The healthcare sector is one of the most important walks of life. And not only because it has one of the greatest contributions to the gross domestic product of the country but also since it has the potential to save many tangible lives. The healthcare sector might be considered to have been influenced by technology at many levels, including operational and where it assists doctors to accomplish several patient-critical tasks with ease.
However, in spite of the abundance available out there, the healthcare sector lags more than a few necessities that could alter its destiny in the modern world. It is still facing more than one of the impending issues that it was a while ago and ultimately restricting itself from delivering the care-based services that it should have been doing already.
Healthcare in the Modern World
If you look at it closely, the healthcare sector is still to a great extent shying away from emerging technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence. Regardless of the fact that research has shown the multitude of benefits that both of these technologies have to offer, many are scared in the healthcare sector.
While some believe that all of this is a move to replace the actual workforce of the industry, there are others who think that the penetration of machine learning and artificial intelligence will remove any aspect of human touch between industries. It will change the dynamics of the doctor-patient relationship and make it in human instead.
However, what these people fail to realize is that all these new technologies are being introduced with one motto- help healthcare experts provide better medical guidance, facilities, treatments and solutions to the patients. It doesn’t aim to replace the doctors but help them make critical decisions about a patient’s health more profoundly. This means being backed by data and considering all the parameters of a patient’s health into consideration that are otherwise ignored in ordinary healthcare scenarios.
The point is that even though the customer spends so much on the healthcare services around the globe, known from the ever-increasing contribution of the sector to the GDP along with the soaring costs, they are not given value care. In other words, the approach of the healthcare industry in the world today is still to focus on the number of patients other than the value provided to them.
But, this approach is also proving to be costly for the industry since the world population is rising strikingly. Research indicates that the current population of the world in 7.8 billion, and it will only rise in the future. This means new diseases will be discovered, new epidemics will spread, more people will age and basically there will be a lot to look forward for the healthcare industry.
Unless there is a strong technological intervention, there is no way that the healthcare industry can cater to the emerging challenges of the population. Even with a large workforce, we need computational minds to make predictions or look into the futuristic aspects of things.
Consumerism Will Be on the Rise
Consumers of the healthcare system even today continue to pay for outcome-based services instead of value services. This is yet another reason why healthcare costs are rising so strikingly. But, all is not lost. The wave of consumerism is seen increasing by many folds as 2020 breathes its first few breaths.
The key for organizations and medical institutions to excel this year is to change their approach for more customer-friendly strategies. A lot of the institutions still had the conventional business to business transactions going on, which shamelessly neglected the needs and wants of the customer. The new role of the customer asks to have more say in their medical treatments and avail services that are given to them based on value.
More to this, we are starting to see that the healthcare industry is in a similar fashion to business adopting tools and methods that help them understand the customer in a more effective manner. This means looking up to their behaviors, providing them with important information along with driving decision making that is customer-focused and ultimately providing customer convenience.
The Rise in Prescription Drug Prices
Even though technological disruption will try to alter the course of action for the healthcare industry, there will be a rise in the cost of prescription drugs. It is something that the healthcare industry has to find answers for. Some of the prescription drugs that have existed int eh healthcare space for so long are seen to increase their prices by many folds. As a result, the patients have to turn to the medical experts to look for cost-effective solutions. Because if nothing is done about the prices, patients will choose less effective drugs. A lot of them have also started to ignore doses and abandoned treatments altogether due to price concerns.
Technological Disruption
Technology will continue to persist in the healthcare sector. A significant difference that is being observed from last year till date is that people are beginning to put their trust in emerging technologies for the good. Be it analytics for the management of operations in a hospital or adopting the predictive algorithms for early detection of disease in a patient, medical experts and other healthcare professionals are being optimistic about all that the technology is bringing to the table. For those who choose to not evolve their traditional market approach, will instantly lose their shares in the market.
Conclusion
Even though the healthcare industry doesn’t seem to do all sparkingly well, positive steps are being on the cards. The only concern is that not all healthcare organizations are adopting technology as fast as it is being conceived in the world. Many have started using improved healthcare IT services for the detection and diagnosis of diseases, but this wave needs to spread to other parts of the world for world population care.