The healthcare industry is on the cusp of a digital revolution. People are empowered with health information, thanks to technological innovations in digital health. It’s vitally important that healthcare professionals continue to stay up to date on advances in technology that will improve not only their internal systems but also patient treatment and care.

In this article, we’ll focus on top healthcare technology trends for 2018 in three main areas, namely Patient Engagement, Hospital Workflow, and Treatment.

Patient Engagement

2018 will witness more developments in the arena of patient-centric care. Mobile health is gaining prominence, pointing us to the fact that individuals are taking a more active role in their own health. Wearables and fitness trackers are gaining mass adoption by people of varying demographics. About 50% of healthcare consumers are expected to be active digital health tech adopters in 2018. Now, more than ever, patients will begin to have a say in their choice of treatment and expect transparency of information exchange from healthcare providers.

Telemedicine is another model of healthcare that is gaining traction in this hyper connected world. Get ready to see a rise in demand by consumers for health advice and information in the coming months. Adoption of telemedicine will connect patients and doctors like never before. The digital health empowered individual will pose a challenge to traditional healthcare services that are slow in adapting to the digital transformation happening around. The quality of service from healthcare providers will be measured by the ease of access to information by patients.

Hospital Workflow

Technology continues to advance as people become more and more accustomed and able to access information in seconds rather than hours or even days. Because of this, slow-paced administrative processes in hospitals are becoming increasingly frustrating to patients. This includes things as simple as difficulties of scheduling an appointment, to accessing medical reports, or even trouble in exchanging information between providers. Hospitals are expected to make use of digital platforms and cloud computing services as part of their patient engagement measures. The motto of 2018 will be data access, anywhere, anytime.

Mobile health, telemedicine, and Electronic Health Records (EHR) will produce a plethora of data that healthcare providers can utilize to improve patient care. One of the challenges that many providers will face is the issue of storing and securely transmitting sensitive patient health information (PHI). Many organizations still depend on legacy fax equipment to securely transmit documents despite the criticism of relying on this ancient technology. Thankfully, 2018 will be the year hospitals decide to choose alternative technologies like online faxing that is secure, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly.

Other exciting news awaiting us as we talk about secure transmission of data is the blockchain. Utilization of the blockchain will disrupt the way data has been handled until now. IDC Health Insights predicts that 20% of healthcare organizations will actively develop systems utilizing the blockchain to keep data secure and enable easy exchange of information between trusted partners.

Treatment

Robots are coming - Not Terminators, but life savers.

Experts suggest that practitioners will make use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for better diagnosis, surgeries, assistants, and more. Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality will become common tools at the hands of doctors for educating patients. AI bots will slice and dice data to help doctors make more accurate clinical decisions. The combined force of blockchain and AI will open a new realm in healthcare which will ultimately help provide better patient care. Use of AI will increase the efficiency and productivity of doctors as well. For those who fear a robotic conquer of the world, be assured that AI in healthcare is not going to replace doctors, but empower them.

These technological developments will help to fuel a positive change in the healthcare industry in 2018. It’s impossible to predict the pace of these implementations in hospitals, as these require not only capital and training but also an open-minded and forward thinking CIO that’s willing to adopt new and innovative technologies. The pertinent question is, are you ready to embrace the change?

Sources:

1. “The tech trends changing healthcare”, KPMG
2. “4 predictions for healthcare IT in 2018: steady as she goes”, CIO Magazine
3. “5 health IT trends to watch in HIMSS18”, HIMSS