2023 will be a pivotal year for healthcare. This scenario includes inflation, a probable recession, labor difficulties, rising capital costs, the bear market influencing investment returns, value-based care expansion, and patient volume transfer.
These complex factors affect healthcare business models, revenue, profit margins, and customers. Most healthcare players face existential uncertainty in 2023. How might digital health initiatives and technologies help? What trends are worth pursuing or ignoring?
Companies will generally shift away from untested, long-term, or speculative value creation and point solutions and concentrate on short-term advantages. Digital healthcare players will accelerate the most promising and transformative strategies to create value.
The explosion of AI/ML usage
Artificial intelligence and Machine learning are poised to create an impact in 2023. Industry players are eager to invest. The viral generative AI ChatGPT shows possibilities. However, it is not ready for a prime time in healthcare.
The healthcare AI-powered tools market is expected to exceed USD 34 Bn by 2025.
But the real power of AI is in precision medicine, medical imaging, drug discovery, and genomics.
Conventional AI/ML is used to diagnose and treat medical conditions, analyze large amounts of data, create predictive models, and in administrative applications to create real value.
For example, Apollo Hospitals partnered with ConnectedLife’s digital solutions to integrate its AI-based Cardiovascular Disease Tool (AICVD) tool to predict the risk of cardiac disease and initiate early intervention.
Moreover,
- AI-powered computer programs analyze thousands of pathology images of various cancers to make accurate diagnoses and predict the best drug combinations.
- ML algorithms shorten drug development cycles. AI can cut early drug discovery timelines by four years and save 60% on cost.
- By 2026, AI is expected to save USD 150 Bn in US healthcare costs. The number of active AI startups has increased 14-fold since 2000.
Blockchain’s promise of better electronic health records
Blockchain has a bad reputation due to the burst of the cryptocurrency bubble. However, this technology will play a role in keeping their electronic health records accurate and safe.
The healthcare and pharma industries are already vouching for its efficiency. Blockchain in healthcare is expected to reach USD 890.5 Mn in 2023.
For years, health officials and experts have been trying to develop doable solutions to the problem of fragmented medical records.
In healthcare, blockchain is proven to be an effective tool in preventing data breaches, improving the accuracy of medical records, and cutting costs.
Already short-staffed doctors and nurses struggle to manually log in every piece of information. This causes duplicate medical records, misdiagnoses, delayed treatments, and deaths.
Thanks to a decentralized network of computers that tracks transactions, conflicting information is automatically detected.
Records are not only 100% accurate but also harder to hack.
5G technology for instantaneous healthcare
Industry experts believe the 5G technology will transform healthcare and save USD 650 Bn by 2025 due to its 100 times-faster cellular connection. Qualcomm claims 5G will provide instantaneous streaming, downloading, and uploading.
Telemedicine patients will have better video conference quality regardless of location. More importantly, doctors will have accurate, real-time imaging of organs, soft tissue, and bones, reducing misdiagnosis.
When health facilities switch to 5G networks, doctors can send large imaging files to specialists faster.
5G will work with AI and XR to improve services and apps and provide new user experiences.
Practical examples:
- Ultra-reliable connections could let doctors teleport to virtual environments and perform robotic surgeries.
- Augmented reality (AR) glasses would allow first responders to “show” remote specialists what they see for better guidance.
- 5G could help medical students practice complex surgeries using virtual reality headsets.
- In remote areas, 5G-enabled drones could deliver life-saving drugs and devices.
5G will disrupt wearable medical devices the most. With 5G, clinicians can instantly collect medical data like vitals or physical activity levels from multiple sources and large groups of patients and make accurate diagnoses.
Investments and partnerships for operational synergies
With the rise of digital health tech, investments in start-ups offering health solutions have increased in the last couple of years. Let us look at the below infographic to understand a few initiatives and associated applications.
Instead of an exit by being acquired by a PE or going public (IPO), corporates are integrating solutions by start-ups, creating more “industrial synergies” since corporates acquire other firms to combine them with their core business.
Draup has analyzed the hospital & healthcare industry, ecosystem & digital framework, business intentions, business areas, company deep dives, outsourcing engagement overview, and opportunity propensity.
Mounting privacy issues and electronic health records, preventive health services, healthcare access and quality, and patient data management are some of the problem areas the industry is addressing.
Players and healthcare stakeholders use AI/ML, VR, big data, blockchain, etc., for hospital management, diagnosis & monitoring, treatment management, and IT & admin solutions.
Examples:
- HealthCare Global Enterprises (HCG) cancer hospital launched India’s first variant ethos therapy, an AI-driven holistic solution to increase capability, flexibility, and efficiency.
- Apollo Hospital has uplifted its emergency 2.0 reboot, accelerated patient care, and structured its operations through data traceability, personnel efficiency, and new-age delivery methods.
- Mayo Clinic partnered with Nference to use deidentified patient data to help research and discover disease diagnoses and treatments.
Draup’s report consists of deep dive into the hospital & healthcare ecosystem, companies, regions, and opportunities for vendors in the areas of diagnosis & monitoring, treatment, hospital/healthcare IT & admin departments.
Draup’s sales intelligence platform tracks healthcare’s strategic and tactical movements. Sales teams can monitor key business intentions and digital themes across 30+ industries with a 360-degree view, enabling them to evaluate partnerships.
