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As technology continues to pave its way through healthcare, we are seeing more and more healthcare organizations adopt innovative technology solutions. Healthcare IT has the power to drastically improve patient experience, prevent threats to information security, and refine business and clinical processes. So far this year, we’ve done research to understand the healthcare IT trends we see and what we can expect in the next year.
Here are key technology trends that will play a big role in healthcare IT:
1. The emergence of blockchain providers
Interoperability and data-quality have both been a huge challenge in the healthcare IT industry for years. Healthcare blockchain pioneers are addressing major threats like malicious attacks on data, whether by internal or external players in the organization. Blockchain technology, data and records that have been changed are trackable. We will be able to see what data has changed, by who and when. While this doesn’t solve today’s cybersecurity threats from insiders that can steal the data, it will track the changes of the data. At the same time, blockchain technology gives healthcare providers the ability to find a full history of patient data, no matter the geography. This overall technology innovation has the potential to enhance privacy, security, data sharing, and storage; as well as business and clinical processes which improve how healthcare will manage and identify patient records.
2. Medical device vulnerability in healthcare IT
We’ve already seen the negative effects of cyber attacks, and as networked medical devices become more common, the likelihood of attacks will increase as well. In the next few years, it’s possible these attacks on our networked medical devices could cause injury to patients.The devices range from healthcare infusion pumps, to imaging machines, to anything that is connected to the IT infrastructure. The increase in these devices will also increase security threats, and even the death of patients.
3. Adoption of artificial intelligence and improved productivity
Lately, we are hearing a lot about the power of artificial intelligence and its role in healthcare. We’re seeing that not only is AI able to identify diseases, but also consider the patient’s medical history at the same time for diagnosing purposes. As AI is growing quite rapidly, we see the potential for it to reduce errors in clinical documentation (EHR), improve patient experience with AI bots, reduce errors in software development, and improve patient collections. Overall, artificial intelligence looks at the bigger picture, identifies problems and streamlines processes for healthcare organizations, with the ultimate goal of improving patient care for everyone. Not only that, but early diagnosis of diseases will reduce healthcare costs.
4. Healthcare IT and digital mobile engagement
As more and more consumers become dependent on technology, we’ve been seeing the increased usage of mobile engagement. Every day, more doctors’ offices and businesses are using tablets regularly at work, and more patients are using their phones to access healthcare information on-the-go. With this shift in patient data, we will see an increase of communication pathways of information (like blockchain).
5. Patient-reported data sharing and engagement
Because of the rapid increase of mobile engagement and patient engagement in general, we see that data is becoming integrated into the patient workflow and in engagement technologies like medical devices, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and even phone applications, from remote monitoring apps and wearables. Healthcare professionals will know more about patients than ever before based on their patients’ technology usage and overall involvement in tracking how they eat, live, and exercise. This will give professionals insights that might not have been known before, leading to the ability to track trends, analyze, and find solutions to diseases, etc.
6. Technology aims to mitigate the risk of value-based care
Driven by the advancements in technology, patient care experiences will improve. Advancements in AI, mobile applications, healthcare software, robots and voice applications will be used in the hospital to improve efficiencies with supply chain functions and adopted by clinical applications.
Keep an eye on these 6 trends in healthcare IT
Most healthcare organizations are keeping an eye out for these trends like blockchain, robotics and AI, and advancements in digital mobile engagement. The potential for these IT trends to impact healthcare is substantial. However, looking at historical evidence, we know that healthcare organizations have been slow to adopt such major changes. As technology is rapidly advancing, providers must adopt these changes to avoid being vulnerable and reduce risk, especially with the increased amount of data sharing.
We know that it’s hard to keep up with healthcare IT trends, out-innovate your competitors, and get to market quickly. Especially when you still have your day job. At Netsafe, we work hard to give you the information you need to make better IT decisions, fast, and with the best service possible. Netsafe Solutions specializes in healthcare IT – if you’re looking for IT Helpdesk and on-site services to keep your team productive all for predictable monthly rates, contact us!
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