The healthcare industry is one of the industries impacted heavily by digital transformation. Technology is changing nearly every aspect of the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. It is even faster than we have expected.
How patients get information about their diseases, how some diseases are treated, how medicines are manufactured and how patients with chronic diseases are managing and tracking their health are just a few of the aspects being revolutionized by technology.
Even how new disease treatments are discovered and how patient information is stored are among the processes are being impacted most.
Big data for example, is changing how to research treatments, including treatments for the coronavirus pandemic, as it uses huge data to cut corners.
Blockchain is changing how to safely store the patient’s data. Gamification is changing how to treat some diseases. Internet websites are changing how patients learn about treatments and approach doctors, and are selling wearable healthcare devices everywhere.
If you own a healthcare or healthcare-related business and want to keep updated on what key digital transformation trends you can keep updated to, then here we go.
Healthcare services are becoming flexible and on-demand
Digital innovation is changing healthcare in every way. Everyone is knowing more about how flexible healthcare services can be, and more people are exploring new services.
Platforms for comparing doctors, for example, are giving patients the freedom to choose. They can compare freely and determine their own schedules in an way that is easier than ever.
Also instead of making visits for measuring blood sugar or pressure levels, those devices have become cheap and in millions of homes. Wearable devices even monitor much more, making patients want a doctor that fits into such flexibility.
Big data is revolutionizing healthcare
When it comes to digital transformation in healthcare, big data is always one of the top aspects, and it is maintaining its position as one of the biggest trends for the last years.
Big data’s impact on healthcare can include many big benefits. For example, reducing medication errors by more powerful analysis of patients records. Thus, alerting health professionals for potential risks before complications.
Full preventive plans can also save lives using the data gathered about patients. Even the hiring of better staff using the analysis of these huge amounts of data.
This means for every healthcare entity that it is already the time to gather data. It could be the most valuable asset in the future. Furthermore, it can quickly eliminate traditional processes and paperwork, and it can merge data into integrated systems.
Blockchain promising patient data safety
Gathering patient data is something we can’t stop, and we shouldn’t try to. As mentioned before, patient data is contributing hugely to possibilities of making medicines for diseases. These diseases include cancer and the novel coronavirus.
This comes beside other benefits, including more personalized healthcare, saving lives with tracking patient disease history and using data to notify them with preventive medical tips.
The challenge now is how to protect patient data, misusing it in any way. The blockchain technology is making this promise, as a very trending technology in the healthcare industry.
How blockchain can help secure patient data is by utilizing its major benefit, the decentralization. Blockchain databases are being shared across computer networks and not a single server. Then working in a way making data more secure than ever and making tampering it impossible (at least according to what we know for now).
Treatment using VR is becoming big
Virtual reality has great potential in healthcare, and they are already conducting the VR applications. This huge step towards digital transformation of healthcare would have been unbelievable years ago.
Startups and huge companies are already investing in solutions that in many cases are focusing on chronic pain management. That is because of the huge number of people around the world are suffering from chronic pains.
The most beautiful thing about VR treatment solutions is that they are so seamless that they never feel like treatments. Thus, giving us a glimpse of the future of treatment empowered by tech.
The trend of VR in healthcare is set to stay here for a while, expecting that the VR for healthcare industry will grow to $5.1 billion by 2025.
The wearables market is booming
One of the biggest trends of the ongoing digital transformation in healthcare is the growth of the medical wearables market.
Wearables are now widely available at various prices, with many alternatives and advanced features. You can find wearables as:
- Heart rate trackers
- Exercise trackers
- Blood sugar level devices
- Oximeters
Many of them support features like notifying users when they are in danger and by applications that let users know more about their case and keep monitoring their health.
This is not just a change for the healthcare or tech industries. It is a change in the life of everyone that is already becoming a normal.
