Digital transformation is currently one of the main factors of global economic growth. By 2025 the digital economy will be able to provide 19–34% of GDP growth on a global scale in developed countries. In the next 20 years, up to 50% of all work operations in the world will be automated. This process will be comparable in scale to the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Journey
Over the past 10 years, the flow of information in the online environment has increased four thousand times. This exceeds the volume of information created over the entire course of history.
According to experts, a squall of information in medicine will be formed by new IT sources: from patient-generated messages in social networks to all sorts of sensors that record patient health in real time. Even healthcare website design guidelines are now in place, in an industry which has been incredibly resistant to change over the last 20 years.
Healthcare, like all other industries today, is undergoing a rapid transformation due to the steadily increasing use of technology. Today, patients are more frequently choosing preventive procedures. Instead of correcting a “broken” organism, patients prefer to use a wide range of fitness sensors, pedometers, sensors, and other health monitoring devices for prevention.
Digitization of health
According to Startup Health, in 2016 more than $500 billion were invested in companies specializing in healthcare. Most of these funds were invested in companies specializing in obtaining data from patients. Today, a wave of innovation is focused not only on supporting the work of the hospital, but also on new opportunities for patients to control and monitor their vital signs. As the market grows, decreased prices make such healthcare trends solutions more affordable.
- Smartphones have been a major boon to healthcare. Information in real-time comes to the smartphone, where it is assessed and analyzed in a special program. In case of deviation from the norm, the patient receives an appropriate recommendation to consult a cardiologist. This information can go directly to the cardiac center, allowing physicians to respond quickly to changes in the patient’s condition. Smartphones are not the only conduit of information, though. To aid in monitoring heart health, in-the-know authors promise that, in the near future, release of ECG T-shirts will be put into production.
- It is obvious that medicine is becoming more modern. But this is not enough, and we strive to completely change this industry, to make it more efficient and technological.
What awaits us on this path and is it worth waiting for a revolution in healthcare?
In 2018, investing in startups whose areas of interest are medicine and health reached $3.5 billion. This is four times the amount invested in such companies in 2010. Obviously, we are on the cusp of a digital revolution in the healthcare system. However, in order for the medical field to really change dramatically, we will have to go through many trials.
If healthcare innovation succeeds, we could see wonderful changes to hospitals of the future, where there are fewer-if any- queues, no tired doctors and major reductions in, or elimination of, bureaucracy in billing and other processes.