How do you envision the healthcare future? Living in a modern age healthcare is one of the most complex and fast-scaling industries. The healthcare technology solutions are cut out to augment performance and improve efficiency across the departments. A medical expert conducts an examination from the office using a holographic projection, and AI-powered devices propose medicines themselves and give customized recommendations.
Does it look like a wild fantasy? You are visualizing the healthcare future. The demand for digital healthcare solutions is stretching over time. It is about methods and tools for creating, storing, transferring and protecting medical information. This article walks you through various advanced and practical IT solutions for the healthcare industry to provide valuable insights into how the latest technologies in healthcare are transforming everything. Let’s buckle up!
Information Technology Solutions for Healthcare
The application of IT solutions for healthcare refers to the process of integrating digital technologies and digital health strategies, from system management to the practical pursuits of medical professionals in the field. Digitization promises to qualitatively transform medicine by increasing efficiency through optimization, automation of systems, and efficient work organization in both the public and private sectors.
According to the latest data revealed by Statista, the IT healthcare solutions market is rapidly booming and is projected to hit $660 billion by 2025.
- More innovations in digital health are facilitated by artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare.
- The rise in IT solutions for the healthcare industry is also linked to the increase in the number of patients afflicted with chronic diseases.
- More need for constant monitoring and long-term care requires digital medical devices to optimize results, avoid errors and boost efficiency.
- The COVID-19 has proved as a powerful driver of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) and RPA in healthcare
Evaluate Healthcare Digital Solutions | What are Key Metrics?
According to surveys, back in 2021, the global smart healthcare market was worth $35.9 billion. Almost $7.6 billion is tied to EHR (electronic health record) and its overall impact on clinical workflows.
Before you jumpstart to explore innovative medical IT solutions, it is important to consider key metrics that are the blueprint for their efficiency and alignment with organization objectives. Let’s explore the key metrics to ensure whether the healthcare organization is using the right IT infrastructure.
User Satisfaction
Get genuine feedback from medical professionals and patients to measure their satisfaction with the digital tools and their functionality.
Return on Investment (ROI)
Get insights into the financial benefits of digital solutions compared to their costs. Consider their metrics including revenue boost, reduced expenses, and higher efficiency.
Data Security and Privacy
Ensure that healthcare IT devices and strategies adhere to HIPAA privacy regulations and other data security measures to safeguard patient information.
Interoperability
To measure interoperability in healthcare, check out the system’s competence to integrate with other platforms within your facility such as EHRs, LIS and RIS.
Time to Value
This metric helps to measure the time a software solution takes to deliver tangible output to the organization such as improved efficiency and enhanced patient outcomes.
Scalability
This metric specifically evaluates the software’s ability to adapt to future innovations and changes in your medical organization’s needs.
Time and Cost Implementation
Get to know the estimated time and cost to properly deploy the software solution in the organization including customization, training and maintenance.
Customer Support and Maintenance
Evaluate the extent of customer assistance and software maintenance offered by the vendor. Some key considerables include knowledge level, latency, and availability of updates.
An estimate covering home healthcare alone is forecasted to reach a remarkable figure of $666.9 billion by 2030. It explicitly spotlights the significance of IT strategies for healthcare and medicine. The volume of 3D bioprinting expands the opportunities in the medical field and the market is ready to touch above $6 billion by 2027.
Top IT Solutions in Healthcare Industry
The market of healthcare digital solutions is expanding to an exponential level. Various directions are added to it. This section walks you through the key IT solutions that help you peep into the future of healthcare and medicine today. Let’s take a look below.
Telemedicine
The medical industry has evolved and telemedicine is a key digital health innovation. The COVID-19 drived this innovation. It has reduced the workload and investment in healthcare. Estimates record virtual consultation is about 20% more budget-friendly than a face-to-face meeting. Proactive doctor-patient interaction for healthcare updates is the product of the telemedicine solution.
Electronic Health Records (EHRs)
Modern tech-fueled platforms can conveniently change medical records to digital forms. This record can be patient biodata, lab medical reports, medical appointments, medical prescriptions and more. The key features of EHR amplify the dispensation process of medical services, transfer of medical information, appointment scheduling solutions and core concentration on patients’ treatment. AI algorithms can better analyze the data from EHRs for smooth medical workflows and higher security protocols.
Medical Compliance
Adhering to vital healthcare regulations and compliance solutions is indispensable to avoid regulatory setbacks. HIPAA, GDPR and other security compliance guidelines help medical organizations keep their systems updated and secure against unexpected glitches, unwanted penalties and delays. These healthcare compliance rules help to ensure par excellence and trouble-free services to patients.
Robotic Surgery
Robotic systems scream the effective role of ML in healthcare. They are proactively operational in the healthcare market. The modern healthcare landscape is working on high-end robotic-assisted surgery with complex and advanced functions such as 3D visualization, voice control, flexible robotics, etc. These advanced features have raised the accuracy levels of surgical interventions, reduced the traumatization level during procedures and improved the recovery time for patients.
Assistive Technologies
Various assistive technologies have jumped into the healthcare pool to rally around for lost functions and organs of patients and assist them with their disabilities to lead an active lifestyle. WHO estimates almost 1.3 billion people are experiencing a certain disability and this number could double by 2030. Virtual reality (VR) training for motor skills is more in practice to restore muscle activity and increase mobility. Furthermore, intelligent voice assistants and smart glasses augmented reality (AR) in medicine support people with visual impairments.
Brain-computer Interfaces
This e-healthcare solution has raised the bar on medical treatments. It has the power to restore lost body functions. Brain-computer interfaces are crowned for the sustainable cure of neurodegenerative and mental problems and neurorehabilitation. With the ‘’power of thought’’, even completely paralyzed patients can interact with the world. Thanks to such interfaces.
Medical Data Management Platforms
A gigantic volume of medical data is accumulated on different clinical data management platforms. With the use of AI-enabled healthcare solutions, it is convenient to achieve diagnostic accuracy and treatment improvement. Surprisingly, these systems are innovative enough to instantly check the patient’s resistance to prescribed medicines and their physical compatibility with the medicines.
Medical Image Processing
Another promising digital health solution is medical image processing. It involves analyzing medical images using various computer-vision algorithms. X-rays, computed tomography and mammograms boost the accuracy and speed of diagnosis. An efficient dataset containing a sufficient number of high-resolution images can better train such algorithms.
mHealth Apps
According to a global estimate, there are more than 6.5 billion smartphones. Hats off to the prevalent use of smartphones and internet access. The most popular mobile health (mHealth) apps help track physical activities, and daily calorie intake and provide various other wide range of biosensors. Patients can continuously monitor their blood glucose levels and blood pressure, etc. to better maintain their health.
Wearable Health Devices
Wearable devices are not only for tech enthusiasts. They have penetrated into the healthcare sector to remain updated about the health status of patients. Various popular smart devices can easily track heart rate, sleep patterns and even real-time health data that medical professionals can easily monitor remotely. This key information can be handy to pinpoint potential health risks timely. Working as a health compass, these wearables always show the right direction to ensure your physical well-being.
Health Information Exchange (HIE)
This digital solution is another breakthrough in healthcare. It ensures seamless and secure health data sharing between different healthcare providers. Let’s imagine a scenario where medical information floats freely as water moves in a stream, effortlessly moving from one provider to the other. HIE serves as the baseline of interconnected healthcare systems.
Medical Chatbots
If you ever yearned for a personal assistant to navigate the intricacies of healthcare, medical chatbots are ready to turn your contemplation into a reality. These AI-enabled medical assistants perform all the key duties for you including response to queries and basic health advice based on symptoms. The bulk of administrative-level tasks are now a few taps away from you.
What is Blockchain for Healthcare?
Blockchain is an invaluable tool for healthcare. It provides the ability to quickly access patients’ medical and insurance records. This ability can also be measured in terms of making better decisions by hospitals regarding staffing.
Beyond cryptocurrency transactions, it is essential to understand that blockchain provides a decentralized node network that stores data efficiently without any security threat. Its ability to store, manage and share medical data across multiple networks makes it worthy for fragmented information systems, data safety concerns and unfit payment processes.
The proliferation of EMRs constantly pitches the need for a system that can better keep track of medical information while maintaining privacy. Explore the benefits of blockchain in the health industry are listed here.
- Medical records maintenance
- Drug authentication
- Real-time insurance data
- IoT security layer
- Expedited Credentialing
Role of Effective Cloud Computing in Healthcare | Sleek Overview
Unlike on-site data centers with servers, cloud computing is the practice of implementing remote servers accessed through the Internet to manage healthcare-related information. With the use of big data analytics in healthcare, it is easy to process care delivery and disease exploration on an advanced level. Let’s grasp the gist of cloud computing benefits in healthcare.
- Higher data security
- Massive collaboration and accessibility
- Improved scalability level
- Optimized costs
- Cloud-based interoperability
- Higher storage capacity
Digital transformation in the healthcare field determines its technical prowess to turn big visions into reality. The IT solutions for medicare uplift the industry standards, shifting the head-scratching burden of treating diseases to their actionable prevention or preclinical detection. If your health organization is planning to develop a digital healthcare solution or is interested in bolstering digital transformation in healthcare, partnering with a reliable IT consultant can help you create a better solution for a beaming future.