Digital Healthcare
Digital healthcare is using digital technologies like software, hardware and services to improve accessibility and quality of medical care. The broad concept of digital healthcare mainly includes technologies such as internet of things (IoT),artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), robotics and assistive technologies, cloud computing, big data, augmented and virtual reality. Following list will give brief idea about each technology with current applications in healthcare industry.
Internet of Things : (Internet of Medical Things )
IoT application and devices are designed for patients, physician ,hospitals and insurance companies as well. Devices incorporating sensors and apps also know as wearables to monitor continuous health parameters such as heart rate, remote monitoring of patients, teleconsultation/telemedicine for remote places. Realtime tracking of medical equipment in hospitals, asset management like pharmacy inventory control, other centralized real-time monitoring of hospital rooms temperature, humidity etc.
Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning:
Well, we all know the tremendous potential AI/ML have. Every sector from automobile to agriculture now a days uses AI/ML to improve it’s efficiency. In medical care we can see its presence from disease diagnostics, precision medicine, digital twin, new treatment development, drug research sector, decision making and every other possible area.
Robotics/Assistive Technologies:
As a automotive robots are used in assembly line for increasing accuracy and precision, similarly assistive robots are used by physicians for minimally invasive, safer and faster surgeries. With the use of digital technologies now physicians can perform surgeries from far seating in remote place. Mobility aids, hearing aids, and other impaired devices are categorized into area of assistive technologies and can be used for people with disabilities.
Cloud Computing:
Cloud Computing is basically a technology that uses remote servers on the internet rather than local drives to store, manage, and access data online rather than local drives. The data can be anything such as files, images, documents, audio, video etc. In medical care, cloud computing is used in mobile apps for booking doctor’s appointment, digital consultation, health alerts ,hospital data management, telemedicine etc. Software-as-a-services (SaaS) is a component of cloud computing.
Big Data:
Extremely large amount of data can do wonders. The trends, patterns and associations can be analyzed from big dataset of hospitals, patients ,people behaviors. Big data analytics is used in early disease diagnosis, pharmaceutical research and development, health insurance risk assessment, population health, health tracking and possible areas of medical care where data is generated.
Augmented and Virtual Reality:
Currently augmented and virtual reality is used in healthcare to improve patient care, provider training, and more. They are used by physicians in making better decisions using 3D anatomy imaging, practicing surgery simulation, physiotherapy and behavioral treatment.