Digital Health – Taking Healthcare to the Next Level with Technology
Coupling IT with healthcare isn’t a new idea. In fact, healthcare providers have been implementing technology into almost every aspect of the process. Nevertheless, new technological advancements continue to revolutionize the way we seek medical help, speak to our doctors, and even pay our bills. Digital Health is a sector of technology dedicated to the advancement of technology within the healthcare industry, and it continues to offer new solutions every day.
New Trends Emerging in Digital Health
Because of the mix of quality and safety concerns stacked against complicated regulatory restrictions, the pace of technical innovation in healthcare has historically been slower than in other fields. And, even though the pandemic put every premise, process, and solution in the health sector to the test, it also accelerated the implementation of certain technological trends that had been in the works for a few years.
Medicine and IoT: The Internet of Things (IoT) is a developing network of physical items that include applications, sensors, and other innovations that allow them to connect and exchange data with diverse devices and systems over the internet.
Medical IoT is a rapidly developing industry where monitoring, and integrated applications along with wearable gadgets, are used to solve health issues. Medical IoT can deliver more useful iterations of traditional medical equipment.
Augmented and Virtual Reality: Virtual reality used to be thought of as a gimmick specifically tailored to video games. Other than gaming and entertainment, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology now have a variety of practical applications.
In the medical field, virtual reality aids surgical planning and training, making treatments more comfortable for both doctors and patients. There have also been numerous reports on the effectiveness of virtual reality in the treatment of chronic pain and mental health.
Telehealth: Telehealth is the administration of healthcare services through digital communication technologies such as smartphones, computers, and tablets. Healthcare providers had to adapt rapidly when social distancing diminished in-person visits. As of April 2020, telehealth services accounted for over 40% of Medicare primary care visits.
Even though COVID-19 vaccines are being dispersed all around the world, it seems like Telehealth will still be around for a very long time. In fact, by 2026 the Telehealth industry should have a value of over $185 billion according to a report by Fortune Business Insights.
Cloud Computing: Cloud computing has also been aiding in the heralding of an innovative era of the digital revolution in healthcare. Cloud computing allows for quick access to data and analysis, which can help healthcare professionals make better, more informed decisions in real-time.
For improved information administration, healthcare businesses are increasingly turning to cloud-based technologies. This involves implementing systems like electronic health records (EHRs), which make it easier for healthcare professionals to store, manage, and share data.
Better telehealth options, such as remote medical monitoring and mobile health services, are also being enabled by cloud networks. These types of virtual healthcare services are likely to become a more practical alternative for patients who would prefer to stay at home in the future.
Israeli Startups Revolutionizing the Global Digital Heath Industry
Israel has become a hub for medical technology throughout the years, drawing the attention of many world leaders. Israel has established itself as a leading nation in the field of medical innovation, with over 1,500 companies functioning in the healthcare and life sciences industries. These companies represent some of the world’s most prestigious manufacturers, distributors, and innovators.
One of these Israeli Startups created a software that extracts crucial information from a variety of sources, including PDFs or photos of faxes that physicians are unable to search, into a one-page summary. The software also has its own medical knowledge graph, which it used to connect the various medical ontologies. The knowledge graph is based on medical literature as well as cutting-edge datasets, which are curated by a team of medical specialists and utilized to train the software’s machine learning models.
Using their expertise in analyzing medical data, another group of machine learning experts created a solution to identify subtle, overlooked symptoms of deadly diseases like cancer. For individualized prediction insights and early diagnosis of life-threatening and chronic diseases, this Israeli Startup uses a wide range of clinical data, including claims and advanced diagnostics. They collaborate with users to provide them with the tools they need to quickly deploy complex algorithms to process millions of medical records with the sole goal of improving population enrichment.
Another Israeli Startup, which was created in 2013, uses medication adherence reminders and clinically informed, tailored digital coaching to encourage people to modify their lifestyles. Users may self-manage their cardiovascular health and discover significant concerns before they happen with the startup’s connected blood pressure cuff and smartphone app. The app is able to detect hypertensive crises in both men and women and predict possible incidents before they escalate in severity.
Conclusion
Through data access, digital tools are providing clinicians with a more holistic perspective of patient health and allowing people greater choice and control over their health. Digital health has the potential to improve healthcare outcomes while also improving efficiency.
These techniques have the ability to empower consumers to make better health decisions as well as provide alternative opportunities for improving prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of life-threatening diseases, and chronic condition management outside of conventional healthcare environments. Digital health technologies are being used by practitioners and other parties to: reduce bottlenecks, remove barriers, lower costs, increase quality, and make medicine more individualized for patients.
