to hit $5.7 trillion by 2026.
So, there’s still time for them to jump on the digital train and rake in the benefits.
Tech is making a real difference.
Patients are getting top-notch care with virtual reality tools, cool wearable gadgets, telehealth, and super-fast 5G tech.
And guess what?
Docs can make their lives easier too, using AI-powered systems to streamline their work.
So, here’s the scoop on the state of digital transformation in healthcare in 2024:
1. The Rise of On-Demand Healthcare
The digital age with patients wanting to do things on-demand demands a haunting healthcare system where patients can fit easily into their busy routine lives.
‘On-demand’ as a term mimics consumer needs these days to facilitate their lifestyles in a convenient manner, allowing them to access healthcare services at any time and in any location.
The evolution of mobile technology provides the most significant contribution to this change as more than half of all browsing is done through mobile devices.
This is the reason now, the healthcare industry is being forced to introduce digital strategies and content writing on mobile devices.
As mobile devices are taking over in popularity, healthcare providers understand that firstly, the point of contact for the consumer should be via their phones.
In the U.S alone, 77% of the people have smartphones which is the highest number on the entire planet and the projection of the global number of mobile phone users reaching over 5 billion by the end of this year is enough evidence of the magnitude of digital influence in health care is huge.
The ‘gig’ economy is yet another factor having an impact on on-demand healthcare where professionals, just like those on Nomad Health, for instance, act as virtual substitutes for some medical workers, filling in multiple short-term tasks.
Unlike before, patients and healthcare providers benefit from digital dualism in healthcare as it aligns with the changing nature of patient needs, and it is also a factor that signifies how digital transformation in healthcare is changing.
2. The Importance of Big Data in Healthcare
As a whole, data in various forms Big data plays a very significant part in transforming the healthcare system.
Through computing patients’ data, trends and pattern recognition big data which reduces medication errors, facilitates preventive care and leads to staff optimization in hospitals and clinics is provided.
Healthcare and pharmaceutical companies will win big with the advantages of bringing data sets together and analysis.
The big data information assists firms in grasping the market dynamics that otherwise would not be visible and hence, allows the firms to modify the products, product iterations, and budgets based on the present and future needs of the customers.
Additionally, it makes the segmentation of customer personas simpler, thus, marketing and salespersons may determine their typical customers.
3. Treating Patients with Virtual Reality
Immersing in Virtual Reality (VR) feels like a breakthrough in healthcare, as VR can offer a number of complex solutions for pain management, anxiety treatment and a broad range of healthcare training tasks.
The potential of VR is wide-ranged, from helping surgeons perform surgery, pep-talking people during physical workouts, and training autistic children in social scenes.
The worldwide virtual and augmented reality medical area is believed to have succeeded toward the growth of 5.1 billion dollars by 2025.
Realizing that VR has become the major means of communication allows healthcare companies to more clearly understand customer needs that can be offered by the organizations and engage customers in the VR platform with the products and services.
4. The Growth of Wearable Medical Devices
Rise of wearable medical systems as a novel tool to help improve healthcare.
As we enter the digital era, patients are more interested in acquiring the ability of prevention rather than just doing post-illness treatments.
Artificial wearable types of devices, for example, heart rate monitors, sensor-embedded training devices and sweat makers allow real-time monitoring to be carried out on high-risk patients.
Through this proactive approach, healthcare consumers will no longer be treated as an airborne population but become individuals with data that can be used for insurance pricing and for creating specific incentives.
According to projections by 2023, the wearable medical device market is anticipated to be considerably more than $27mnn, so healthcare companies will have a remarkable chance to utilize these technologies to provide better patient care and cost efficiencies.
5. Predictive Healthcare
Implementation of the big-data-oriented approach allows the prediction of health trends, epidemics and staffing among healthcare companies.
Development of Predictive Models through Analysis of Online Searches and Social Media Activity allows companies to be Proactive in that they can Address Health Concerns early, as well as Prepare for any expected Emergencies.
6. The Wonders of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a key final component utilized in the development of medical innovation, putting diverse applications here including nurse robots, chatbots and virtual health assistants.
AI has its biggest impact on precision medicine, drug discovery, medical imaging, and genomics, all of which multilaterally serve the whole healthcare sector.
It is through this technology the personalized therapy, precise diagnosis, and greater cost-savings in drug development.
As for healthcare AI-powered tools market, it is estimated that the number will be $34.000 billion by 2025.
AI startups giving the run of their fingers’ growth, by alluring investors to forget about traditional business models and instead focus on high technologies.
7. Blockchain and the Promise of Better Electronic Health Records
It is worth mentioning that, blockchain has recently been popularly associated with cryptocurrency in the news, however, it is gradually making headway in healthcare by ensuring the accuracy and secure of EHRs.
Blockchain’s network being the one that is decentralized prevents data breaches, improves the reliability of medical records and spares the expense.
The healthcare and pharmaceutical businesses are the ones spending millions and are expected to do volumes by 2023, especially the market size which is expected to be $890.5 million.
The experience with the Application of blockchain-based records of medical history in countries like Australia and Britain represents its promising ability to restructure data management and consequently enhance standards of healthcare practice.
Likewise, the digital transition of the healthcare field brings back each latest technological innovation which is an advancement towards a future of healthcare where patients receive care that is more accessible, personalized, and efficient.
With the opening of new research avenues and the potential for new health breakthroughs, the current moment is a momentous one for the future of health technology.
To Conclude
In general, digital transformation in healthcare is rearranging the patient experience where digitalization provides immediate access to services, handles big data, and uses virtual reality, wearables, AI, and blockchain.
This creates the need for healthcare organizations to invest in technology as they may save lives (cost reduction) and offer improvement in outcomes (as an example).
There are obstacles; however, there is the opportunity for a better record system, personalized treatment, and medical progress that would only be a beginning approximation of the real thing.
