Moving towards connected healthcare

Digital transformation of the healthcare industry has been going in fits and starts for about the last decade. Legacy systems, disparate data, privacy concerns, and industry regulations have stalled digital advancements in connected care for many years. But these days, digital transformation of the healthcare industry is gaining some serious momentum.

What’s driving the move toward connected healthcare? According to the SAP eBook, Connected Care: The Digital Pulse of Global Healthcare, a number of factors have triggered the recent demand for digital technology in the healthcare industry:

- Escalating cost of healthcare: Healthcare spending is skyrocketing due to aging populations and chronic diseases. This is pushing governments and health insurers to look at wearable devices and other digital technologies to help stem the rising costs.

- Decreasing cost of electronic components: The shrinking size and cost of electronics has led to countless miniature sensors being embedded into all sorts of medical devices, and even into the human body.

- The Internet of Healthcare Things: The process of embedded medical sensors communicating with medical equipment and other mobile health technology is referred to as the Internet of Healthcare Things (IoHT). The IoHT is playing a huge role in the expansion of connected care, and the sensor data integrated with information from other health technologies creates massive amounts of Big Data.

- Big Data capabilities: New technologies are providing better ways of handling the bulk of data generated by the IoHT. In-memory computing solutions can now process vast amounts of information in real time, and data mining technologies help to identify links between patient information and treatment outcomes.

- Engaged digital patients: Wearable technology is driving tech-savvy patients to be more engaged, proactive, and accountable when it comes to their own health. This focus on preventive care can encourage lifestyle changes that can prevent chronic diseases and reduce the need for medical care.

- Accountable care: Healthcare organizations are now actively searching for IoHT technologies that can help them achieve accountable care, which is the best treatment delivered in the most efficient way. For example, wearable medical devices can provide vital information and decrease the number of costly visits to healthcare facilities.

These days, rather than being intimidated or overwhelmed by the legacy systems and massive amounts of disparate data, healthcare providers, governments, insurers, life sciences, and pharmaceutical organizations are now looking for ways to capitalize on digital transformation in the healthcare industry.

Have you thought about ways to capitalize on digital transformation in your industry? Perhaps you should consider how recent technological advancements could help your sector too.

The original article can be found here.