Digital Transformation in healthcare industry is the positive impact of technology in healthcare.
Digital transformation in healthcare industry is a foundational component of a patient-centered approach to care. It will aid health professionals in streamlining operations, gaining a better understanding of what patients demand, increasing loyalty and trust, and providing a better user experience.
Furthermore, gathering and extracting data from digital interactions would be beneficial. Healthcare providers will investigate innovative methods to provide value through fostering loyalty and trust by understanding the requirements and habits of target consumers.
Artificial intelligence (AI), telemedicine-enabled medical devices, and blockchain electronic health records are just a few examples of digital transformation in healthcare that are reshaping how we interact with health professionals, how our data is shared among providers, and how decisions about our treatment plans and health outcomes are made.
In fact, just 7% of healthcare and pharmaceutical businesses indicated they had gone digital in a recent poll, compared to 15% of companies in other industries.
Let’s look at the benefits of digital transformation in healthcare
The Growth of Wearable Medical Devices
The trend of the digital transformation in healthcare is companies collecting their health data from medical devices, including wearable technology.
Most people used to be content with getting a physical once a year and only consulting their doctors when anything went wrong. Patients are concentrating on prevention and maintenance in the digital era, and they are seeking more information about their health.
As a result, healthcare companies are being proactive by investing in wearable technology devices that can provide up-to-date monitoring of high-risk patients to determine the likelihood of a major health event. According to a recent report, the wearable medical device market is expected to reach more than $27 million by 2023, a spectacular jump from almost $8 million in 2017.
Some of the most common of these devices include:
- Heart rate sensors
- Exercise trackers
- Sweat meters – used for diabetics to monitor blood sugar levels.
- Oximeters – A pulse oximeter is a painless and reliable way for clinicians to measure a person’s blood oxygen levels and is often used by patients with respiratory illnesses such as COPD or asthma.
The Wonders of Artificial Intelligence
In the healthcare industry, artificial intelligence (AI) is more than a digital health transformation trend. Industry companies are keen to invest millions in AI since it is the core of medical innovation. By 2025, the market for AI-powered healthcare products is anticipated to be worth more than $34 billion, implying that this technology will influence nearly every aspect of the business.
Patients are getting more accustomed to AI-based technology such as chatbots and virtual health assistants. Chatbots can take on a variety of functions, including customer service, diagnostic tools, and even therapists. Their adaptability has resulted in significant investments.
However, fields like precision medicine, medical imaging, drug development, and genomics are where AI’s true potential may be shown. Patients with cancer, for example, used to have cookie-cutter therapies that had a high failure rate. These patients now have access to custom treatments suited to their genetic composition and lifestyle owing to AI’s advanced pattern recognition.
What AI-powered computer programs do for oncology, in a nutshell, is analyze thousands of pathology images of various cancers to provide highly accurate diagnoses and predict the best possible anti-cancer drug combinations. And, in medical imaging diagnostics, this technology helps radiologists spot details that escape the human eye.
Treating Patients with Virtual Reality
Ten years ago, telling people you could cut down their pain with a device similar to a video game would have amassed a lot of blank stares. In 2018, however, Virtual Reality (VR) is the pièce de résistance of digital transformation in healthcare. Its oodles of applications are completely changing the way patients are being treated.
But here’s the thing: millions of people continue to suffer from chronic pain. According to the CDC, 50 million individuals in the United States experienced chronic pain in 2016. VR is a safer and more effective alternative to medications for them. Not only is virtual reality being used to treat pain, but also anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and stroke.
And that’s only scratching the surface of VR’s medicinal applications. Virtual-reality simulations are often used by surgeons and residents to sharpen their abilities or plan difficult procedures. Virtual reality headsets may also encourage people to exercise and aid youngsters with autism in learning how to navigate the environment.
The Rise of On-Demand Healthcare Services
When you hear the term “on-demand,” the first thing that comes to mind is customers who want goods when they want them, on their own schedule, and wherever they are. Patients seeking on-demand healthcare due to their busy schedules are ushering in a new age of digital innovation in the healthcare sector. When it comes to content marketing, mobile is extremely essential.
In the last decade, people have just grown considerably more mobile. Mobility is the name of the game, with the latest data indicating that mobile devices account for more than half of all global online surfing in 2018. (to be exact, 52 percent).
Conclusion
Digital Transformation in healthcare 2021 is a continuous process, and new trends in the healthcare business emerge every day. When it comes to digital transformation in healthcare, you must consider more than just the technology.
