Buyers Speak
Future healthcare challenges
The transformation of the healthcare industry will not only bring us better health outcomes, but also future-proof not just the sector but also the society at large. Delivering wellness, a connected health ecosystem will use technology platforms underpinned by Business 4.0 drivers – AI, agility, automation, and cloud. In the future of health, we expect six key areas – data sharing, interoperability, equitable access, empowered consumers, behavior change, and scientific breakthrough – to collectively transform the existing health system from treatment-based reactionary care to prevention and well-being.
One of the top healthcare challenges identified by several respondents was the increasing move toward a more patient-centric business model. Patients pay approximately one-third of healthcare and coverage costs each year in the US, and indirectly pay even more. Future healthcare challenges include the tiering of healthcare, growing numbers of elderly people, new technologies, new and re-emerging infectious diseases, threat of terrorism, and rediscovery of lifestyle-related health issues.
What will healthcare look like in 2030? The next decade will see major shifts in the design of health systems and healthcare, propelled by digital health, growing consumerizm, mounting financial constraints, and accelerated by Covid-19. There is also the burgeoning field of bionics, where electronics mimic biology in order to enhance human abilities.
While elective and military enhancements are inevitable, medical applications – like artificial organs and replacement limbs – will arguably be the most common by 2050. Top five healthcare tech trends poised for growth in 2022 are – hybrid care models combining virtual and in-person services, digitization of healthcare specialties, increased AI adoption, health systems moving to the cloud, and advanced precision medicine.
What is the biggest challenge in healthcare today? The biggest issues facing healthcare today are costs and transparency, consumer experience, delivery-system transformation, data and analytics, interoperability/consumer data access, holistic individual health, next-generation payment models, and accessible points of care.
How can healthcare be improved? According to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), healthcare should be safe: Avoid injuries to patients from the care that is intended to help them; effective: Match care to science; avoid overuse of ineffective care and underuse of effective care; patient-centered: Honor the individual and respect his choice. Major healthcare challenges being solved by digital health are reducing healthcare costs; people collectively living longer than they have at any point in recorded history; reducing inefficiencies in healthcare; improving healthcare access; increasing quality of care; and making medicine more patient-specific.
Now what measures are necessary for the expansion of health facilities? There should be proper treatment in the healthcare centers and hospitals. The doctors and staff should be dedicated to treat the people. They should not focus only on their benefit. In many hospitals, we see that the doctors come late and leave early from their work.
Five key steps to expand preventive healthcare facilities in India:
- Adoption of medical devices;
- Online healthcare records;
- Increased government spending on primary care;
- Healthcare policies; and
- Sanitation as a key tool.
How can we increase the effectiveness of healthcare programs? In order to enhance the effectiveness of healthcare programs, the main focus should be on increasing the number of hospitals, modernization of medical facilities, development of infrastructure, improving the doctor-population ratio and increasing the number of medical colleges in India; also we should keep in mind what measures are necessary for the expansion of health facilities.
There should be proper treatment in the healthcare centers and hospitals. The doctors and staff should be dedicated to treat the people. They should not only focus on their benefit. In many hospitals we see that the doctors come late and leave early from their work.
