From smartphones to cloud storage, technology has revolutionized daily life, especially in the past decade. The medical field has certainly taken its own giant steps with emerging technology in healthcare as well. But in some areas, the digital evolution has lagged, notably in introducing tools that patients could use for at-home health monitoring.
In recent years, manufacturers and designers have become fixated with designing digital tools that aim to improve overall wellness while providing patients with the most personalized care possible. These digital solutions can empower people to actively participate in their own healthcare and give providers valuable data that may improve treatments and decision-making. The emerging trend of at-home technologies, such as wearable devices and healthcare-related smartphone apps, has opened the door for greater precision medicine.
The Landscape for Healthcare Digitization
From both the patient and provider perspectives, healthcare digitization has been transformational. It's changed how people communicate with their providers and how they share their health data. It's also contributed to how providers make treatment decisions, potentially improving outcomes.
When implemented, these tools—which include devices powered by artificial intelligence (AI), remote patient monitoring software, and telemedicine—may enhance chronic disease management, improve access to care, promote affordability, and deliver individualized service. However, when compared with other industries, the healthcare industry has traditionally been slow to embrace new technologies—often citing concerns over cybersecurity, interoperability, privacy, and safety.1,2
What Healthcare Can Learn from Other Industries
As other industries experiment and experience digitization success, their accomplishments can serve as guideposts for healthcare along its own digitization journey.
Outside industries have created a three-step path that healthcare can follow to achieve effective digitization:3
- Identify the transformational need, then choose the appropriate technology solution.
- Design a workflow or patient care model that can effectively leverage new capabilities.
- Monitor the change and look for ways to continue to improve.
The digital pivot by tractor company John Deere highlights opportunity for and provides examples of how healthcare could approach the shift toward greater technology use.3 To maximize efficiency, Deere built tractors that incorporate cloud computing, machine learning, global positioning, and computer vision. Farmers use their smartphones to plant crops more accurately and make real-time adjustments. In effect, Deere has created a more individualized approach to farming—setting a strong example for what healthcare could do with personalized health.
Impact of Burgeoning At-Home Digital Healthcare Tools
According to a survey by Deloitte, a key driving force behind healthcare digitization is creating a better experience for the patient.5 Health system executives said thinking about care delivery processes from the consumer's perspective could build trust and loyalty—and lead to even more healthcare innovations.
One way the healthcare industry is trying to leverage digitization is with at-home healthcare tools that let patients do some testing, monitor their vitals, and perform other routine checks, and then share the data with their providers.6 These technologies let patients track key information conveniently on their own and can help their providers identify any potential problems that should be addressed between appointments.
Where Healthcare Digitization Is Headed
Although this kind of digitization work is nascent, several products in the wellness space reveal what healthcare has already accomplished and where it's headed. Cloud-based, digital software tools that promote collaboration between patients and providers—as well as data-sharing for better outcomes—are already in use and addressing some of healthcare's major goals in the near future.
Refining Chronic Disease Management
Currently, 60 percent of American adults have a chronic disease that requires active monitoring.7 That's a tall order when patients can sometimes go months between healthcare visits. Digital tools that can capture vital diagnostics, such as a physician-prescribed Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM), can inform doctors about a patient's condition, such as high blood pressure or diabetes. Using a small sensor into the upper arm or abdomen, a CGM can read glucose levels in the interstitial fluid to help monitor Type I or Type II diabetes.
Improving Access to Care
Low-income and rural patients often lack access to quality healthcare, frequently leading to negative outcomes. Digital tools like video consultations and wearable devices can expand their access. Other devices, such as Pulsenmore's at-home handheld ultrasound that connects to a smartphone, can extend valuable care to more of the population. With this device in particular, patients can self-scan, send the image to their provider, and have a consultation, and the data can even be integrated into their electronic medical records. Telemedicine tools and technology not only improve access to care by allowing patients to monitor their health at home, but they can also help cut costs.
Increasing Affordability
The price tag for healthcare can be a stumbling block for many people, which is what makes telemedicine so important as a means of reducing unnecessary visits to emergency rooms and transportation expenses. The out-of-pocket cost for an ultrasound exam for patients, for instance, ranges from just over $300 to about $2,200 depending on the state.8 Emerging technology in healthcare and ultrasound is designed to make devices—like at-home and over-the-counter, wearable blood pressure monitors—and services more affordable and drive down the overall cost.
Establishing More Individualized Care
A one-size-fits-all solution rarely exists in healthcare. New digital tools are designed to support the precision medicine patients and consumers prefer. A personal electrocardiogram device designed for over-the-counter consumers from AliveCor enables this type of longitudinal, individualized care. It collects data from consumer-conducted scans and immediately uploads it to their electronic medical record, enabling healthcare providers to make better short- and long-term treatment decisions.
Marching toward At-Home Healthcare Tech
Healthcare's march toward greater digitization—specifically with at-home patient monitoring tools—has progressed significantly in recent years. But the industry still has far to go. By looking to the advancements in other industries and pursuing improvements in the patient experience, emerging technology in healthcare will be poised to revolutionize care delivery with remote patient monitoring software and tech.
Resources:
1. Gilbert G, Fernandes LA, Sawant A. Digital is reshaping US health insurance—winners are moving fast. McKinsey & Company. Published January 8, 2019. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare/our-insights/digital-is-reshaping-us-health-insurance-winners-are-moving-fast. Accessed February 15, 2023.
2. Ravitz R. Why healthcare can be slow to adopt technological innovations. Med-Tech Innovation News. Published April 2, 2020. https://www.med-technews.com/medtech-insights/why-healthcare-is-slow-to-adopt-technological-innovations/. Accessed February 15, 2023.
3. Nintex. "Three Steps to Digitizing Your Core Business Processes." Nintex, April 10, 2023. https://www.nintex.com/blog/digitize-core-business-processes/.
4. Millenson ML. At CES, a tractor and a patient stethoscope point to digital health future. Forbes. Published January 13, 2023. https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelmillenson/2023/01/13/at-ces-a-tractor-and-a-patient-stethoscope-point-to-digital-health-future/. Accessed February 15, 2023.
5. Shudes C, Shukla M, Chang C, et al. Digital transformation: From a buzzword to an imperative for health systems. Deloitte. Published October 26, 2021. https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/health-care/digital-transformation-in-healthcare.html. Accessed February 15, 2023.
6. Digital health tech takes spotlight at CES 2023. Tomorrow's World Today. Published January 9, 2023. https://www.tomorrowsworldtoday.com/2023/01/09/digital-health-tech-takes-spotlight-at-ces-2023/. Accessed February 15, 2023.
7. Chronic diseases in America. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Last reviewed December 13, 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/resources/infographic/chronic-diseases.htm. Accessed February 15, 2023.
8. Paavola, Alia. "The Average Cash Price of a Hospital Ultrasound in Each State." Becker's Hospital Review. Accessed May 1, 2023. https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/the-average-cost-of-a-hospital-ultrasound-in-each-state.html.
