Top Trends for the Future of Healthcare
There’s a lot of buzz lately about how AI will transform healthcare, the future of telemedicine and digital health, up-and-coming healthcare technology, and other future healthcare trends.
This week, we’re going to break down where innovation is happening in the healthcare space, identify upcoming healthcare trends to watch, and discuss how online healthcare training can help keep you ahead of the game.
How Will Healthcare Change In The Future?
When you look at immediate healthcare workforce trends and challenges, it seems to be heavy on the “challenge” part. Systems are overburdened, workers are burned out, staff shortages are growing, and so are healthcare costs.
It can be hard to think about future healthcare trends optimistically. But humans have a remarkable ability to solve thorny problems through innovation, so let’s look at some of the possibilities that lie before us.
Upcoming Healthcare Trends To Watch
Here are just a few future healthcare trends we anticipate, particularly in the area of healthcare technology.
The Expansion of Telemedicine
The future of telemedicine and digital health is bright. Telehealth services were becoming more widely adopted before the pandemic, but they absolutely exploded during. The number of telehealth visits within the Medicare system alone shot from 5 million to 53 million at the beginning of the pandemic, and adoption remained high even after operations returned to normal.
The pandemic surge was primarily bolstered by a need-driven loosening of regulations on which doctors could use telemedicine, which patients and conditions qualified, what platforms could be used, the geography of both parties, and how visits are reimbursed. Most of these changes have been codified and expanded even further over the years.
Telemedicine gives us an avenue for tackling many different healthcare problems at a modest price, including labor shortages, costs, restricted rural access to specialists, and logistical barriers that prevent some patients from getting to the doctor. It’s made it possible for rural patients to be evaluated by stroke specialists without a transfer and for sick stay-at-home moms to get medical advice without the hassle.
The application of telehealth solutions will continue to expand and be optimized as state regulations are updated, telehealth systems work out the kinks, and new technology enables remote providers to get secure access to more sophisticated real-time data.
Wearable Devices in Healthcare
While wearable devices are often thought of as personal toys first, they also have huge potential as healthcare technology. In the last few years, we’ve seen growth in the sophistication and accuracy of wearable devices beyond step counting and heart rate monitoring to include arrhythmias, body temperature fluctuations, blood oxygen, and more.
Wearables have already shown the potential to provide richer data sets for healthcare diagnoses, reduce the need for certain in-patient appointments, improve the general public’s health literacy, and empower people to recognize new patterns and anomalies in their vital signs. As the technology improves further, it opens up all sorts of applications for earlier diagnosis, remote patient monitoring, and more treatment recommendations.
Gamification of Healthy Living
Wearable devices can also be an important part of another trend: the gamification of patients’ health. Many health apps – from general fitness apps to those geared towards behavioral health – already include goal setting, levels, achievements, competitions, and other gamification elements.
Harnessing the psychology of engagement and motivation to improve health outcomes is an area that has a lot of room for growth and exploration. From applying the principles to specific health outcomes like diabetes control to integrating collected data into a patient’s electronic health record (EHR), there are many possibilities.
To reach health gamification’s true potential, however, it needs to be trialed and formalized as part of the healthcare process. We need to improve data security, refine our knowledge of what works and what doesn’t, and learn the potential pitfalls of various approaches.
Machine Learning in Disease Diagnosis
While many people are reluctant to see AI take over more creative and analytical human endeavors, how AI is transforming healthcare is one of the most positive and impactful applications of machine learning technology.
This is particularly true in the area of disease diagnosis. With its ability to analyze massive amounts of data more accurately than the human eye, machine learning is already proving capable of detecting diseases at an earlier stage, making treatment and management more effective.
Currently, there are barriers to the wider implementation of machine learning diagnostics, including a lack of available infrastructure, high-quality data, and expertise at the local level. There are also big questions about patient privacy, responsibility for incorrect diagnoses, and the potential exacerbation of existing healthcare bias and inequality that we’ll need to address.
Not Changing: The Need for Quality HIPAA Training
While a lot of things are changing in healthcare, one thing certainly won’t: compliance training requirements aren’t going anywhere. While the modality might change in the future, the need to source high-quality training on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) will remain.
Right now, the most effective and efficient option for many healthcare organizations is professionally designed online courses like ours that are self-paced and available for delivery whenever and wherever it’s convenient for busy staff.
Plus, our HIPAA courses are tailored to healthcare workers’ roles, allowing them to learn what they need with relevant examples for their daily jobs. Options include HIPAA for Medical Office Staff, HIPAA for Dental Offices, HIPAA for Mental Healthcare Providers, and HIPAA for Healthcare Workers.
Enroll today to get started!
