Our ability to practice medicine in the future is being shaped by advancements in digital healthcare technologies like AI, 3D printing, remote monitoring services, telehealth services, VR/AR, nanotechnology, and robotics. It is up to us to learn about the upcoming technological trends that will govern the healthcare industry. The key to medicine’s future is embracing the changes in the healthcare industry by collaborating with technology and clinicians. This will ensure that treatment remains relevant for many years to come.
Perhaps you are concerned that doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals will lose their employment to robots and artificial intelligence (AI). Maybe you worry that artificial intelligence (AI) will rule the globe in a few years.
Nobody can stop the advancement of technology. The power of digital technologies will eventually impact every aspect of our life. As a result, we must allow ourselves to remain open to the idea that technology will alter the world as we know it.
What Are The New Technological Trends to Improve Healthcare?
Many people believe that technology is the only path forward. They think that if we adopt new technologies and remain at the forefront, it would only benefit and improve our lives. The relationship between technology and people has the potential to be very fruitful if always innovate and strive to be in forefront of it.
Digital technological trends in healthcare and medicine has the ability to improve ineffective healthcare systems. They will offer less expensive, quicker, and more effective treatments for diseases (such AIDS or Ebola). They can level the playing field between medical staff and patients. We might use these technological trends to live healthier lives and contribute to healthy communities.
It is crucial to modify our perspective on health as a whole, healthcare, and medicine as we usher in the future by using these technologies to improve our health.
So, how would it actually appear? In this post, we’ll examine six ways ways that medical technology is influencing healthcare.
1) Virtual Reality
Virtual reality (VR) is transforming both the lives of doctors and their patients. If you were to look into the future, you could be able to observe surgeries as if you were wielding a knife or even traveling to Spain or your own house while lying in a hospital bed!
Virtual reality (VR) is employed in a variety of contexts. It can be used instead of operating on actual patients to teaching aspiring and experienced surgeons. Companies like ImmersiveTouch and Osso VR are creating these software tools, and the results are encouraging. According to a recent study, surgeons trained in virtual reality performed 280% better overall than their conventionally trained counterparts.
These technological trends are also helping tremendously patients in pain management. Women are given VR headsets. They wear them during labor so they can picture a comforting scene. When employing VR as a stimulus, patients with diagnoses of cardiac, neurological, gastrointestinal, and post-surgical pain have demonstrated a reduction in their pain levels. A 2019 pilot study found that patients who underwent surgery experienced less anxiety and pain overall and a better overall healthcare experience.
2) Augmented Reality
In contrast to virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) allows users to see information as quickly as possible without losing sight of the real world. These distinguishing characteristics, on the part of both healthcare recipients and professionals, are what are making AR the driving force in the future of healthcare.
For health care professionals, it might help medical students better prepare for procedures in the real world and enable practicing surgeons to advance their skills. Students utilize the HoloAnatomy app on the Microsoft HoloLens to learn about anatomy. Medical students now have access to precise and thorough digital human anatomy models that allow them to study without the use of actual people.
With their mixed reality headgear, Magic Leap, a similarly innovative business, is working on something a little different. The therapeutic platform was created in partnership between Magic Leap, XRHealth, SyncThink for brain health, and Brainlab. Brainlab is a German technology business that will use its technologies in the healthcare industry. Although no commercial products have yet been released, these alliances will definitely have a profitable future in the healthcare market
3) Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a potent instrument and can completely transform the healthcare industry. Medical record mining enables AI algorithms to create treatment plans, create medications more quickly than any human doctor, and even identify cancerous and non-cancerous tissue samples.
Atomwise searches through a library of molecular structures using supercomputers to find treatments. The start-up, which was introduced in 2015. They conducted a virtual search for secure, current medications that may be modified to treat the Ebola virus. The company’s AI system predicted the discovery of two medications that may lessen the infectivity of the Ebola virus.
More recently, Google’s DeerMind created an AI for breast cancer analysis. On pre-cleared sets of data to distinguish breast cancer, the new technology outperformed human radiologists by 11.5%.
These two businesses are just two of the countless others utilizing AI to transform healthcare in the near future. These technological trends are actual instances of what we might anticipate in the future if we allow AI in healthcare. It will disrupt the medical industry and invent new pharmaceuticals by mining medical information.
4) Nanotechnology
In the near future, it’s possible that nanoparticles and nanodevices will be used as precise medication delivery systems, miniaturized surgical instruments, or cancer treatment tools.
In 2014, some scientists from the Max Planck Institute created tiny microbots with scalloped shapes . These microbots can physically move through physiological fluids. These intelligent tablets, like PillCam, are utilized for colonoscopies in a painless, patient-friendly manner. Late in 2018, MIT researchers created an electronic pill. It can wirelessly transmit analysis data or release medications in response to smartphone commands.
Smart patches, a product of nanotechnology, are gaining market share. The smart patch was on display at CES 2020 by the French company Grapheal. It permits ongoing wound monitoring, and the graphene core’s properties may even hasten wound healing.
As technology advances, there will be a lot more concrete examples of nanotechnology in healthcare. Future PillCams might even be able to take biopsy samples, and nanosurgery might be possible with remote-controlled capsules.
5) Robotics
One of the most dynamic and fascinating areas in medicine is robotics. Robot innovations span these fields, from exoskeletons or disinfection robots to surgical robots and pharmabotics.
Exoskeletons had an outstanding year in 2019. The first surgery using an exoskeleton was completed, and a tetraplegic man was able to operate an exoskeleton only with his mind. These robots can perform variety of tasks, such as carrying elderly patients and assisting nurses to help patients with spinal cord injuries.
Robotic companionship reduces loneliness. It is also utilized in medicine to treat mental health problems and assist children who are suffering from chronic illnesses. Jibo, Buddy, Paro, and Pepper are examples of robots now in existence. Some allow for voice, camera, and touch sensor control by their owners.
6) Advancing Pharmaceutical Development
New medication development is currently an expensive and time-consuming procedure. However, there are new approaches that use techniques like AI to enhance medication development. The pharmaceutical industry will change as a result of these novel methods and tools in the years to come.
Businesses like Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Deep Genomics, and Turbine are utilizing AI’s power. They are using AI to rapidly and cheaply develop novel drug candidates and therapy options.
In silico drug trials, are yet another emerging technological trends. These customized computer simulations are employed in the creation or regulatory assessment of healthcare interventions, technologies, and products. With the development of organs-on-a-chip, this company is already breaking down barriers. This development is already in use in silico since current biological and technological knowledge forbids simulated clinical trials. The Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) Institute has created virtual models using its technology, HumMod. And is utilizing them to study heart disease and osteoporosis.
Conclusion
Due in large part to the advancement of technology, medicine is experiencing a particularly inventive period right now. The goal is to disseminate medical research and knowledge that will advance healthcare in the future. In the future of healthcare, we’ll see advancements in digital healthcare technologies like AI, 3D printing, remote monitoring services, telehealth services, VR/AR, nanotechnology, and robotics.