Telehealth Trends 2023
Telehealth, a technology-enabled form of healthcare delivery has huge momentum coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. The digital health industry is bringing telemedicine/health innovation to market that is creating new efficiency paradigms in healthcare.
New virtual health solutions are being introduced that provide for “complete and coordinated” care integrated into one central platform. This year, Telehealth is aiming to improve their services to cater more patients and provide better care.
These are the few trends that Telehealth is aiming to do/improve this year:
1. HER-embedded Telecare- Almost every clinic, private practices and hospitals in the 21st century uses electronic health records (EHR). With these methods, it will be easier for the transferring of patient records to other clinics or hospitals with other practices. Further, it will be easier to update patient data through this system.
2. mHealth- with the improvement of mobile phone applications, mHealth is on the rise. With health information technology, activity trackers and more in the ease of our mobile phones. mHealth helps track patients' vitals, send medication reminders, manage patient files and more. This system helps telemedicine by integrating patient-provider relationships and health outcomes.
3. Digital first approach- care providers have started adopting new digital solutions such as video conferencing and audio calling to improve their reach. Care delivery shifted to these mediums in many forms, from appointment scheduling to delivery reports and exchanging files.
4. 5G- this technology has revolutionized telemedicine/health worldwide. With speeds reaching over 20 Mbps per user, remote patient monitoring will improve the accuracy of data recording.
5. Artificial Intelligence (AI)- AI and Machine learning are used in this field as solutions to collect, analyze and exploit data in order to automate certain recurring tasks so that doctors can concentrate on other tasks with higher added value. The uses for these methods can be very diverse, such as triage and orientation of patients, acceleration of drug development, diagnostic assistants, computer-assisted surgery or epidemiological prevention, and more. These are a few of the ways AI can help in our healthcare industry.
6. (IoT) Internet of Things- this allows a variety of medical devices to be connected to the internet. These devices can help patients be more involved in their health. Wearing these devices can help patients check their body temperature, blood pressure or heart rate, and transmit them to their doctors who can remotely monitor their health.
7. Augmented Reality (AR-VR)- AR has recently made a name for itself and is increasing in the use for surgery, rehabilitation, teaching and training. This software helps medical professionals simulate real-life surgeries to teach recruits.
8. Cloud- this technology helps healthcare a lot. Healthcare no longer needs to create files and store data on in-house servers. Instead, they can leverage vendor-hosted servers, reducing the maintenance burden and dependence on internal IT support. The use of the cloud in health care has resulted in a more synchronized, well-connected system of data sharing.
9. Focus on health data security- digital healthcare is generally accepted by patients, but beyond the efficiency and quality of care, confidentiality and security are among the main concerns of patients with regards to the digital health systems. And they want to strengthen the security and confidentiality of this data. To address cybersecurity risks, telehealth solutions need to meet the regulatory requirements to ensure a high level of protection, and also implement and enforce best practices.
Telehealth will continue to grow at an incredible speed. With increasing investments in telemedicine solutions and remote services, hospitals and clinics are looking for better and more efficient software to improve telehealth. With new technologies and medical breakthroughs happening, telehealth will surely grow and help our nation have a better and easier way to be taken care of by our health care professionals.
Sources:
https://www.healthcareitnews.