The healthcare industry is revolutionising itself and remains a field of exciting opportunities for many
Advanced medical technology is a promising premise that has the potential to drive healthcare forward, make it more accessible, improve interoperability, enhance patient experience, and reduce the overall cost of healthcare delivery in the long run by making it more efficient and data driven. Artificial Intelligence will significantly transform how healthcare systems operate, connect with patients, and provide care by increasing the overall efficiency of patient management. AI has introduced the possibility of high performance in correlating the data set and automates diagnosis, and much more. Machine learning (ML) is a subset of AI, encompassing algorithms that can draw new inferences from data sets without requiring human-initiated reprogramming and supervision. The ML-powered applications could be used to go through the large image sets typical in fields such as radiology & cardiology, identifying abnormalities and highlighting areas of interest for doctors to review. As a result, physicians can save time and possibly avoid burnout, all without compromising on the accuracy of the clinical review process. The advent of video conferencing, wearable devices and easy availability of smartphones has brought telemedicine to the forefront of healthcare delivery services and has made the virtual care possible. Though telemedicine and telehealth services were already in the county since many years but the whole segment took a giant leap forward during the pandemic. Online consultations, remote ICUs, virtual monitoring, and nutritional meal delivery to patient in need, were among the few services which grew rapidly in India In pursuing the next generation of innovative medical devices, many OEMs are forging ahead with impressive developments in miniaturization of technology to deliver unprecedented advances in patient care. The needs for small innovative medical devices are evident. More affordable and portable devices are required to meet burgeoning healthcare demands from a growing, and in many communities, aging population. Home-based primary care is a model that makes use of home care physicians and nurse practitioners, in connection with an interdisciplinary team of professionals, including skilled home health professionals. It is envisioned that the home-based care is the future of healthcare especially for growing aging population in tier-I & tier-II cities of India.
“Sanitize everything!” became a mantra in 2020 as Covid-19 overwhelmed our healthcare sector. However, the need for sanitization has always been critical given that healthcare-acquired infections affect millions of patients each year across the globe. In the future, we expect to see more hospitals adopt sanitizable and rugged mobile devices, gadgets and hand-held scanners that are purpose-built to withstand repeated wipe downs with approved cleaning agents to reduce the spread of infection. As so much of our lives (and work) move online, healthcare tech trends include beefing up cyber security and making sure that healthcare workers have the tools they need to keep sensitive data secure. Also, there is a dire need to continuously monitor for vulnerabilities that pose cybersecurity risks to medical devices safety and patient data confidentiality. Internet of things, commonly known as IoT is already commonplace in our everyday lives and is paving the way for IoMT. Nowadays there are several medical devices for the end consumers which are meant to track and record the fitness and health data to regularly monitor the health status of the individuals. These medical devices have numerous applications and the data compiled by them is then utilized by the healthcare based mobile applications to check the health status of the individual on a day-to-day basis and detecting any abnormalities the moment they occur. The overall healthcare industry is in the process of revolutionizing itself and remains a field of exciting opportunities for many, so stay tuned to witness what’s coming-up next.
(The writer is senior strategic marketing head, Fujifilm Sonosite, India & South Asia. The views expressed are personal.)
