1. Remote healthcare:
The Covid-19 Pandemic introduce the world to a new type of healthcare: Remote healthcare. It is estimated that health consultations carried online rose from 0.1% to 43.5% during the Pandemic. This is beneficial and has the potential to save lives, especially in remote regions (e.g. India and China), where access to medical treatment is difficult and a shortage of doctors in present.
2. Extended reality for clinical training and treatment:
Extended reality is an umbrella term for different realities such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR). VR technology are currently in use to train doctors and surgeon. This new technology allows them to exercise practices and operations with the workings of the human body, without putting the patient at risks or the use of cadavers. In addition, VR is also used for treatment of certain disorders such as chronic pain, anxiety and schizophrenia.
3. Personalized medicine:
Throughout the history of medicine and research, treatments and medications have been studied and developed on the basis of a “one size fits all” principle in order to reach optimization of drugs efficacy and lowering side effects. Recently, research with the use of technological instruments such as genomics, AI, and digital twins is maki9ng medicine moving towards a more personalized approach resulting in treatment tailored to the individual level. This is quickly leading to the development of new treatments for complex diseases, including cancer, arthritis and Alzheimer’s disease.
4. Internet of Things to improve patient care:
The Internet of Things (IoT) is rising and allows medical devices to be connect to internet. These devices have the capability to check vital signs of an individual such as body temperature, blood pressure and heart rate and share them with the doctors, that remotely can monitor the patient’s health status. In addition, this leads patients to be able to better manage their health and be aware of their care journey.
5. Health data security:
E-health has enormous benefits to patient care, quality of care and care processes. However, concerns on the security and confidentiality are increasing. In order to address cybersecurity risks, new solutions regarding e-health needs to only to meet requirement to ensure high level of protection, but also to implement and enforce best practices. This involves the need to host health data in health data compliance certification such as HDS and HIPAA. Moreover, authentication processes need to become more robust and safer.
