Top Tendencies in Health Information Technology in 2023

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 era, the healthcare industry has probably become the sphere that has seen the most significant transformation, undergoing solid changes and implementing new technologies. What has the year 2023 prepared for the healthcare industry? In this article, we’re trying to predict what is going to happen with the digital healthcare sector in the foreseen future and what healthcare technology trends will be the “hottest”. 

Healthcare Market Overview 

For sure, healthcare technology will continue to advance in every aspect, and it’s easy to see why. Since ground-breaking technologies like AI (artificial intelligence), ML (machine learning), cybersecurity, extended reality, and others keep developing and penetrating medicine services, the healthcare industry will definitely keep improving. Plus, the year 2023 is anticipated to improve the sector even more with new emerging healthcare technology trends, innovative discoveries, and digital transformation of facilities. 

According to Precedence research, the healthcare information systems market will reach $309.3 billion by 2023 and is expected to reach a whopping $528.5 billion by 2030.

The intention is clear – the IT healthcare market will continue to expand very rapidly, bringing better service to patients and emerging healthcare opportunities to companies. Yet, as more money will be invested in healthcare technology, there may be high competition between health-related organizations. So, if you’d like to make your IT systems more efficient and stay ahead of the competition, you should take into account the following technological trends in healthcare.

Top Healthcare Digital Trends

Here is the list of the main trends in healthcare technology that are worth your attention.

Remote Healthcare 

Healthcare communities, virtual hospitals, and telehealth will continue to thrive. Nowadays, more and more patients and practitioners realize that health care can be provided at a distance for many conditions. For example, telemedicine can cover everything from chats or video calls with your doctor to remote surgery. Virtual hospitals, in their turn, offer a centralized system that allows practitioners to provide care for remote patients. 

Retail Healthcare

Many healthcare companies offer their products and services through retail outlets, and the number is expected to double during 2023. Nowadays, big retailers like Amazon and Walmart offer such services as vaccinations, blood tests, and medical check-ups that have earlier been done only by hospitals, clinics, or doctor’s practices. Naturally, accessibility and easiness lure more and more clients. 

Wearables

Wearable medical devices will stay at the peak of their popularity in 2023, yet we expect to see some great changes here. Previously, the patients mainly sent their physical stats measured by their fitness trackers (activity levels, sleep patterns, heart rate, etc) to their providers so that they interpret the metrics and prevent risks. This year, as the “Internet of Medical Things” is rapidly expanding, patients can track such sophisticated indicators as ECGs, blood pressure, or temperature and predict the risk of heart attacks or other diseases on their own. Moreover, at the latest CES 2023, the startup called Nuralogix reported that quite soon, users will be able to measure their heart rate, BP, body mass, skin age, stress level, and more just by switching on a selfie camera and running the proprietary app. Probably, a selfie is going to give you about 1,000 diagnostics about the state of your health in the nearest future. The company called Withings U-Scan has gone further and revealed an unobtrusive pebble that can sit inside your toilet to automatically measure the basic biomarkers in your urine. 

Robotic Process Automation

Also, startups from all across the globe are now pouring millions of dollars into creating more AI projects involving various robotic systems, aiming to reduce the cost of recruiting professional medical personnel. Of course, now robots are already helping healthcare workers with guidance of patients to the needed rooms in the hospital, monitoring falls, delivering goods, and even communicating with patients but not so extensively. This adoption of robots will continue to increase to reduce turnover among healthcare personnel. 

Additionally, there is another promising area in the medical robotics sector – drones. By delivering medications or medical samples quickly and efficiently to remote regions, drones offer a very cost-effective way of improving outcomes.

Personalized Healthcare

In 2023, patients will continue to strive for receiving personalized care, and the technologies can give them more opportunities for that. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, it’s expected that drugs and treatments will be specifically adapted for a group of patients according to their age, genetics, and risk factors. AI and ML algorithms are likely to assist with the prescriptions. 

AI

According to Forbes, AI tops the list of the most popular trends in 2023. The market for AI, especially ML tools, in healthcare is forecasted to reach $20 million in 2023. And it’s not a surprise since various AI-aligned technologies have the potential to drastically impact the industry – from improving patient care thanks to data-driven clinical decision-making tools to enhancing healthcare system workflow in general. Such technologies as computer vision, pattern recognition algorithms, and natural language processing are already extensively used in the industry and their usefulness seems to grow throughout 2023.

Cybersecurity 

Cybersecurity will surely remain one of the leading trends in digital healthcare. According to MarketandMarkets Report, the size of the worldwide cybersecurity industry will continue to increase and reach an enormous  $266.2 billion in 2027.

This high demand can be justified by the fact that more people are going digital, and, naturally, more cyberattacks occur. In addition, issues concerning data sharing also grow. Actually, 93% of healthcare organizations have recorded data leakage throughout recent years; and to minimize data breaches healthcare providers should hire cybersecurity consultants and implement new technologies, thereby, ensuring data privacy and security.

Cloud Migration

Cloud computing is becoming more available to patients and medical personnel, and this tendency doesn’t seem to decrease soon. If we refer to another research performed by Grand View Research, we’ll see that the global cloud computing market is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 14.8% from 2022 to 2030. 

Actually, the move to the cloud in healthcare is inevitable. It can solve lots of problems in service delivery caused by poor record management. And by leveraging remotely-available data, physicians and patients will be able to easily access all the clinical results in a single platform.

Virtual Reality

One of the freshest and least “realistic” trends in the healthcare industry is the application of VR. In conjunction with AR (augmented reality) and MR (mixed reality), it can assist with pain management and provide telemedicine across the globe. Besides that, the adoption of VR technology can facilitate the training of healthcare workers – VR can even simulate the human body’s interior and, thus, prepare personnel for performing maximally realistic surgeries.

Conclusion

The future of the digital healthcare sector looks really bright. Advanced technologies like AI, ML, cloud computing, robotics, wearables, IoMT, and telemedicine systems are the top trends that are taking the industry by storm. But when selecting how to upgrade your healthcare company with a cool healthcare app, you should look for a team of skilled software developers who’ll be able to bring your ideas to life in the best possible way.

Solvve has solid experience in applying technology trends in healthcare (you may check our case studies in health information technology), so if you’re after professional assistance with healthcare software development or integration, just contact us and we’ll find the best solution for your very needs.