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 adoption of technology in healthcare over the years has led to better diagnosis and treatment of patients. Out of all the benefited sectors from technology adoption, healthcare is probably the most important one. Consequently, it improved the quality of life over time, and it has saved many lives.

But what are some of the benefits of technology in healthcare? And what are some groundbreaking medical technologies in healthcare right now?

Benefits of Information Technology in Healthcare

The benefits of information technology in healthcare or health Information Technology, as else called, are plenty.

To begin, IT enables health practitioners to store and retrieve data relating to a patient’s health records. It also enhances the communication of patient information through a legible format that anyone can use.

As a result, it reduces the chance of medication errors. Finally, it makes it easier to retrieve patient information through a database without new health checks. All the above technologies in healthcare have a thing in common; they improve health and patient safety.

The use of medical technology tools safeguards patient safety. First, there are alerts on medication, flags and reminders, consultation and diagnosis reports, and the easier availability of patient data. Particularly, alerts can help someone adhere to specific treatments and schedules of treatment.

Also, an electronic recording of data can lead to uniformity of practice across all health practitioners. Finally, using an electronic health record can improve provided care for common conditions based on past evidence.

Medical Technologies

Someone cannot argue that technology in healthcare is a new thing. We use medical technology from the most severe case to the simplest medical case, like breaking a bone. From plaster to robotic surgery, technological advancement is always present and undisputable. Nevertheless, behind every medical technology, there is the patient in mind. In recent years there have been many groundbreaking advancements in technology in healthcare: 

• 3-D printing: 3-D printing has been around for some years in many fields. When it comes to medicine, it creates implants or even joints for surgery. It is also prevalent in prosthetics as it can create perfect matching limbs allowing extra comfort and mobility.
• Artificial organs: Like 3-D printing, but for actual and operational organs, the patients’ immune system will not be rejected. Else called bio-printing is an up-and-coming area in technology in healthcare that could save millions of patients every year.
• Robotic surgery: Adds control, precision, and flexibility to a surgeon’s hands to operate as non-invasively as possible to a patient. It has allowed making certain operations easier or even possible.
• Health wearables: Began as a fitness tracker to track heart rate and pace, they highlighted healthcare potential. Health wearables can detect cardiovascular anomalies earlier and prevent severe conditions.
• Virtual reality (VR): VR is being used heavily in recent years but mainly for entertainment purposes. However, virtual reality can help medical students have “real life” experiences in procedures and visual understanding of human anatomy.
• Telehealth: It is a very up-and-coming market that allows patients receive medical care through digital devices. Patients can easily have access to their doctor while they can receive a diagnosis and medical advice.

Conclusion

The transformative power of technology could not obviously be missing from the healthcare sector. Even though it is a sector requiring highly skilled individuals with many years of studies, it is also a very demanding one in infrastructure and tools.

The rise of life expectancy worldwide and the aging of populations create a very demanding area for innovation and technology in healthcare. However, it seems that innovation in the field is very robust, thus changing the landscape every year.