Healthcare technology continues to open up new horizons of how healthcare is delivered and has the power to create breakthroughs in our understanding of various ailments. In fact, in 2019, almost a swooping 90 percent of office-based U.S. physicians reported having any EMR/EHR system, compared to 18 percent in 2001.
While the global market size of health tech stood at USD 145.57 billion in 2021, it is expected to reach USD 430.52 billion by 2028, exhibiting a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.9% during the forecast period. This implies the existence of a vast market opportunity for the players in the segment.
Thereby, innovation has taken center stage. Any technological advancement in healthcare aims to optimize current systems, ease physicians’ work, boost call center performance, and improve patient care by reducing human error. The objective is to do all this while lowering costs and ensuring a seamless experience.
Healthcare At Our Fingertips
With the constant intervention of technology in almost everything around us, utilizing advanced tech-based solutions to improve human life can be its best possible utilization.
Let's explore a few top fast-paced, innovative health tech trends that have been proving to be a blessing in disguise in making healthcare more efficient, affordable & accessible.
Voice AI
AI has the potential to facilitate healthcare systems to provide better care to people at a large scale & increasing the productivity and efficiency of care delivery. In fact, between 2019-2025, spending on AI has been expected to record a CAGR of 26.9%, increasing from US$ 463.0 million in 2019 to US$ 2,452.7 million by 2025.
When voice innovation started to materialize in 2011 with Siri, nobody might have anticipated that this curiosity would become a driver for tech advancement across healthcare.
Every time a doctor visits a patient, the staff notes the doctor's directives. All these manual notes are then filled in to create a digital version. Voice AI or speech-to-text or text-to-speech systems automate the entire process & help save time and money while promoting research.
It enables healthcare providers to create, edit, format, and complete reports through dictation and simple voice command with increased security.
Such AI systems can also analyze the voice patterns of the doctor on duty and figure out his alertness or mood while working on their patients. Moreover, AI-powered patient insights can be leveraged to create additional value for the provider and patient, be it checking symptoms, delivering quality care, or improving outcomes.
Besides transforming patient experience, AI-powered voice assistants can also automate routine tasks, eliminate data stream constraints, and diminish the time and exertion expected of care groups.
Cloud Computing
Cloud technology is becoming prominent, and the cloud computing market is predicted to reach $71,730.64 million by 2027, with a CAGR of 14.12 percent between 2022 and 2027.
Cloud technology helps handle the massive amounts of data produced by healthcare providers. Since cloud computing offers more data storage, cloud-based analytical tools can utilize data more and transform it into meaningful insights.
Moreover, healthcare providers can ensure better patient involvement by providing real-time access to lab test reports & medical information. It thus helps maintain the patient's health more effectively with adequate knowledge.
The application of cloud computing in healthcare improved collaboration & interoperability by making patients' information accessible for flexible distribution with adequate security.
Doctors can even view or share data & check consultations. Since patients no longer need individual medical records during a doctor visit, it saves time for doctors and patients to aid in more precise diagnosis and treatment.
Blockchain
Blockchain technology, at its full potential, can support the development of the global healthcare industry, save money and encourage further investment into essential resources.
Deloitte's Global Blockchain Survey reports that 55% of respondents believe blockchain technology can potentially disrupt the healthcare industry in the near future. Data storage and sharing is a challenge, especially in the healthtech industry, because health information must be protected to uphold privacy and interoperability to allow data exchange for authorized use. Strict policies framed under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) demand the protection of sensitive health information of patients in the USA.
Here, blockchain can be a great help as it uses immutable ledgers that are constantly updated on all participating network nodes. This means it serves as a central repository & there isn't a single gateway from which data can be tampered with.
Blockchain-based medical records enable prescription data updated in real-time by any provider, streamlining the information flow and reducing the risk of errors and contraindications between drugs.
Thus, bringing a decentralized platform into the global healthcare system also makes healthcare more accessible to all, leading to immensely reduced costs and new ways for patients to access healthcare.
Big Data
AI is transforming the way we collect and employ data in healthcare. Using high-quality data in healthcare is critical because health outcomes affect human lives. The better data we have, the better algorithms we can build for patients' benefit.
Big data refers to large data sets that are carefully processed and analyzed to identify patterns that can significantly impact patient outcomes & reduce healthcare costs. Apart from enabling better hospital staffing & fostering preventive care, big data can analyze inconsistencies & flag any gaps/errors coming in prescriptions & patients’ health.
Telemedicine
Telehealth services came to the forefront in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic introduced a new way of seeing patients. Once considered a luxury, the mobile phone has become a hand-held guide to make healthcare accessible & affordable.
When asked, 62.6% of patients and 59% of clinicians said there is no difference between virtual/telehealth and physical visits regarding the overall quality of the visit, the American Journal of Managed Care reported.
Thus, the post-covid reality remains that virtual care still benefits patients who live in remote areas or can't regularly travel to meet medical specialists.
Role of Call Centers In Transforming Healthcare
A study by Gartner found that 63% of healthcare providers have faced severe disruptions due to internal organizational changes, cost pressure, compliance & regulation, funding, or shifting consumer demands.
Patients now expect healthcare services to be available anytime, anywhere, at their convenience, and in safe confines. Thus, omnichannel communication and contact centers are vital in delivering the "new normal" service.
Healthcare providers must take care of everything from equipment management to maintaining records for the minutest details. In this case, a call center can help streamline the patient outreach process by taking care of appointments, follow-ups, and aftercare reminders, thus significantly improving the quality of delivered care.
Offering customer assistance through multichannel support via follow-up calls, emails, or text messages minimizes interrupting transactions that can lead to unhappy customers. Besides, keeping patients informed of the progress, so they don’t have to call will significantly improve loyalty and, ultimately, the bottom line.
With an ideal contact center solution and adequate strategies in place, healthcare organizations can empower both agents and supervisors to provide a better patient experience.
Convin's contact center solution can help you to drive patient-centric processes into the heart of your clinic or practice. With flexible call routing, built-in AI, and in-depth call analytics, you can improve your patient experience which truly reflects the quality of your patient care.
Implementing IVR for appointment booking and scheduling can help patients skip long waiting times. They can opt for a virtual healthcare experience to communicate with the specialists to discuss any health-related concerns. Moreover, patients can receive their reports quickly in the comfort of their homes.
Healthcare providers can easily maintain patient records using efficient & secure integrations without worrying about potential data thefts. Moreover, it is easy to access the data or patient's history whenever required.
Creating a patient-centric platform can help strengthen relationships with patients. It is just a matter of a click to send health-related tips and check-up reminders through Email, SMS, and various other channels.
With real-time monitoring and analytics, hospital admins can easily monitor and measure the employee's performance and response times and analyze the caller's satisfaction level. This will help them implement better strategies for exceptional customer service.
The Way Forward
According to the American Telemedicine Association, 76% of U.S. hospitals connect with patients and consulting practitioners using video and other technology. Thus, healthcare systems that continue to thrive are acting decisively, investing in building capabilities at scale, working hard to reimagine the care delivery model, and delivering superior-quality care to consumers.
With the advancements in wearable medical devices, virtual reality, blockchain, and more, healthcare providers across the globe are in a much better place to manage their patients' in-hospitalization and post-hospitalization care.
At Convin, we enable healthcare contact centers to work in this direction to improve the patient experience by 27%, thus helping healthcare providers serve their users better.
To conclude, the health tech sector is booming as its financial & consumer backing promises a solid and tangible growth chart over the coming years. With telemedicine and virtual healthcare assistance, healthcare providers can save much of their time, effort, and money while delivering an outstanding patient experience.
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