Global healthcare systems have been challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic. What we thought was a smooth system has now been flipped, and we’ve seen flaws, areas for improvement, and the need for digital transformation.
Because of the exploding number of COVID-19 cases, healthcare facilities had to make the necessary changes in the supply chain and in-house technology since the demand wasn’t anticipated due to the crisis. Fortunately, the healthcare sector is finally finding its groove and has created a system that will help operations and even adapt a digital environment for the workforce.
But how will things look like for the healthcare industry after the pandemic? What are the new changes that could happen? If you’re curious, stick around. Below, you’ll find a list of healthcare IT trends that will dominate 2021 post-pandemic.
Big data
Electronic Health Records (EHR) have been around for a while, but most recently, healthcare professionals are finding better use for this data to help provide improved patient treatment. How will they do this?
Medical professionals and the workforce will use Big Health Data, which will serve as a pool for treatments in the whole healthcare sector. With that, the quality of treatments will improve, and predictions for illnesses will be more accurate and ahead of time.
This can be done through IBM’s enhanced analytics solution, which is IBM Watson Health. This can go through large amounts of patient data and understand patterns that will serve as valuable insights to healthcare professionals.
Telehealth and Telemedicine
To cater to remote healthcare services delivery, many facilities will be focusing on providing telehealth and telemedicine services. With this, professionals will be using electronic platforms, like EHR, video conferencing, and other software to reach out to patients, clients, and other medical healthcare professionals.
Since the global pandemic required people to stay at home, this was the perfect time to implement strict telehealth and telemedicine practices to keep patients safe in their homes while still getting high-quality medical treatments, diagnoses, and consultations.
Hospital Management
Because of the sudden influx of patients visiting and getting treatments in hospitals due to the pandemic, many healthcare facilities call to automate hospital processes for smoother operations.
Hospital Management Systems have been growing globally and will continue to rise, eliminating manual disruption in hospital operations. This makes so many tasks easier, such as tracking resources and digitizing patient data.
APIs and data sharing
Even before the pandemic, the need to collect data and to have an efficient system for it was needed, and only during this global crisis did the healthcare industry really felt the need for it.
Thus, numerous health APIs were developed to provide the ability to share resources and data to connected healthcare institutions, making diagnosis and treatment quicker and more accurate.
Wearable Technology
One of the biggest significant changes in the healthcare sector is that many medical professionals use wearable technology to help receive insights while on-the-go.
Wearable technology, such as smartwatches, smartphone sensors, and other wearable devices, creates a new healthcare industry trend. These technological advancements provide real-time monitoring of medical parameters while sharing comprehensive data to help with medical tasks, such as diagnosis and treatment.
Conclusion
This COVID-19 pandemic has pushed many industries, especially the healthcare industry, to drive innovation and find gaps in the system to improve the way professionals work during a crisis. All the IT changes that have taken place in the last few months will bring about permanent change in how everyone will approach healthcare in 2021.
And for the coming year, healthcare IT will continue to rise and bring necessary change to help professionals connect to other healthcare workers, making the healthcare system work even more efficiently.
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