When we talk about ‘Innovation’s Cusp’, healthcare is surely at the top as always. This is because there is tremendous room for improvement in the healthcare sector. With the help of top healthcare trends, healthcare industries can push the boundaries which were earlier considered impossible.
Rise of Telehealth During COVID-19 Pandemic
Since the pandemic took place, there was no choice for people to use technology to consult their doctors in an emergency. Hence, this eventually led to the rise of telehealth. Here are some numbers to prove the same:
A: In March 2020 itself, when the lockdown had begun, the telehealth visits increased by 54%, compared to 2019 during the same time.
B: There was a report published by the American Medical Association, in which there are claims that telehealth services will reach up to a value of $250 billion in the healthcare industry spending. There were plenty of doctors who were surveyed for this, and as per their answers, it can be analysed that the doctors will be providing these services even when the lockdown is over.
C: As per one of the studies, replacing the physical benefits with telemedicine healthcare services provides a reduction ranging between 40 to 70 times in the overall carbon emission.
Here is how the rise of telehealth has been transforming the healthcare industry
- Telehealth technology has helped medical experts expand to care during the pandemic, including urban and rural areas. The best part about telehealth Is that it can reach the areas where travel time to the nearby hospitals or clinics may make it difficult to access.
- Health Institutions that are looking forward to reducing carbon footprints should surely use telehealth technology as it provides multiple benefits. This is because the patient will no more be required to physically travel to their doctor when they can get online facilities and consultations, thereby cutting down on the emission.
- Telehealth is linked to lower risk and green investments, which makes health institutes eco-friendly. Moreover, these are very sustainably made supplies, which also helps in reducing the overall costs which is associated with providing medical care.
Telehealth and 5G Transforming the Healthcare Industry
The usage of telehealth grew rapidly during the initial days of COVID-19, and since then, it has been on a high. Previous few years back, the health care providers were quite reluctant to experience the top healthcare trends. Even during the pandemic, there was a huge section of health care experts, which were not very sure to use it. However, slowly and surely, when they started using it, they saw the results and were quite impressed with it, and now the technologies such as telehealth and the upcoming 5G will become a part of the healthcare industry.
The majority of the telecommunications service providers have been finalizing to roll out 5G, which will be considered the next-generation cellular network, primarily designed for very high data usage. 5G will also be seen supporting a higher number of simultaneous connections. Amongst the various other things, 5G will be supporting the IoT smart devices, which are primarily used in the healthcare industry.
Here is how 5G will be enabling the new telehealth services:
- 5G’s rollout has set the entire stage for a significant transformation in the health care remote industry. 5G will enable the easier function of the smart medical devices to both receive and send out data, with a lesser risk of bad signal or higher latency.
- There are primarily two advantages offered by 5G, which have been helping in making use of smarter devices or what is prominently known as the ‘Internet of Medical Things. Firstly, 5G offers a speed up to 100 times faster than the existing 4G connection. With 5G, newer technological trends can be incorporated, such as antenna arrays, massive MIMO, etc., which can support a greater number of connections compared to the 4G network.
- With the help of top telemedicine in healthcare trends, it will be possible for medical institutes to collect actual and real-time data on the patient’s condition. This acts as a major boon, especially while treating some severe and chronic diseases such as dementia, requiring constant monitoring of the patient’s health.
- These smarter technologies and devices can provide a swift shift change in healthcare manufacturing from the tools that are less environmentally friendly to long-lasting devices that can be used to track the patient’s health.
The Takeaway
Hence, with the commencement of 5G, telemedicine and the whole health care industry can seamlessly benefit from this super-rich and easy to use connectivity. This is primarily built to address the current problems and challenges in the healthcare industry and has the ability to unlock all the newer potentials.
