GAFAMS, STARTUPS & INNOVATION IN HEALTHCARE by PHARMAGEEK

Healthcare is an industry that is currently being transformed using the latest technology, so it can meet the challenges it is facing in the 21st century. Technology can help healthcare organizations meet growing demand and efficiently operate to deliver better patient care. Here are 9 technology trends that will transform medicine and healthcare in 2020.

AI and Machine Learning

As the world population continues to grow, and age, artificial intelligence, and machine learning offer new and better ways to identify disease, diagnose conditions, crowdsource and develop treatment plans, monitor health epidemics, create efficiencies in medical research and clinical trials, and make operations more efficient to handle the increased demands on the healthcare system. By 2020, medical data will double every 73 days. McKinsey estimates that there could be $100 billion in annual savings for medicine and pharma by leaning on big data as well as the artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to process it. Artificial intelligence algorithms powered by recent advances in computational power learn from the data and can predict the probability of a condition to help doctors provide a diagnosis and treatment plans. Ultimately, AI and machine learning can assist with many clinical problems as long as governing and regulatory bodies can determine how to regulate the use of algorithms in healthcare.

Robotics

When it comes to life or death, would you trust a robot with yours? Currently, collaborative robots—such as the da Vinci surgical robot— are already assisting humans with tasks in the operating room. However, the potential for robots in healthcare expands beyond surgical uses. With tremendous growth expected in the industry—the global medical robotics market is expected to reach $20 billion by 2023—there’s no doubt that robots used in healthcare will continue to conduct more varied tasks. These already include helping doctors examine and treat patients in rural areas via “telepresence," transporting medical supplies, disinfecting hospital rooms, helping patients with rehabilitation or with prosthetics, and automating labs and packaging medical devices. Other medical robots that are promising include a micro-bot that can target therapy to a specific part of the body, such as radiation to a tumor or clear bacterial infections.

The benefits of modern technology have now touched almost all aspects of our life. However, healthcare is one area that has probably gained the most from technological innovations we have experienced in the last few decades. Be it reducing nursing home abuse or the development of new treatment methodologies, technology continues to make our healthcare sector more efficient. Technological developments accomplished in recent years have saved millions of lives and improved the quality of human life.

Let us take a look at some of the most noteworthy improvements in healthcare caused by the latest technological innovations.

Digitalization of Health Records:

The replacement of paper-based records by Electronic Health Records (EHRs) has been a massive game-changer in the healthcare industry. This development has not only made it possible for the patients to access their medical records effortlessly but also ensured that critical errors are caught promptly.

Amongst many benefits brought to healthcare by electronic health records, here are few important ones.

• Improved Patient Care: EHRs are capable of sending automatic alerts to physicians about potential issues. This is proven to be a critical benefit for the treatment of unresponsive patients.
• Better Public Health: EHRs also help the process of advancing medical knowledge and developing treatment methodologies for health problems by proving important information to clinical researchers.
• Simplified Workflow: Out of all types of allied health workers in the US, medical coders and billers probably have the most stressful job. The introduction of EHRs has undoubtedly made lives much easier for these key healthcare professionals.
• Lower Healthcare Cost: A study conducted recently by the University of Michigan suggests that the expense incurred on outpatient care can be brought down significantly by shifting to electronic health records from paper.