Healthcare organizations are increasingly investigating and unleashing the power of intelligent digital technologies, using them to deliver personalized decision support and care. However, with great innovation comes great responsibility. For people who seek the benefits of digital transformation and enabled services, companies must prioritize trust and responsibility.
Healthcare leaders have great potential to apply emerging technologies to create deeper, more meaningful relationships with people, but there are choices to be made on that journey. Competitive movement, shifts in buying requirements, category disrupters demand that executives quickly “reposition” their company, and/or offerings to compete in changing business environments.
These trends will impact healthcare in the future:
Trend 1: Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The power of artificial intelligence is both awesome and alarming. AI can support human decision making in a wide variety of areas such as providing a recommended treatment plan or clinical decision support. Proving outcomes is a way to win trust with clinicians and payers alike. AI will drive that in the future.
Trend 2: Virtual and Augmented Reality
Virtual and augmented reality technologies comprise extended reality, which blurs the lines between the physical and simulated fields. This technology makes immersive experiences a reality. Imagine a cancer patient in a rural area having a consult with an oncology expert in New York. A surgical resident practicing a new technique in a virtual environment before making the first incision.
Trend 3: Data Accuracy
Artificial intelligence is only as good as the data used to train it. Without establishing the accuracy of the data, organizations will be open to risk. To address these challenges, companies must follow a dual mandate to maximize accuracy and minimize opportunities for data manipulation.
Trend 4: Strategic Partnerships
Now more than ever, strategic partnerships are critical to success for healthcare organizations. As companies move towards ecosystems and lines blur between industries and categories, unexpected partnerships can arise. Companies need be open to partnerships and aggressively finding win-win opportunities in unlikely places.
Trend 5: Edge Computing
Current enterprise infrastructure is not designed for the scale and speed necessary. The future requires an overhaul. Reimagining technology infrastructure opens new opportunities regarding what is possible and delivers insights and intelligence everywhere.
While it feels like the transition to digital business has been a journey of a thousand miles, the innovators and leaders of tomorrow are already thinking about new digital technologies to enable their future. The prepared will survive.
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