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Latest Technologies in healthcare

InnoHEALTH magazine digital team — Wed, 04 May 2022 03:42:32 +0000

My discussions here with some tech oriented doctors gave me the introspection that the field of medicine, healthcare and digital technology is going at a pace (now especially after over 2 years as there is a lull in the hospital with reduced number of emergencies associated with covid cases). While the hospitals are busy as usual, that urgent rush and emergencies have reduced, it seems, by almost 70% as compared to a situation just 6 months ago. Notwithstanding the above good situation, the impact of digital technology in the healthcare field is increasing at a fast pace. Today one can see a clear communication channel being established electronically between patients, hospitals, CV virtual consultation, pharmacies and health care insurance companies. One notices a speed in the interconnected ecosystem, thanks to the digital technology which is making its presence felt in the healthcare sector. Most countries in the western world and some in Asia are adapting advanced technologies in the healthcare sector. India is also doing its best to continue its tempo in digital healthcare. Some of the technological advances are briefly discussed in this article.

Today if any patient is visiting a hospital, they only need to give his health card at the reception of a hospital. He can already schedule an appointment with a doctor via his mobile app. Once the data is recorded, then the hospital digitally transfers the information and data of the patient on a real time basis to its billing section, doctor schedule section, and nearest pharmacy, the insurance company for billing and the aftercare department. All these happen at the time of entry of the patient’s data. Thereafter the patient is handed over a descriptive sheet with information regarding which doctor to visit, location in the hospital. During this time the consultation fee and other charges are already deducted, pharmacy payment is already done. So the walk-in patient after consulting the doctor goes straight to the designated pharmacy, picks up medicines and goes home.

This amount of development is done by digital technology in the healthcare sector currently. Many healthcare organizations are quick to adopt this cost effective digital technology not only for various medical devices, operation room equipment but also for billing, record keeping, accounting and communication to related stakeholders. The pharmacist informed me that in the use of electronic healthcare billing and records, she feels that a laptop to a doctor is as common as a stethoscope.

In the above process today, too much patient data is being created by the hospitals. One needs technology to improve data collection, segregation and compiling for ease of digital communication between doctors, patients, insurance and pharmacy and to ensure that data remains secure at all times.

So the latest technologies that can find use in the healthcare sector to manage patients’ electronic data being generated at speed. The answer is blockchain technology, Artificial intelligence (AI) tools and cloud technology.

So the latest technologies that can find use in the healthcare sector to manage patients’ electronic data being generated at speed. The answer is blockchain technology, Artificial intelligence (AI) tools and cloud technology. These technologies will certainly help improve work flows, streamline procedures, automate tasks and help open up new ecosystems involving hospitals, patients, insurance companies and pharmacies, by way of integrating all such related activities along with updating health records all at one go. Incorporation of the above technologies will improve the patient care and better management can be done on a timely basis.

Such a system will enable the hospitals and pharmacies dispensing medicines to automate most of their process online and in real time and enabling regular feedback to improve services and be cost effective at all stages.

Importance of patient’s health records:

Information integration at the hospital level, standardise and store patient information in a secure location. For starters, such a system will provide flexibility. Flexibility can be achieved by using telemedicine technology. Patients and doctors can seamlessly communicate. In addition, wearable devices will also provide data for doctors with better ways to evaluate the patient’s conditions and come up with more options to evaluate symptoms and take timely actions.

How will artificial intelligence assist the healthcare sector?

A stage will come when too much of patient data generation by various hospitals at various locations can become a landmine. AI enabled tools can shift through large and complex data generated from devices, hospital records, images, blood reports, etc to find a trend of patients undergoing treatment, come up with cost effective options, procedures and take timely clinical decisions to improve quality of experience provided to patients. Here comes the benefits of the blockchain technology which provides ledgers of unchanged data and thus secure the data provided to the patients and the consulting doctor.

A hybrid cloud environment will additionally offer various security features that can assist the sector with various report generation for regulatory agencies, State agencies, government agencies and procedure efficiencies.

Cloud technology works as an aid of the healthcare sector. When so much of technology is intertwined between patients, doctors and hospitals, a cloud environment most likely offers hospitals a chance to customize applications as per their specific reporting methods. Such records can help hospitals accounts departments to calculate costs, operational and financial efficiencies. A hybrid cloud environment will additionally offer various security features that can assist the sector with various report generation for regulatory agencies, State agencies, government agencies and procedure efficiencies.

There will be a five fold increase noticed in doctors appointments virtually and consultations. A great time saver. Lot of convenience will be provided to consult preferred doctors and healthcare workers and ambulance services. All such activities are enabled via laptop or mobile app. Overall, the digital health technology will make data availability easy, lower costs and will provide the doctors focus on the best line of treatment.

The conveniences are immense in adopting these new technologies for the healthcare sector. By this way, doctors can diagnose diseases with the help of medical imaging capabilities and improve their access and digital infrastructure. Basically a win win situation for the health care provider and the receiver.

Composed by: “Mr. Nanjundaiya Ramesh Kumar, is an international banker turned government Advisor, Professor and Global Ambassador with a deep interest in banking, communication, academics, technology integration in biomedical sciences and consulting. His forte is franchise promotion and exploring bilateral trade and investment avenues.”

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Trends which will drive the healthcare industry in 2020

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 11:24:48 +0000

The healthcare industry is transforming itself according to the new world. A new world where population and disease continue to grow and technology can be the savior. Thus, the healthcare industry is transforming into a new version of healthcare upgraded with the latest technology and methods of treatments. For efficient results, the healthcare industry has to stay up to date with the latest trends that can be a lot helpful for developing better and effective healthcare. We are going to look over some trends that will drive the healthcare industry in 2020.
1. Artificial intelligence
In the haste of growing world population and disease, artificial intelligence offers better ways to identify disease, create appointment plans, better diagnoses, treatment methods, research accuracy, better report generating, better data management and many more. Artificial intelligence can save a lot of precious time. Artificial intelligence with the latest technology can improve the rate of conquering a clinical problem. Also, everyone is nowaday more attracted to healthcare that is more digitized. Artificial intelligence systems can help in decision making almost as good as a human does which makes artificial intelligence the most important trend for the healthcare industry in 2020.
Also Read: AI and Cybersecurity in Digital Healthcare
2. Telemedicine

When we talk about time-saving, resource-saving and reach of the healthcare industry then this is the best way for healthcare to deal with such problems. Telemedicine allows the healthcare industry to provide its service by means of telecommunications technologies. By using telemedicine healthcare industry can reach their long-distance patients and can provide their services where the patient is comfortable most. Telemedicine involves services like consulting with doctors on call, taking appointments, regular health diagnoses on call and video conferences. This makes it easy for both doctors and their patients to stay connected and up to date with their reports and medical data. Telemedicine has increased from 0.38 million to 7 million since 2013.
Also Read: TELEMEDICINE: THE JOURNEY SO FAR…
3. Cloud computing
An increase in population makes it very hard for the healthcare industry to maintain and manage all the private and secure health-related information and data of all patients. Healthcare systems try to create systems to take care of this kind of data and its management. Here the cloud computing comes into play, cloud computing provides a secure method by which both patients and their related doctor and healthcare providers can access the information related to their case anytime anywhere with better-organized records and reports by using simple user credentials provided only to the patient and doctor. Cloud computing also makes sure that the data related to a patient is crash proof and cybersecurity. The healthcare industry tends to have a better experience with their patients and for that Integrating the healthcare system with cloud computing is best.
4. IoMT (Internet Of Medical Things).
90% of people want to wear or want to at least have a wearable device. The Internet of medical things is a new IoT developing rapidly and everyone wants to be connected and keep themselves updated with their health. Devices like watches and bands are working as health analytics tools, they are not just for calculating footsteps. Some new wearable devices can even calculate blood pressure and blood sugar calories and even heartbeat rate. Not just that they even can update the data collected to your doctor directly as real-time status. I can even connect you directly with your doctor if something is off balance with the help of IoMT. This is a trend that will grow every day in the healthcare industry.
Also Read: IoMT: Protection against cyber-threats
5. Extended Reality
You must be familiar with AR and VR technology. If not, then a simple definition for extended reality is a technology which allows you to combine real and virtual world environment. The best example for you to understand AR is pokemon go game which allows you to see virtual things in the real world through your smartphone but AR and VR are not for entertainment only. This technology can be used for the healthcare industry as VR allows doctors and students to work in an environment that is not available for them or is out of their reach.
It allows the practitioners to learn and view body parts and images without using any intrusive method. VR also saves a lot of money and makes diagnosis easy for patients. Extended reality is a revolutionary technology for the healthcare industry which makes it an important trend that will drive the healthcare industry in 2020.
6. 3D printing
3D printing is a process of printing a 3D model of digital design by using actual solid materials. Every innovation directly affects the healthcare industry, either by providing new methods of treating people or by improving previous ones. 3D printing has provided many new possibilities to the doctors and healthcare industry in many ways like creating 3D models of the organs allows the doctor to take a better look at the situation.
Also, 3D printing allows a doctor to make a better plan for the operation. It also helps the doctors in personalized Prosthetics. Doctors were even able to print living cells that can be used in patching damaged tissues with the new 3D printing technology. 3D printing can also help in minimizing theater time and increasing the possibilities of an operation to be successful by giving a better plan created using the 3D model. 3D printing can help in saving lives, Thus makes it a vital trend that will drive the healthcare industry in 2020.
7. Blockchain
The Blockchain technology is a unique and unignorable invention because of its properties. Blockchain technology was first used for cryptocurrencies only but now blockchain can be used for many grater things and areas. Blockchain is very helpful for the healthcare industry as it allows the data to be shared with many users immutably, which means data can be shared but can not be copied. Making the important data of patients ore secure as a patient can share the data like reports and details only with the healthcare providers and doctors. Blockchain works as a backbone of patient data security using cryptography of data, where “block” represents the important data of patients and “chain” represents the users and divided systems where the data can be accessed. This technology of sharing data without being copied makes blockchain a unique trend for healthcare in 2020.
Also Read: Digital Health: Mobile, IoT, Blockchain & AI

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