Is Technology in Healthcare Poised for Disruption?

The global healthcare market has opened its arms for its payers, providers, consumers and investors with a worth of $9.59 Trillion. With the new entrants in the digital era, there is huge disruption seen within the traditional system of healthcare industry (as we referred in our recent blog). The new entrants have introduced pathways for virtual health which is more affordable and convenient for fitness and wellness. These new entrants use technologies that are taking full advantage of innovations seen in this outdated sector.

With the great potential, great disruption is also foreseen. According to a new report from PWC, it is predicted that nearly half of hospitals will close by 2020. As per the stats:-

# Nearly 70% of hospitals are closed in Denmark, as they made a shift from reactive, sick-care model to a proactive care model
# According to Accenture, consumer healthcare is $502 billion market which is estimated to grow more by 50% to $737 billion within next five years
# The global healthcare analytics market is expected to reach $18.7 Billion by 2020

2015 was a ‘record-smashing year’ for digital health funding, and the first half of 2016, looks equally promising. Out of all VC funding, digital healthcare was totalled for more than 8% which shows that it carries great potential which will further grow faster than venture funding overall.

Wearables

PWC states that more than 20% of American adults use wearable tracking to monitor their daily fitness status, sleeping patterns, calorie consumption etc. This is a fast growing category which has provided new frontier for improved patient care. It is estimated that that wearable tech will grow from 23 million shipping units in 2015 to 150 million shipping units in 2019.

It is expected that the growth in this section will be derived by wrist wearables like smartwatches and fitness bands. It is also expected that wearables will form a new kind of app. It’s not just transfer of app from phones to wrist but to solve problems or deliver benefits that cannot be done fundamentally other way round.

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Big Data

Big data plays a major role in understanding and analyzing the new innovations done or required in any business further. It helps business including healthcare to become more efficient and productive. In healthcare and fitness, the role of big data seems almost to compel organizations to be involved.

It helps to build better health profiles, predictive models around patients for better diagnosis and treatment. It helps to meet biggest limitation of healthcare which is understanding the biology of diseases by aggregating more and more information around multiple scales of what constitute a disease.

It can be used to predict epidemics, cure diseases, improve quality of life and prevent death. It gives a deep knowledge about patients, which can increase understanding of warning sign of serious illness at early stage and plan the treatment efficiently.

Cloud Based EHR

Electronic health record (EHR) has been adopted with the growing demand from consumers towards access to portable health information. With EHR providers have the choice of hosting software on their own network or EHR system where the software is hosted on a remote server accessed through internet which is cloud based look at this now.

EHRs are preferred because they are more agile, adaptable and flexible for both consumers and healthcare providers improving quality of life for patients.

Telemedicine

Telemedicine works as communication bridge between patients and doctors, fitness trainers and other professionals via mobile devices and video chats. This system has removed the distance barrier to deliver clinical healthcare and has been treated as a cost effective option for patients to receive care. This will even expand the interaction between doctors and patients not only into homes but also in remote areas.

Mobility

Technology platforms play an important role in capturing data of a patient, deliver records, communication and collaboration of different healthcare departments to provide overall patient care. It has capabilities to enhance overall operational efficiency, streamline patient care delivery and lead a needed transformational changes. There are many healthcare mobile apps which are seeking attention. For example, you can check your blood pressure and sugar level using the app rather than big machines.

As a technologically rising organization, Healthcare has been an industry of keen interest for us. On this note we can say with assured certainty that Healthcare indubitably become one of the most technologically profound industries in the coming years.

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