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Since the COVID pandemic, health tech development has advanced at an unprecedented pace. From telehealth to Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) and mobile health solutions, every aspect of modern healthcare has been transformed, significantly impacting how we access and receive care. While many still prefer in-person doctor visits, a vast network of virtual clinics now offers healthcare and medical advice anytime, anywhere.
Delivering medical services directly to patients' homes is no longer just a convenience—it's a standard that's here to stay. The rapid rise of health tech has set a new benchmark for patient expectations. To meet these growing demands, healthcare institutions must quickly adopt the latest digital solutions.
Health Tech Development Gains Popularity
With teleconsultations, online appointment booking, medical chatbots, and digital symptom checking, it’s clear to see what a great impact health tech development is having on the world. There’s a definitive trend pointing toward merging related solutions into one comprehensive multi-service system, resulting in the increased popularity of complete digital health ecosystems.
The progression of well-being and mental health apps is also a testament to this. Every day there are more online options available for people struggling with mental illness. Combine this with meditation, sleep tracking, activity tracking, and nutritional apps, and we’re in a new era of high-tech medical solutions that focus on each individual’s personal physical, mental, and emotional needs.
The Future of Health Tech Development
Most industries have decades to slowly reach the level of maturity needed so they can test out innovative solutions and take further steps accordingly. Due to the COVID pandemic, the health tech industry didn’t have that kind of time.
Many industries take decades to reach a level of maturity that can easily absorb innovative solutions and adapt accordingly. In 2012, 50% of doctors in the US kept patient records exclusively with pen and paper. Back then, the healthcare industry was overly reliant on old-fashioned and inefficient ways of working.
When COVID hit, things had to change — and they had to change fast. Social distancing played a huge role in determining the route health tech development took, finding ways doctors and patients could interact without even being in the same building.
At the same time, when people were feeling the immense pressure of loneliness upon their shoulders due to lockdown regulations, top mobile development companies set to work to find out how they could bring people together in the digital world while keeping them safe. If it hadn’t been for advanced health tech development during this time, the world would look a lot different today.
Why It Works
If the healthcare industry is so set in its ways, why did modern solutions work and why were they adopted so readily?
The reason these modern solutions were so successful is that people were already used to seeing major technological disruption in other areas. For example, instead of going into the street and hailing a cab, most people now reach for their phones and pull up their favorite ridesharing app. Seeing the success and benefits this modern technology has brought, users are more likely to adopt other new types of technology and expect the same results.
Digital health solutions gained momentum at the same time as people were beginning to take more of an interest in and prioritize their health. Wearables that track everything from steps taken and calories consumed to heart rate and REM sleep saw explosive growth in 2014 and 2015, just years before the major overhaul in health tech development.
The Affordable Care Act also played a role. It helped by incentivizing the adoption of health tech development software in private healthcare across the US.
Challenges
It’s not all good news. Modern health tech development does face several challenges that need to be overcome. Privacy protection is the main concern. By limiting or preventing the sharing of data, the digital healthcare industry could struggle to keep up with technological developments in the future.
Unlike in other industries, there’s a lot more at stake when it comes to healthcare. While other markets can become complacent or rely on the competition for innovation, healthcare organizations can quickly fall behind and endanger people’s health and well-being in the process.
FAQs
Q1. What is the best healthcare technology?
The best healthcare technology today is Artificial Intelligence, such as software created by the best AI development companies to help doctors read CT scans more comprehensively. Some other examples of healthcare technology that have made a major impact include:
- Integrating data and predictive analysis
- Mental health technology
- Virtual care and remote patient monitoring
- Digital therapy
- Healthcare wearables
Q2. What are the three ways to describe health technology?
The three ways to describe health technology are its physical nature, its purpose or application, and its stage of diffusion, according to the National Library of Medicine.
Examples of physical nature include:
- Drugs
- Biologics
- Devices
- Medical and surgical procedures
- Public health programs
- Prevention
- Screening
- Diagnosis
- Treatment
- Rehabilitation
- Future
- Experimental
- çInvestigational
- Established
- Obsolete
