5 Hottest Trends in Healthcare Digital Transformation

If you are running a healthcare business or a medical practice, you might already know that keeping up with digital transformation in this sector is essential, yet it might feel overwhelming. Finding your niche, identifying what technologies and tools are worth investing in and adapting the latest tools to boost your online presence are only a few things that modern healthcare businesses have to know.

Adapting to the new digital era requires a shift towards a risk-taking and highly proactive mindset. It also means letting go of outdated business processes, changing the game, developing new products, constantly covering users’ needs and updating systems regularly. 

AI-based consultants, telemedicine, mHealth apps, medical devices, as well as blockchain electronic health records are just a few real examples of how the healthcare industry is transforming today. Digitalisation also changes how patients communicate with doctors, how consultations happen, booked and how our data is shared among providers.

Even though digital transformation is already here, some companies and doctors still don’t know how to transform their businesses. In fact, one of the key reasons is that the industry is filled with trends that constantly change. That is why we collected trends that appeared loudly and remain relevant in upcoming years, so you can explore and consider time as a worthy investment.

The Rise of On-demand Healthcare

You may wonder what on-demand healthcare means. Most usually think of patients who want things at their own convenience, whenever they need and wherever they prefer. The truth is that the medical space is reaching the era of digital innovation since patients seek on-demand healthcare because of their busy lifestyles.

That is why mobile presence is an essential point for any healthcare organisation. Statistics show that people prefer mobile phones over websites, making mHealth solutions an ultimate choice for clinics that want to attract consumers in 2023. Mobility is currently the name of the game.

Big Data in Healthcare

Big data collects information about a specific business through formats like social media, ecommerce, and financial transactions, as well as identifies patterns and trends for future use. Big data can provide many benefits for the healthcare industry that, include the following:

Lower rate of medication errors

Big data allows for accurate analysis of patient records. This, in turn, allows the software to flag any inconsistencies between a patient’s health and drug prescriptions, informing doctors and patients when there is a potential risk.

Facilitating Preventive Care

We see a high number of people stepping into emergency rooms that become recurring patients, also known as “frequent flyers.” In fact, they account for up to 30% of all visits. That is where big data analysis allows clinics to identify these people so doctors can develop preventive plans to keep them from returning.

Accurate Staffing

Big data offers an accurate predictive analysis that could help clinics and healthcare organisations to estimate future admission rates. This has been shown to help these clinics allocate the proper staff to deal with specific patients. This saves money and reduces emergency room wait times when a facility is This not only saves money but also reduces the waiting time for patients.

SEO for Clinics

Although SEO has always been an essential part of marketing for any business, clinics only now see the importance of using this practice for their business. That is because digitalisation greatly increased the competition in the market, forcing all healthcare organisations to fight for clients. So if your clinic has a website, you should consider investing in SEO for clinics or SEO for dentists, depending on your field. 

VR in Treatment

If someone had told people that gaming technology could help treat their diseases, there would be lots of funny faces ten years ago. However, now people are looking for innovative and more accurate ways to treat their diseases, so doctors use the latest technologies for that purpose. Even though Artificial Intelligence was developed mainly for gaming and entertainment, it is not one of the leading tools for smart treatment.

You can take pain management as a good example. Doctors have always handed out opioid prescriptions like candy. Therefore, as stated by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US is experiencing one of the worst drug crises in history, representing an economic burden of $78.5 billion a year.

VR is used in various fields of healthcare today. In fact, it has been shown to be effective in treating pain, stress, anxiety and even some severe mental health disorders. And that’s just a small part of VR’s capabilities in the medical field. VR is also used by surgeons to practise before complex surgeons, improving care and leading to more accurate disease analysis.

From startups to large healthcare organisations, every clinic now wants to adjust its processes to VR possibilities and improve its patient care. The global virtual and AR healthcare market is suggested to reach $5.1 billion by 2025. 

The Growth of Wearable Devices

One of the hottest trends in the medical space today is wearable devices. While we all see these devices, not everyone knows that they can actually become one of the most important tools for doctors in taking care of their patients. That is because clinics can now use these devices to track essential bodily factors like blood pressure and heart rate, while patients don’t even need to visit the clinic for that. Everything happens remotely, allowing doctors to check everything remotely and ask the patient to visit the clinic only when required. These devices also help to remotely check how the treatment is going and whether drugs are helpful or not.