What is the Impact of Various Softwares on Healthcare Industry

The healthcare industry has historically been on the back seat to adapt to any changes, however, in the recent years, the medical industry seems to be incorporating the new technological advancements at a faster rate.

The arrival of technologies (AR/VR, AI, Blockchain, IoT) in the medical field is proving to be quite advantageous for the, healthcare software developers, patients along with the medical service providers. Healthcare IT is a promising sector that has the potential to drive the medical sector forward, improve interoperability, make it more accessible and reduce the overall cost of the healthcare delivery by making it more efficient and data driven.

As per a report, the healthcare market can increase threefold by the year 2022 and beyond. There is a huge scope for enhancing the health care solutions.

The good news here is that the healthcare industry’s innovative side has taken off in the past few years, and the software seems to be playing a major role in reshaping the medical sector. How? That is what we are going to mention in this article. We will be talking about:

Healthcare trends in 2019
How technology is impacting healthcare
Future technology trends

Let’s have a look at various technological trends impacting the healthcare sector:

Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

With time, Artificial Intelligence is getting highly sophisticated at doing what humans do, but comparatively at a lower cost and more efficiently. The potential for robotics and AI in healthcare is vast.

AI increases the capability for the healthcare experts so that they can better understand the day-to-day lifestyle & needs of the individuals they care for and hence, they can provide better guidance and support for always staying healthy and fit.

The consumer wearables and other medical equipment combined with AI is being used to oversee the early-stage heart diseases, enabling the medical practitioners & other caretakers to better detect & monitor the life-threatening problems at their initial stages.

The image shows some AI applications that could change the healthcare sector in the near future. Moreover, AI is used to analyze information from the patient’s Electronic Health Record (EHR) to more accurately diagnose the health problems and come up with different ways to treat it. Also, Machine Learning (ML) and AI can be applied in radiology and pathology to detect irregularities in X-rays and MRI scans.

Cloud Computing in Healthcare

Record keeping and data collection are a crucial part of healthcare and previously the management of this data had been a difficult task for medical practitioners. With its emergence, Cloud computing in the medical sector has been the best option for management of electronic medical records.

It is beneficial for both the healthcare providers and patients as it turns the consultation procedure more seamless & saves huge time. Storing information on the cloud provides it remote accessibility & facilitates better collaboration.
Future applications

Hybrid clouds: Data security issues are the biggest hurdle to the adoption of storage data on the cloud. It is not feasible to set up public clouds as it is expensive and also not secure enough. Hence, the solution to this is the hybrid cloud (a combination of public and private cloud) that facilitates a more secure cloud computing environment.

Ease of interoperability: With cloud storage, the data is accessed remotely so that the specialists are able to take more informed and better decisions about patient care. With this, there will be less geographical barriers in patient care, in turn providing better healthcare solutions to the individuals living in the remote regions that are not easily accessible.

VR/AR in Healthcare

Virtual and Augmented Reality is no longer just the stuff of science fiction & are now finding their place in the healthcare industry. Right from providing the medical education to the students to treatment planning, patient management, and diagnosis, this technology has become an inseparable part of every domain of healthcare & is still has a lot of undiscovered potentials.

Internet of Medical Things(IoMT)

With each passing day, the network of the connected devices keeps growing. IoT technology that has already made its place in our everyday lives has paved the way for IoMT. There are a number of medical devices for the end users that are meant to record and track the health and fitness data to continuously monitor the health status of the people.

The medical devices have various applications & possess the inbuilt sensors like EKG and ECG monitors, blood pressure and glucose monitors to record and track the user data. The data that is compiled by such devices is then used by the healthcare based mobile apps to check the health status of individuals on a regular basis & detect any abnormalities that occur.

Future applications

Debilitated and elderly patient care: With an increasing life expectancy, the healthcare problems that the elderly people face seems to rise. IoMT will prove crucial not only for tracking the vitals but also ensuring that the prescribed medication is taken as per the recommended time.

Mobility is another challenge for the debilitated and elderly patients & advent of portable diagnostic devices in the coming days will not just reduce the number of visits to the doctor’s clinic but also will reduce healthcare costs.

IoMT hence plays an important role in transforming the healthcare industry by empowering the individuals as well as the medical practitioners owning the medical devices for taking the data-driven decisions and therefore provide positive treatment results.

These are some of the major technologies impacting healthcare. Let us now talk about the various software trends that are impacting the healthcare sector:

Patients Scheduling Software

What are patients scheduling software?

Patients scheduling software is designed in order to streamline the day-to-day tasks in medical practice. Generally, this software handles the backend tasks in a medical environment that include insurance claim statements, accessing patient data, billing data, etc.

At times, this software is confused with other programs that are used by the clinics, like an EHR system, medical billing software or scheduling software.
The scheduling software helps to save the time of the doctors and their staff that they would spend on paperwork and hence, pay attention to the health of patients that may improve the overall outcome.

What are the benefits?

Help the patients to schedule their appointment through the patient portal and fix an appointment with the physician when they are available.
With the help of these software, patients get regular reminders for their appointments on their phone or via email so that they never miss their scheduled appointment

You can check the other features of the patient scheduling software here.

Kareo is one of the medical billing and practice management solutions that is used by medical physicians across the United States.

Blockchain healthcare solutions

Healthcare technologists and professionals all over the world see blockchain technology as a means to secure and streamline the sharing of medical records, protect sensitive details from the hackers and give patients control over the information.

In order to make these situations realistic, blockchain healthcare solutions are needed by a blockchain development company.

There are some really good startups and businesses who have already introduced blockchain tech to the healthcare software industry that provides a way to store health records. When needed, professionals may request to see the patients’ information from the blockchain.

Applications of Blockchain in healthcare

Clinical trials: Smart contracts manage permissions for the physicians to edit information in the patient’s record. This way only the doctors involved in the patient’s care will have access, while the other physicians may still see the records. Back in 2017, Forbes had estimated that about 50% of clinical trials went unreported and the government had no results for the 90% trials.

On the other hand, Blockchain is able to store these results with only some doctors having permission to edit, and all other doctors are able to see the information of the trial. This way, the data is shared easily across the researchers.

The information gathered from a trial can be stored in the blockchain, hence eliminating the need to report anywhere else. Interested doctors may see the information in the blockchain.

Niche specialty and Multispecialty software

A multi-specialty EHR software has many benefits for specialty practices spanning to various domains.

What is the EHR software?

An electronic health record (EHR) is a real-time, patient-centered record that makes information available securely and instantly to the authorized users. Although an EHR contains the treatment and medical histories of the patients, it is built to go beyond standard clinical information collected in a provider’s office & can be inclusive of a broader view of the patient’s care.

EHR’s can:

Increased productivity and efficiency: EHRs are more efficient than paper records by allowing centralized chart management & quick access to patient information from anywhere with all queries. Communication with insurance providers, other clinicians, diagnostic centers and pharmacies is trackable and faster. All of these EHR key features provide significant time savings, hence, leading to more productivity.

Better patient care: With streamld access to the patient’s complete information, there is no need for filling out the same paperwork at every doctor’s office. All the providers are able to see what all diagnostic tests have the patient gone through, along with which all treatments worked and which didn't. Patients are less prone to duplicate imaging procedures or testing since the images and results are just in one place. Better coordination between the providers provides more accurate diagnosis and better patient care that must always be the central focus of the healthcare provision.

Summing Up:

We have discussed current trends in healthcare 2019 and how various software trends are affecting and impacting healthcare.

Regardless, in 2019, expect more buyer-value products and consumer-grade experiences. From determining fraud to slashing healthcare expenditure, advanced healthcare software could very well be the golden bullet that eliminates all kinds of healthcare problems and inefficiencies.

If you are into healthcare business and looking to develop a healthcare software based on any specific technology like Blockchain or IoT, you must hire dedicated Indian developers from the renowned and reputed software development company.

How to hire the best healthcare app development company?

Research well online for companies. Based on the past work experience and client testimonials, list down few of the reputed app development companies with best software app developers.

After listing them down, make sure to contact them individually. Explain to them your requirements, get their quotes as per the project.

Once you get the quote, you can hire a top healthcare app development company that best meets your requirements, assures to complete your project on time and at an affordable cost.