The mark of the new year is an exciting time, and if you looked at any training healthcare statistics from the past decade, you’d notice that many of them make projections to the next decade, they all did this because 2020 is a benchmark year and at the time it sounded so much further away than it really was
The new decade is about to change healthcare dramatically, Digital health, genomics and extended longevity what lies ahead, from online medical services, to precision medicine, to artificial intelligence.
Going through a new era after coronavirus pandemic which gave the world a red alert of the possibilities of other potential pandemics we might see in the future and how we should behave towards it, also coronavirus pandemic has uncovered the true capabilities of countries and its governments to handle a crisis of this type and the value of its current healthcare system performance.
The pandemic has shown that many governments around the world are beginning to wake up to the possibility of using gene-based therapies not just to fight infectious diseases like Covid-19 pandemic, but also for other diseases, why? because this is the only way whereby we can actually provide tailored treatments for the individuals depending on their unique DNA composition.
Changes in healthcare industry including its markets should happen at faster pace in the next decade, multiple trends can play a major role in fighting the pandemic including digital transformation, innovation and better management that enables countries to build stronger healthcare systems.
In our article we’re going to look at how multiple trends shape the medical industry of the future, and not forgetting the human aspect of healthcare, definitely the pandemic will further accelerate the digitalization of the healthcare industry.
we’re going to go over several healthcare trends for 2021 and next years that will change everything,
Higher adoption of AI in healthcare
The biggest trend of the next decade within healthcare is the adoption of AI technology, artificial intelligence technology is on the rise and we hear about it constantly, right now ai healthcare technology is at a point where many people are afraid that these tools will devalue their employees work which is actually not the case.
They’re intended to reduce cumbersome tasks so that professionals can focus their attention on skills and on patients. AI will have a huge impact on this upcoming decade.
The future of healthcare will be characterized by the rise of technology and artificial intelligence that is without a doubt, however in our fervent pursuit forever, newer and better technologies. we mustn’t forget the human aspect of healthcare there are already robots in nursing homes for example the robots that take care of the elderly people by reminding them to take medicine on a regular basis.
Big data and 5G are going to change the way healthcare providers collect data and the way doctors and patients communicate, artificial intelligence is expected to take the healthcare industry to a new realm by increasing patient engagement and experience.
Enhanced EHRs (Electronic Health Record Systems)
Enhanced EHRs will come throughout 2021, many reports came out stating and showing that current EHR systems contain clunky UI systems and don’t work the way they’re intended, they’re supposed to save health care workers time but many of them have the adverse effects but in 2021 this will start to change.
The coronavirus pandemic also added to the burden of healthcare delivery and the new EHRs should be capable of tracking outbreaks, supporting data analytics, and integrated with other sources of information to get the latest updates about effective treatment and vaccine information or any other important care pathways according to the different variants of viruses. Future EHRs should be equipped with powerful tools to track any upcoming pandemics more efficiently and facilitate health information exchange between healthcare providers and patients.
Future EHRs would have better data analytics and interoperability options that facilitates health information exchange with other systems including PHRs and medical device information platforms, it might have a built-in surveying and support mobile accessibility for physicians and care givers.
Patient Engagement
we have an increased emphasis on patient relationships, the power is shifting more towards the patient as doctors have become busier over the past several years, they’ve had less time to spend on their patients individually this leads to patients feeling abandoned and if patients feel abandoned, they’ll end up switching their practices, health care practices are starting to realize this and will focus more on the patient this year.
Patient engagement includes 3 main pillars which are patient education, personal health records and telehealth care solutions, healthcare providers should consider patient education and medical blogging to elevate patient awareness and make higher value proposition for their institutions. Giving the patient the right to access their health record and the ability to share with care givers is also a necessity specially after the pandemic where most of us would like to get remote healthcare services.
Patient satisfaction surveying
Sending patient satisfaction surveys, this trend is the result of patient engagement asking for patient feedback on their experiences shows that a practice cares about their services while giving insight on how to keep their patients they’re also a great way to source patient testimonials. which is a big reason why they’ve landed on our list of trends this year.
Cyber security
Cyber security continues to become more important topic throughout the last few years, we’ve seen an upward trend in hackers targeting healthcare companies this is largely because many of them still haven’t taken the necessary steps to protect their protected health information that they store, a lot of ransomware attacks is happening in the healthcare sector leading to encrypted data which leads to the loss of a lot of important and valuable data, that’s why cybersecurity will continue to trend upward throughout the next decade and throughout 2021.
Augmented Reality (AR) & Virtual Reality (VR)
Augmented reality and virtual reality make doctors compare data virtually to understand what the patient is experiencing and make a flawless diagnosis and suggest healthcare procedures.
Chatbots
Chatbots are going to revolutionize the clinical processes and business providing practical as well as clear measures for modifying and monitoring patient activities.
Cloud & SAAS solutions
In 2021, cloud computing will allow to store a high volume of data for healthcare organizations at a lower capital cost and maintenance cost, healthcare software companies started to provide software as a service model to overcome budget constraints for their customers through a cost efficient solution via low startup cost and presenting scalable solutions that can scale up according to customer needs.
HIPAA trainings
at number six we have training employees on HIPAA, cyber-attacks aren’t the only way that patient health information leaks on to the dark web, employee mistakes are one of the top reasons why HIPAA breaches occur in the first place. in order to prevent those mistakes from happening, HIPAA training needs to happen more often
Price Transparency
As mentioned earlier the power is shifting towards the patient this also means that they increasingly want to know how much they’re going to spend on healthcare procedures, state and local governments have also realized the need for price transparency especially with surprise billing and a few laws have already passed to try to solve this problem we can expect more of these types of laws to come out this coming decade
Telehealthcare / Telemedicine
Telehealth within the consumer space convenience is the king that started to bleed into the healthcare industry, a few years back and it’s just now starting to take off. people want the ability to access health services the moment that they need it, they also happen to always have their smartphone on them. pairing these two up is a no-brainer which is why telehealth will continue to trend.
Telemedicine can provide patients with better access to all health care services, drive up efficiency and revenue, and lower health care costs.
Coronavirus pandemic increased the demand of teleconsultation services and getting health services while being at home for infected people or even for the elderly who follow up for their chronic conditions.
Medical wearables / Internet of medical things (IOMT)
While smartwatches take off so too does the technology within them, what I mean by that is the ability to monitor our own health from the devices we wear on a daily basis will continue to grow more sophisticated and become more popular.
One of the hotspots of the medical wearables is preventive health measures by remote monitoring associated with the nursing homes for the elderly, why? because you know one in four elderly people you know above the age of 60 they suffer from diabetes so in that sense that we need to have like certain gadgets or wearables that they can wear and measure the amount or the level of glucose in their blood on a daily basis, and also their blood pressure, this information will be fed to their smartphones and in turn it will be fed to their medical professionals in the clinic.
patients who have just been released from the hospital, from a surgery, so they can actually just wear wearable device and measure vitals like blood pressure, their heart rate, and this information will be fed back to either to the app or directly to the healthcare professionals in the hospital.
Due to the introduction of the 5G internet the wearable devices market is expected to have huge scope in 2021, one of the most competitive healthcare technology trends of 2021 will be patient engagement. Technology.
Content marketing strategies
The rising competitiveness and the need to develop more complex marketing strategies, health care companies are starting to recognize the importance of having content marketing strategies that works. The only hurdle was investing in these was riskier in the past, in 2020 it’s an essential piece to establish a practice as an expert.
Vendor evaluation
at number 11 we have evaluating vendors for compliance every year more and more regulations come out or get it amended within healthcare to protect sensitive data that we work with that’s why health care companies will need to conduct internal audits on their vendors more frequently in the coming years
Outsourcing
Outsourcing the streamlined workflows, there are still many tests within the healthcare industry that are tedious, that’s why outsourcing is trending as vendors will help eliminate pain points.
Ride-sharing integration
Reducing no-shows is a continual strategy for many healthcare companies, with Ride-sharing companies starting to partner with healthcare companies it’ll be easier than ever to get patients to show up to their appointment throughout this decade
Precision medicine
Healthcare technology is getting to a point where doctors can better predict which treatments will work best for individual patients, this sounds pretty great which is why it’s going to continue to become more accurate and used more often in 2021.
Mobile Health
Mobile phone usability within healthcare is one of the booming trends this year and other upcoming years, many healthcare organizations have implemented, bring your own device policies which allow for doctors to utilize their mobile phones to make their job more streamlined, patients also want to pay their bills immediately from their phone.
The Conclusions
Healthcare providers are updating services by adopting digital advancements to increase their capacity, to engage more patients, these healthcare technology trends will help you achieve better healthcare outcomes and stand one step ahead of your competitors in 2021.
Coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the pace of healthcare evolution in response to the challenges the world faced in 2020, the digital enablement of hospitals and healthcare facilities has become inevitable destiny for all healthcare providers. A lot of technologies will develop care delivery ways and elevate the quality of service through Patient-centered solutions.
The biggest trend of 2021 in the healthcare industry is the holistic technological transformation of health care firms, are you prepared for it?
