Recent trends in telemedicine have changed the way people view healthcare. Medical officers can use telecommunication to provide clinical care to patients no matter where they are; busy patients don’t have to waste time waiting at the doctor’s consultation room and remote patients no longer need to travel to distant hospitals.
And we’re just getting started. So what will telemedicine look like in the future?
Better Healthcare Apps
People can expect more personalized medical care apps that will offer better flexibility to transmit information to doctors. Treatment and prescriptions will be more attainable even when patients are on the go and unable to stop into the doctor’s office.
Cloud Access and Mobility
Most of us already use our mobile devices to interact with medical facilities, whether we’re reviewing a care plan or checking lab results. Insurance companies also store medical records and claims in the cloud so patients can check their coverage, benefits and reports at any time. Expect to see more information move to the cloud for self-service options as providers, carriers and patients interact with each other.
Patient Data Analytics and Data Collection
Telemedicine technologies such as mobile apps and sensors already capture patient information during a telemedicine session. Lab officers can use some of these devices to measure the ECG of a patient and send it to the doctor, allowing health professionals to monitor their patient’s cardiovascular activity. Look for even more sophisticated devices and data to improve patient self-monitoring. Big data analytics will analyze patient data and make predictive conclusions, which doctors can use to devise smarter telemedicine treatments. Collection and analysis of patient data will help identify risk factors and assist medical practitioners in tackling prophylactic therapies.
Better Investment Opportunities
Telemedicine has become one of the profitable segments in the healthcare industry, as many investors have noticed. Expect more small-scale telemedicine operators to merge with large-scale operators to provide top-notch health care. Providers of telemedicine technologies will collaborate with international medical institutes to generate more revenue, widen their addressable market, and spread their expertise abroad. Investment opportunities in the medical world will only increase as facilities adopt advanced telemedicine technologies.
Improved Security
Data security has become vital as doctors embark on collecting data from their patients to advance telemedicine technologies. Medical facilities have begun to encrypt medical records stored on all portable devices; hospitals also emphasize frequent HIPAA security checks and vulnerability assessments to reduce data security risk factors. We’ll see more sophisticated cybersecurity methods to minimize risk and stop attacks.
Tech trends in the medical space show no signs of slowing down. The rise in older populations, and research into chronic diseases will drive higher growth of the medical industry. Futurists expect telemedicine market trends to become more prominent in the future – so keep watching for even better virtual care options.
