Useful Tools, Information, & Resources For Wessels Library

1. New AI Applications and Concerns of the Medical Community

One of the fastest growing trends in health information technology: Recent years have seen the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, and the trend will continue in 2023. Standing among many industries that benefit from AI, medicine mainly applies it to profound diagnostics and detection of diseases, but it’s not limited to them. For example, IBM Watson is one of the AI platforms already available for business and healthcare (including custom medical software solutions).

Let’s see what support AI can offer healthcare and associated industries and how it could become the major healthtech trend in the future.

2. Data Breach Prevention

Despite all the tech precautions and healthcare provider awareness, data breach statistics demonstrate a dramatic increase over the past ten years, with violations reaching their peak in 2020/2021.

These data breaches affect thousands of patients across the US. Hopefully, in 2022, healthcare providers pay more attention to their digital ecosystems and data protection. Cybersecurity in healthcare is becoming a hot technology trend for this decade.

3. Nanomedicine

This may still sound like sci-fi, but nanotech is slowly entering our daily life. By the end of 2021, fantastic news spread around the globe: scientists have created tiny organic robots (so-called xenobots) that are able to self-replicate. So it’s safe to assume that 2023 can bring a bunch of revolutionary tidings in the field of nanomedicine. The nanomedicine industry offers enormous potential and welcomes early investors.  

If you’re wondering what nanomedicine is, here is a short definition: it’s all about the use of nanoscale (microscopically tiny) materials and objects, such as biocompatible nanoparticles, nanoelectronic devices, or even nanorobots (wow!) for specific medical purposes and manipulations, such as diagnosis or treatment of living organisms. 

For example, it can be used as a potential hunter for cancer cells or viruses, which requires a group of nanorobots to be injected into a human’s blood vessels. 

This technology is expected to successfully fight back many genetic, oncologic, or auto-immune diseases on a cellular level, including tumors, arthritis, and others (or even become an ultimate solution to them).

4. Internet of Medical Things (IoMT)

Although the IoMT is not a new thing in 2023, this sector will grow exponentially in the coming years. This industry involves plenty of digital health trends, and each of them offers excellent uses to healthcare specialists, with $ billions saved in return. 

There are many companies providing IoMT solutions, including TATEEDA GLOBAL, which can help you design and tune your IoMT system with the help of sophisticated custom software. If you’re looking for a partner in developing custom IoMT solutions, please feel free to get in touch with us!

Wearables and Mobile Apps in Medical Practice

Remote health monitoring and wellness apps are on the rise and will keep booming in 2023. If you visit GooglePlay or iTunes catalogs, you’ll find a good few professional (and myriads of semi-professional) healthcare and wellness mobile apps. 

Some of those mobile apps can synchronize with wearables, such as pulsometers or fitness trackers, to use data collected through the sensors placed on your body to report or analyze your health conditions, such as pulse, body temperature, blood pressure, and other metrics.

TATEEDA GLOBAL, for example, has recently created an iOS/Android tablet application that provides physicians with instant access to ECG data and reports generated by devices with superior arrhythmia detection. 

If you have healthcare challenges that a mobile app can resolve, you can hire us to undertake full-cycle custom healthcare app development for you.

5. Social Determinants of Health Gain Value

When making risk assessments and compiling disease statistics, healthcare systems mainly focus on factors within their area of expertise: quality and affordability of medical services. Still, those factors are only the tip of the iceberg. Many other less apparent factors affect patients before they experience symptoms and turn to clinicians. 

Initially, health issues emerge due to reasons other than lack of treatment. Their roots go deeper; to demographic, environmental, and socioeconomic areas, which are rarely considered in the framework of traditional clinical diagnostics. 

Medical institutions mainly manage symptoms and provide recommendations on lifestyle changes, influencing treatment outcomes by as low as 10%-20%. At the same time, non-medical factors predetermine health outcomes by 80%-90%. These factors are called the social determinants of health (SDOH). 

In 2023, healthcare providers will approach SDOH with greater attention than ever before and start to evaluate patients’ medical histories more comprehensively, taking into consideration factors that remained unattended in previous years. 

6. Smart Implants

In 2023, more implant-related choices and technologies will enter the healthcare market in the United States and worldwide. This promises exceptionally higher efficiency of regenerative medicine, patient rehabilitation, and a cure for many types of disabilities that have previously been considered incurable. 

7. Integration of Healthcare Systems with Big Data and Data Silos

The amount of healthcare data accumulated (including patient records, DICOM files, and medical IoT solutions) and the number of data sources used by healthcare organizations will explode rapidly. Medical service providers will look for modern platforms, including data fabrics, to combine and manage huge volumes of structured and distributed data. 

8. Payer-Provider Bonds Will Strengthen to the Patient’s Benefit

One of the trends in healthcare IT that shows great promise. It is not uncommon for healthcare providers and payers to have conflicting interests. When both parties adopt categorical stances, the quality of their joint work suffers. As a result, patients do not receive the services they require. They pay more, wait longer, and are often treated poorly. 

Providers and payers need to adopt a value-oriented approach and strive for joint achievements rather than personal gains. All need to recognize that they have the same objective, and if either party bears losses, it alienates them from the end goal – delivery of upscale medical services to citizens.

9. Universal Adoption of Telehealth

The broad diversity, universality, and increase in digitized communication channels have begun to affect the healthcare industry. Telehealth has emerged as a new means of transmitting medical information. It involves using the Internet, videoconferencing, streaming services, and other communication technologies for the remote provision of healthcare services. Telehealth also encompasses long-distance education for patients and medical specialists.

In 2021, telehealth has gained universal recognition and become standard practice. Advanced clinics are already virtually consulting their patients. This type of communication will gain absolute regulatory approval and displace traditional in-house consultations in the coming years. 

10. VR, Augmented, and Mixed Reality in Healthcare

One of the latest trends in healthcare information technology: Computer-generated or augmented reality promises tremendous improvements to medical diagnosis and education. 

Augmented Medical Education and Decision-making

With virtual reality solutions, a person is placed in computer-rendered or fully simulated surroundings. This can help medical students to feel integrated with virtual situations and locations, similar to what they may face in reality, and practice their skills without visiting hospitals or dealing with actual patients.

With augmented reality solutions, a computer-rendered layer of additional information or virtual objects is added to the real world. Students or care providers can use augmented reality to access information and reports while working with patients or without leaving their current operations, in a hands-free mode, via voice command, or have supportive data appear automatically.